RB Soul History

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course functions as an introduction to analytical approaches to R&B and soul music. In recent years, popular music analysis, including hip-hop and rock, has become more popular in academic circles. However, within this ever-growing body of work, R&B and soul genres haven’t been afforded the same levels of critical inquiry. As such, most analytical studies that include the styles are largely in service of explicating the techniques of a larger corpus that is, in many cases, broadly defined as “pop” and/or “rock.” Thus, our course aims are to: survey eras of R&B and soul traditions; analyze this music with both established techniques and more informal means of discourse; recognize and critically evaluate the ways various approaches are deployed, their intersections, and be able to articulate distinctions between them; and analyze and contextualize lyrics and how they interact with other musical parameters like form, rhythm and meter, harmony, melody, etc. The readings will delve into the historical, music theoretical, cultural, and political matters to help us better understand and contextualize the music and people we cover.