Critical Issues in American Popular Music: Blues to Hip Hop

Catalog description

This course provides an in-depth look at the important musical, social, and racial issues in American popular music, from the media exploitation of the blues in the 1920s through current issues in hip hop. Subject areas will include blues and its origins, jazz and modernism, the obstacles of race in music, the death of rhythm and blues, rock's evolution in the 1950s, rap and hip hop culture, and issues in both postmodernism and perverse as seen by many music and art critics.