COM3400 - Music as communication

Leader(s): Eduardo de la Fuente

Offered

Not offered in 2009

Synopsis

This unit examines the role of music in culture and society. It addresses the cultural significance of various musical genres and styles, from pop to classical, from the experimental to the conventional. It asks: why is music meaningful to us? How does it give expression to personal and collective identity? What kinds of contexts do we encounter music in? And how significant is the technological mediation of the sounds we hear? The unit will examine the latest research in the socio-cultural study of music and ask students to reflect upon the musical cultures that they inhabit.

Objectives

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand how the socio-cultural role of music is approached in communication studies and allied disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, cultural studies and musicology
2. Employ the tools different traditions of theoretical and empirical writing on the socio-cultural role of music
3. Examine how different musical cultures organize meaning and value
4. See the merit of different methods for studying musical practices such as case studies, observation and other empirical techniques.

Assessment

Essay (2500 words): 50%
Tutorial presentation, attendance and participation: 10%
Examination (2 hours): 40%

Contact hours

One 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week

Prohibitions

COM2400