g5:Latin American Popular Music

Catalog description

Offered: Every other fall. This course examines some of the major forms of Latin American music, from early twentieth century genres such as tango and samba to contemporary genres such as cumbia, reggaeton, and funk. Students learn to identify key artists, songs, and albums; to narrate the histories of the different genres; and to recognize and appreciate each genre’s formal qualities, including melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements. They also relate songs from each genre to their immediate significant historical, sociopolitical, cultural, and technological contexts. Finally, students develop a general understanding of how Latin American popular music circulates in the globalized societies of the twenty-first century.