SCY3272

Sociology of popular music

Robert Wolfgramm

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First 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; 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