MUS 103 - Women and Popular Music

This course offers a historical survey of women in American popular music from 1920 to the present. Students examine blueswomen, Tin Pan Alley musicians, radio singers, the dawn of the teenager in American culture, women in rockabilly, girl groups, folksinger/songwriters, the Summer of Love, women in the music industry, women as music critics, the womyn’s music movement, punk, new wave, and riot grrrl, confessional singers, and child performers, including Disney girls. Students learn to distinguish between different musical styles; they examine how gender and sexuality have shaped the production, marketing, and consumption of American popular music in the past ninety-five years, they come to understand how music and other cultural products (e.g., movies, fashion, magazines) have shaped our country’s history and how technology influences music’s ubiuitous presence in our lives.

Prerequisites none
Credits 3