Topics in Recorded Music: Indigenous Pop Around the World

Catalog description

This 7-week course explores the global rise of Indigenous Peoples’ voices and presence in popular music genres, intersecting with and even influencing broader social, political, and creative movements in contemporary art, fashion, film, and beyond. Thanks to social media, Indigenous artists now reach international audiences, while increasingly “indigenizing” popular music with their own languages, instruments, vocal techniques, and other components from their distinct heritage traditions. Through class lectures, readings, listenings, and discussions, students will engage pertinent scholarship and a wide range of international Indigenous performers and genres—Native American powwow hip-hop to Māori metal, Andean Q-pop to Sámi yoik-rap, Maasai bongo flava, Inuit throat-singing, Papuan reggae, Tokelauan techno-pop, and Tuareg rock, for some examples. The course also makes special note of pioneering artists who have broken barriers and serve as cultural ambassadors, to consider their impact on the entertainment industry—including the rise of Indigenous-led entities therein. We will also be joined by some very special guests during the term, to speak to their own notable experiences in this movement.