Popular Music: Concept and Research Methods
流行音樂：概念與研究方法
Instructor：Jen-yen Chen
Semester：Fall 2007
Credit：3
Fall 2007, Tuesdays, 09:20am-12:20pm
Office Hours: Monday 1-3pm, 音樂學研究所109
Course description:
This
course examines popular music as a set of distinctive musical styles and
practices and as phenomenon of contemporary society. It will consider the complexities of the term
“popular,” critiques of popular culture, the workings of the music industry,
the use of popular music as a resource for social identity and ideology, and
the nature of popular musical language(s).
Prerequisites:
Because
the analysis of musical style is an important element of the course, both an
ability to read music notation and a knowledge of basic concepts of music theory (e.g. key, tonic, tripartite form)
are required.
Course
Requirements
Class
meetings will focus on discussions of assigned readings. These will be drawn from the list below. A short response paper (approximately one
page) on each week’s reading must be submitted during the class meeting for that
week.
In
addition, there will be a semester project, on a related topic of your choice,
which will culminate in a final presentation and paper.
Overall
grades will be calculated as follows:
Class
participation (attendance, contribution to discussions, response papers) 50%
Semester project (presentation and paper of 10-12 pages)
50%
Preliminary
Reading List
Adorno, Theodor. The
Culture Industry.
Idem.
Introduction to the Sociology of
Music.
Frith, Simon, Straw, Will, and Street,
John, editors. The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock.
Frith, Simon. Performing
Rites.
Krims, Adam. Rap
Music and the Poetics of Identity.
Merwe, Peter van der. Origins
of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of
Twentieth-Century Popular Music.
Middleton, Richard. Studying
Popular Music.
Moore, Allan F., editor. Analyzing
Popular Music.
Stephenson, Ken. What to
Listen For in Rock: A Stylistic Analysis.
Wallis, Roger and Malm, Krister. Big
Sounds from Small Peoples: The Music
Industry in Small Countries.