American Popular Music
Surveys the development of popular music in the US, and in a cross-cultural milieu, relative to the history and sociology of the last two hundred years. Examines the mixture that characterizes modern music, and how it reflects many rich traditions and styles (minstrelsy, Tin Pan Alley, blues, country, rock, soul, rap, techno, etc.). Provides a background for understanding the musical vocabulary of current popular music styles. Limited to 20.
Fall 2014
This course surveys the development of popular music in the United States and in a cross-cultural milieu relative to the history and sociology of the last two hundred years. It examines the ethnic mixture that characterizes modern music, how it reflects many rich traditions and styles, and provides a background for understanding the musical vocabulary of current popular music styles.
Readings
- The text for this class is: Starr, Larry, and Christopher Waterman. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3 . 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780199859115.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2014
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.