Songwriting As Social Critique

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This class will examine the work of songwriters - as well as other artists combining music, sound and verse such as poets, composers and hip hop artists - whose output seeks to critique and/or change the political, economic, and cultural norms of contemporary society. Through close listening, lyrical and musical analysis, artist interviews, music criticism and secondary scholarship, we will study the following topics through song; the labor movement, abolitionism, religiosity as critique, feminism, the climate crisis, and anti-fascism. Artist repertoires will include selections from the work of Odetta, Woody Guthrie, Gil Scott Heron, Fugazi, Nikki Giovanni, Joni Mitchell, Michael Hurley and Kae Tempest among others. Class projects can include: a research paper on an artist or series of artists connecting their work to a particular social movement, OR, recordings of original songs accompanied by a “liner notes” document that expands upon the relationship between the songs and the mode(s) of social critique/change they seek to enact. Those students who wish to record original songs will gain access to the Georgetown Recording Studio and will be matched with a student producer/audio engineer from Recording Arts II.