MUS 233 - Global Pop

1 course unit

In recent decades, popular music has emerged as a primary site for understanding and participating in global culture. As listeners, we enjoy sounds from around the world every day, from K-pop to hip-hop, gospel to bhangra, räi to the Eurovision Song Contest. Whether or not it’s marketed as “world music,” pop music often achieves global appeal even as it arises out of a particular local identity and regional musical style. What is the relationship between local and global music? How are indigenous and folk musics transformed when they begin to reach mass audiences? What role do technology and commercialism play in constructing identity on the global stage? In this course, students will apply these questions to popular musics from around the world, drawing ideas from readings in critical theory, postcolonial studies, and ethnomusicology. The course will culminate in a semester project.
Meets general academic requirements A or D or AR and DE.