SCY3272

Sociology of popular music

Robert Wolfgramm

8 points - 3 hours per week - Summer semester - Peninsula - Prerequisites: First-year SCY sequence or equivalent

Objectives On completion of this subject students should have become familiar with sociological concepts useful for a critical analysis of popular music generally; skills for identifying the social sources and types of popular music that give rise to the rock era; acquired an understanding of the historical-political context of popular music since World War Two; and applied their sociological imagination - perspectives and concepts - to the practice of popular music research.

Synopsis Historical and critical analysis of the production, communication, consumption and social contexts and implications of youth music of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s; popular music forms and icons; popular music as commodity and art; popular music technology, performances, audiences, and mass media central to youth 'revolutions' of these eras; the 'rock is dead' thesis and the ongoing impact of the last four decades on youth music of the 1990s.

Assessment Essay (2500 words): 40% - Project (2500 words): 40% - Test (1 hour): 20%

Prescribed texts

Longhurst B Popular music and society Polity, 1995

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