Popular Music Studies

Objectives

- To expose the students to the main genres, styles and musical phenomena that are part of what are commonly known as "popularmusic";
- To critically analyse the different meanings and connotations attributed to the concept of “popular music”: from “people's music” and“Portuguese popular music”, to the concept of music from the Anglo-Saxon phonographic industry.
- To provide an overview of the main concepts, methodologies and research topics employed by Popular Music Studies, analysing the growing global spread of this line of research;
- To promote critical thinking and deep analysis through dialogue in class, the analysis of relevant bibliography and the musical analysis of styles and genres of popular music.

General characterization

Code

711021078

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

Pedro Miguel Meio-Tostão Roxo

Hours

Weekly - 4

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • Adorno, T. (1941). On popular music. Studies in philosophy and social science, 9, 17-48.
  • Anderton, C., & James, M. (Eds.). (2022). Media narratives in popular music. Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Bennett, A., Shank, B., & Toynbee, J. (Eds.). (2006). The Popular music studies reader. Routledge.
  • Castelo-Branco, S., & Cidra, R. (2010). Música popular. In Castelo-Branco, S. (Coord.). Enciclopédia da música em Portugal no Século XX(pp. 875-878). CL
  • Hesmondalgh, D., & Negus, K. (2002). Popular Music Studies. Arnold.
  • Merrill, J. (Ed.). (2017). Popular music studies today. Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music 2017.Springer VS.
  • Nettl, B., & Rommen, T.(2020).Excursions in World Music. Routledge
  • Nunes, P.(2016). Estudos de música popular: Objectos, abordagens, temas e problemas. Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia, 3 (2), 167-192.
  • Scotto, C., Smith, K., & Brackett, J. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge companion to popular music analysis. Expanding approaches. Routledge.

Teaching method

The following teaching methodologies are used throughout the course:
- Lectures by the teacher.
- Classes based on musical analysis.
- Classes based on debates and the analysis of relevant texts.
- Classes taught by experts invited by the teacher.
- Organization of jam sessions (if there are enough musicians in the class who wish to participate).

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - A research project whose main theme is to be agreed between the student and the teacher(40%), Putting together a Podcast related in some way to Popular Music. It can be the analysis of a published record, a documentary, or a relevant text(20%), Written Test(40%)

Subject matter

-The concept of Music and the different meanings of the concept Música Popular/ Popular Music
-Popular Music and Modernity
-Tin Pan Alley - from printed music and pianolas to phonographs and gramophones
-Ragtime and Blues: Phonography and the standardization of styles
-The appropriation of African-American musical styles by the phonographic industry: From Ragtime to Swing
-The impact of radio and cinema
-Analysis of standards within American Popular Music: structure and harmony
-The post WWII and the restructuring of the industry: Easy Listening, Space Age, Hit Paraders
-The emergence of new musical typologies:Rhythm'nBlues and Rock'n'Roll
-Music, politics and propaganda
-Theodor Adorno and Popular Music criticism
-The Birmingham School and Popular Music Studies
-Creativity and innovation in the 1960s and 1970s (Beatles, prog rock, fusion)
-Corporate rock in the 1980s
-Copyright, covers and author’s rights
-21st century, the advent of the internet and the massification of the DIY model

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: