Popular Music in the United States

Catalog description

EDP, H- This course is designed for students with no prior music training. Students will explore the major eras and forms of popular music in the United States ¿ blackface minstrelsy, brass band music, the Tin Pan Alley songwriting tradition, American musical theater, ragtime, the syncopated orchestra, jazz, blues, country music, rhythm & blues, and rock and roll ¿ in their cultural and historical contexts, including colonialism, capitalism, the African diaspora and the slave trade, migration and other demographic change, the U.S. legal system, the impact of war and other major historical events, and the tension between dominant classes and minority populations from which many music traditions have emerged. Students will also gain a practical foundation for analysis of musical documents by exploring basic elements of songwriting, musical arrangement, recording technology, and the process of record making and promotion.