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.

II. Course Aims and Objectives:

Aims

We will work together to develop listening skills that will help us understand popular music in new ways. While you might be accustomed to casual listening, we will learn to listen for specific aspects of music. What instruments are being used? How does the music reflect its historical era? To what audience did the music originally appeal, and who listens to this music now?

By the end of this course, you will be able to distinguish between different styles and genres of music sung, played, and produced by women, including blues, Tin Pan Alley, girlgroup, folk-rock, and punk. You will also be able to identify and discuss some common themes that characterize women’s experiences in the world of rock and popular music, and develop your own ideas on relationships between gender and popular music.

Prerequisites: none
Corequisites: none
Credits: 3