Rebels on the Runway: The Cultural Politics of Popular Music and Fashion

1 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines relationships between popular music and fashion from World War II through the early twenty-first century. Chronologically ordered thematic units focus on key cultural moments when music and fashion significantly influenced each other, from Elvis Presley to Billie Eilish and social media's impact on music-fashion trends. Students will: 1. explore how musical movements shaped sartorial expression and vice versa; 2. identify the economic, social, and cultural contexts driving trends in music and fashion; 3. use primary sources, including audiovisual materials and scholarly readings, to understand how music and fashion function as interconnected forms of cultural communication and identity formation.