Easy Rider and American Graffiti (A Classic Albums soundtrack special)
Fri 25 Jul 2025, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm
Released four years apart and aimed at young Americans disaffected by the Vietnam war and the Nixon years, Easy Rider and American Graffiti were seminal films on so many levels, and their use of rock music to comment on or amplify the narrative re-defined what a movie soundtrack could be. In this next instalment in our series of talks on Classic Albums, Christopher Budd and Stephen Barnard explore how song selection for each soundtrack – late 1960s rock in Easy Rider, classic rock’n’roll in American Graffiti – was central to the vision of both films.
Got your motor running? Join us for a deep dive into these two iconic soundtrack albums.
Event Information
Price: £15
Course Weeks: 1
Room: Kincaid Hall
Your Tutor
Name: Stephen Barnard & Christopher Budd
Bio: Stephen spent 21 years as a specialist writer with Reader’s Digest before going freelance in 1999. He has been writing and lecturing on broadcasting, film and popular music on a part-time basis for over 30 years. He has run courses for the WEA, De Montfort University, the City University and a number of Hertfordshire arts groups, and his five books include Studying Radio, the standard academic textbook on the subject.
Christopher is a writer, teacher, and musician, with a specialism in music for film. His interests range from silent cinema to electronic music via Hollywood from the studio system to the experimental ’70s, and British and European film and music of the 1960s and 70s. He has written for publications including Music Teacher and Classical Music on diverse topics and contributes regularly to music magazine Shindig!. He also teaches private instrumental lessons and records as a session musician.
Department: Humanities
