Music Law

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores a broad range of conceptual frameworks, historical scenes, and methodological approaches to the relationship between music and law. While commonly assumed to be separate domains that only collide in matters of copyright, the relationship between music, sound, and law is a complex and multivalent one. In this course we will develop a critical vocabulary for understanding key debates in both music/sound studies and critical legal studies. We then apply these concepts to a wide range of case studies in which “law,” broadly conceived, interacts with music and sound in some way. Key areas of inquiry will include: copyright law, noise ordinances, urban space, Indigenous epistemologies of law, surveillance/privacy law, and musicians’ labor struggles.