ENGL3851: The Rise of Popular Music

• EITHER two Level 1 modules in English Studies OR one Level 1 module and one further lecture based module in English Studies at Level 2.

• None.

• None.

• To study the rise of popular music in the era of recorded sound, with particular focus on its development since 1945.
• To examine the evolution of popular music through the emergence and mutual influence of its main tendencies and forms, in parallel with developments in modes of production, distribution, and consumption.
• To examine the changing relationship between popular music and other modes of artistic production, in particular its relationship with literature and journalism.

• The module will focus on the social, cultural, and technological environments in which modern popular music emerged and developed; on particular genres and styles and their evolutionary interaction; and on a representative selection of the artists who drove and/or emerged from these processes. Recorded music will form the primary sources for the module, supplemented and supported by a range of theoretical, historical, critical, and journalistic written material; all materials will be accessible in digitised form.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will acquire a thorough knowledge of the emergence of popular music as the dominant cultural form of the latter part of the twentieth century, its key phases and genres, and an understanding of its social, historical, and cultural significance. Students will also acquire an understanding of the mutually influential relationships between popular music and other artistic forms, most particularly the written word.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• critical skills in the interpretation (including close reading) and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts and critical approaches
• informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of popular music and ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts
• sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language and music
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to popular music
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to the study of popular music and literary and cultural studies more broadly
• skills of effective communication and argument
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• awareness of popular music as a medium through which values are affirmed and debated

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyze critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a capacity for independent thought and judgment, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organization and time-management skills

• Lectures will frame the key critical, historical, sociological, and technological issues and assist students in making the transition to studying and analysing texts comprising words and music
• Seminars will encourage peer-group discussion and a collective, interactive responsiveness to the texts under discussion. They will also enable students to think critically and to analyse popular music with close attention to its formal and aesthetic dimensions
• Seminars will also encourage the development of effective oral communication skills.
• The two consultation sessions with the seminar leader prior to the assessed essay will facilitate an informed exploration of specific interests, ideas and arguments, enabling students to develop their subject-specific knowledge.
• Coursework: the research plan will allow students the opportunity to structure their developing ideas in consultation with the seminar leader and refine their understanding of the practicalities of an extended research-led project. The assessed essay will allow an opportunity for detailed, independent research and reflection, demonstrating an awareness of the ongoing critical commentary surrounding the texts under consideration, thereby enriching their subject-specific knowledge.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning students an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the seminar leader. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers in the context of a seminar.

Before the first assessed essay, students have an individual 15 minute consultation session in which they are entitled to show their seminar leader a sheet of points, relevant to the essay and to receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

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