American Popular Music
American Popular Music: From the Blues to Hip-Hop (and Beyond) In this course we will use a broad historical approach to investigate the musical and cultural history of American Popular Music, from Minstrels and the Blues to the present moment, focusing on both the historical context and the social and political impacts of various musical styles, and centering on the contributions of culture and gender diversity of the artist. We will also explore how the business of the music industry and the technological developments and trends of the 20th and 21st Centuries have impacted - and been impacted by - the music itself. Class meetings will combine lectures with pointed discussion and critical listening to cover key points, and assignments will involve further listening.
American Popular Music: From the Blues to Hip-Hop (and Beyond) In this course we will use a broad historical approach to investigate the musical and cultural history of American Popular Music, from Minstrels and the Blues to the present moment, focusing on both the historical context and the social and political impacts of various musical styles, and centering on the contributions of culture and gender diversity of the artist. We will also explore how the business of the music industry and the technological developments and trends of the 20th and 21st Centuries have impacted - and been impacte …Read more
Extremely interesting class which was fairly easy but required you to put a little effort in rather than your normal very easy class. But it was easy to when Kyle is just easy to talk to, listen to, and be present in class with. Most work is discussion/lecture based, with some sparse readings, listening to Spotify playlist and writing short-medium length responses about a topic, and a 5 page midterm which required some research as well as a 5-6 page final paper but as long as you did your due diligence it was graded pretty easily. 9/10 would take again
Extremely interesting class which was fairly easy but required you to put a little effort in rather than your normal very easy class. But it was easy to when Kyle is just easy to talk to, listen to, and be present in class with. Most work is discussion/lecture based, with some sparse readings, listening to Spotify playlist and writin …Read more
I really enjoyed this class and Kyle was clearly passionate and excited about the topics he was teaching. Most of class time was used to listen and watch music videos and discuss music through a historical lense. We had two larger writing assignments to analyze music albums and then a final essay. There was a lot of freedom in the final essay. We were assigned weekly playlists which were fun to listen too.
I really enjoyed this class and Kyle was clearly passionate and excited about the topics he was teaching. Most of class time was used to listen and watch music videos and discuss music through a historical lense. We had two larger writing assignments to analyze music albums and then a final essay. There was a lot of freedom in the fi …Read more
I enjoyed the course very much, the material is interesting and Kyle is a great professor. The homeworks are not difficult, but they are a huge part of your grade, so make sure you complete all of those if you wish to get a good grade.
Kyle is super funny, and enthusiastic about course material. You can tell that he is very knowledgeable about what he is talking about. Homework is super fun lots of playlist to listen to and independent research. Midterm and Final work is interesting since there is space to explore topics you are personally interested in.