HIST 6585

The Global Music Revolution

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2016-2017.

This course will examine how music has traveled globally from the early twentieth century through the present. Thinking about music as a social force, our readings will cover large swaths of genre, time, politics, and geography. We will focus on the projects of the artists as well as asking how the production, distribution, and consumption of public music can illuminate the history of empire and other transnational practices, structures, and institutions." Topics will include: the first recordings and circulation of the melodies and rhythms of urban streets and dancehalls; affective relationship between jazz and cigarettes in interwar China; the sonic landscape of the U.S.– Mexico border; the music of the African American civil rights and decolonization movements; sounds of the anti-apartheid movement; and the critiques of post-9/11 U.S. empire by desi rappers. The class will be structured around weekly reading and discussions. Students will write response papers and develop a final project/presentation.

When Offered Spring.

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