050:282 Popular Music & Political Performance Spring 2013

How does popular music translate into our everyday lives? How does it inform political motivations and
gestures? Spanning 1945 to the present, this course examines a variety of genres and how
complimentary issues they operate in American culture: country and patriotism, folk and protest, rock n
roll and payola, punk and challenges to class divides, disco and the complication of gender norms, heavy
metal and censorship, and hip hop and the construction of Blackness. In addition to listening to a
wealth of music in each class, we will analyze song lyrics, album cover artwork, concert footage, and
films, while reading academic texts and popular publications like Rolling Stone. A special goal will be to
understand our personal reasons for listening to music and how it is consumed as a collective
experience.