MUSI 417.80

Music and Gender

This course explores music as a powerful sociocultural tool for negotiating, celebrating, and/or rebelling against structures of gender and sexuality. Across eras, music has been used by artists and listeners alike as a vehicle for gender expression, a unique medium sounding sexuality and desire, and a force that challenges, exposes, and rejects extant hegemonic and heteronormative gender roles. We’ll discuss how music has historically been used to protect systems of gender disparity, yet has simultaneously been one of the most striking cultural means for creating communities of inclusivity and belonging. Through stories of pop music’s brightest stars (Big Mama Thornton, Prince, David Bowie, and Lil Nas X, to name a few) and some (possibly) new-to-you unsung heroines, we dive into the songs of women, nonbinary, two-spirit, and queer artists with curiosity, celebration, and deep listening. 

 

HONR 394.01

Music and Social Justice 

In a world with deeply rooted social inequities and systems of injustice through power, music has been mobilized throughout history as a powerful tool for cultural change and resistance. Music is a way marginalized people and groups speak out and build community; it is also often a compelling ritual for processing grief, trauma, and fear in the face of societal harm. 

 

In this course we will explore music, as it is created, performed, mobilized, and received, in response to and in service of social movements both large and small throughout history. Through a series of case studies, we examine topics such as music as and in protest, music as a pillar of community-organized movements, historical and present-day manifestations of systemic inequity in music and larger entertainment industries, music in response to oppression, and the possibilities of our existing musical spaces as opportunities to challenge injustice in the present moment and in the future. 

MUSI 416.01
American Roots Music
This course explores the foundational “roots” musics of North America, tracing early regional music practices throughout their development and intersection with history, culture, industry, and identity across the 19th, 20th, and 21stcenturies. We begin with inquiry into early “American” music and follow its complex paths through a melting pot of global influences, investigating the many factors leading to a multi-faceted formulation of the American music and popular culture industries, with emphasis on the nuances of the local, regional, and the individual. Adjacent to this course (though not required) is a participatory American Roots Music ensemble, where students will play, sing, and make music from several pan-American genres roughly following the progression of the lecture course.