Studies of Popular Music

To facilitate contextualisation, the course will adopt a case-study approach using various artists, trends, or approaches as a lens through which to examine and apply various theoretical approaches key to the study of popular music. Particular topics, themes, and approaches may vary from year to year. While not a history course per se, the course is concerned with ensuring that students understand and can extrapolate from some of the key historical developments in popular music. While welcoming broader approaches in student work, the course takes a largely North American perspective as its jumping off point. The course will provide an overview of some key approaches to popular music studies from the field of musicology across the last 40 years, ensuring that a variety of critical viewpoints in contemporary musicology are discussed. Race, gender, technology, capital, genre, identity, politics, and notions of value will be recurrent themes for examination and application.   Credit level: 11 Year taken: Postgraduate SCQF credits: 20

Not running in 2025/26