Topic for Fall 2024: Pop Music and Authenticity

In discourse about music, a single word – authenticity – often stands in for an array of concepts: truth, sincerity, originality, authority, legitimacy, mastery, autonomy, integrity. “Authentic” musicking may be that which is regarded as unmediated, convincing, deep, traditional, natural, untrained, virtuosic, or exotic. In this course we will examine authenticity discourses in a variety of past and present genres of popular music, including folk, blues, country, singer-songwriter, rock, disco, electronic dance music, punk, \metal, grunge, hip hop, J-pop, K-pop, and indie pop. We will analyze sound recordings and audiovisual media such as music videos and filmed concerts. Students will undertake an independent project on a topic of their choice. Course is writing intensive.

Topic for Fall 2024: Music and Disability

In this course we will pursue the multifaceted relationship between music and conceptions, constructions, and experiences of disability. Grounded in the field of Disability Studies, our exploration will involve performers, composers, and hearers; multiple musical genres, traditions, and practices; and issues of meaning, value, and difference. We will consider music’s power to reflect and configure bodies, attitudes, and ideas—to limit, but also to provide access to extraordinary possibilities.

Topic for Fall 2024: Music and Memory
In this class we will examine multiple meanings, processes, experiences, and functions of music in relation to memory. Focusing on music in multiple forms, genres, and mediums, we will explore history, time, trauma, racism, colonialism, nostalgia, prosthetic memory, identity, the pastoral, creativity, and speculative futures.

Attributes: Music Course, GER Fine Arts Div, GER Writing Intensive, 400-599 Advanced Course