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MUSIC 113
SPECIAL TOPICS IN POPULAR MUSIC
BULLETIN INFORMATION
MUSC 113- Special Topics in Popular Music (3 credit hours)
Course Description:
An investigation into the function of popular music in contemporary society. May be repeated
as content varies by suffix and title
SAMPLE COURSE OVERVIEW
This course is designed to encourage the study and analysis of popular music. It seeks to foster
the knowledge of selected popular music repertoire, artists and performance styles as well as
help students acquire important critical listening skills for the understanding of contemporary
vernacular music. By focusing on a single artist or performing group like Bob Dylan, The
Beatles, Public Enemy, Radiohead or others, and by describing and analyzing different
performance styles for each, the different social and political landscape in which their work
participates, and the technology that shapes it, this class seeks to help students understand the
important role popular music plays in contemporary music history and in American culture at
large.
ITEMIZED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon successful completion of Music 113, students will be able to:
1. Interpret major works of popular music
2. Theorize the function of popular music in contemporary society
3. Analyze the social, musical, and political impact of popular music
4. Identify and evaluate key albums in a selected artists’/groups’ career
5. Practice terminology associated with the analysis of popular music
6. Exercise “critical listening” techniques
7. Construct a group presentation synthesizing aspects of music/art and popular culture
SAMPLE REQUIRED TEXTS/SUGGESTED READINGS/MATERIALS
1. Varies depending on the selected Topic.
2. Example Course Bibliography:
a. Tim Footman, Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the
Classic Album
b. Brandon Forbes and George Reisch, eds., Radiohead and Philosophy
c. Dai Griffiths, OK Computer
d. Marianne Letts, Radiohead and the Resistant Concept Album: How to Disappear
Completely
e. Marvin Lin, Kid A
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f. Mac Randall, Exit Music: The Radiohead Story
g. Joseph Tate, ed., The Music and Art of Radiohead
SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS AND/OR EXAM
1. Class Discussions: Bi-weekly in-class discussions will reinforce and clarify theoretical
concepts and terminology introduced in the assigned readings in the textbook. They will
also provide helpful and practical knowledge of how to apply and employ descriptive
and analytical terms in the analysis of popular music. Assigned listening examples of
specific pop artists or groups will be examined in detail. Knowing what specific
elements contribute to the understanding of large questions of style, genre and
historical periods can be challenging. Class participation in the discussion and
acquisition of analytical tools and vocabulary is strongly encouraged. Be prepared to
speak and to take notes. Reading the assigned material in the textbook and listening to
the assigned musical examples before coming to class is required.
2. Midterm/Final Exams: The acquisition of analytical skills, and the correct use of
historical and stylistic knowledge of popular music in general and a specific artist’s/
group’s output will also be achieved and reinforced through two tests: a midterm and
final exam. The midterm for this course will be in a multiple choice format and covering
issues raised in the first half of the course. A midterm review will take place on the class
period before the exam. The Final will follow a similar format covering the readings,
listening and discussion since the midterm. Both exams are designed to help students
master a small set of analytical terms and the specifics of a single genre and set of
musical examples. They will ask students to identify verbally (through the correct
employment of terminology) and aurally specific pieces of music and the elements that
identify them as belonging to a certain composer and/or historical style. These
assessment methods will allow students to demonstrate their ability to identify and
analyze important works by the selected artist or group being studied.
3. Final Projects: These varying depending on the Topic, but could include Team
Presentations in which students present using various audio and visual formats, the
historical, cultural and political understanding and analysis of a specific set of songs.
Projects may also include analytical papers on a topic chosen by the student, or creative
projects such as the generation of alternative set of lyrics for a particular song or set of
songs with that reflect a understanding of the cultural, social and political aspects of the
original lyrics. Such creative projects would also involve the several pages of critical
commentary explaining the student’s work.
4. Listening Journals: As a way to catalogue your listening throughout this course and
practice developing critical listening vocabulary, students will keep a journal. This
journal will consist of student’s thoughts and reactions to the assigned recordings as
well as any connections that a student is able to make to the course readings. The
journal is to be in an informal writing style and should chronicle the student’s
development with the music over the course of the semester.
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There is no set a page limit for journal entries, but writing one page per week is
probably not writing enough, writing twenty pages a week is probably writing too
much. It may not be necessary to write about every single song that is assigned.
Students may choose to discuss a single song from an album, or a collection of songs
(perhaps even coming from different albums). Alternatively, students may also wish to
talk about a more theoretical issue raised in that week’s readings. In short, journals are
meant to encourage and practice critical listening and students are free to pursue a
variety of writing styles and techniques to that end. Students are responsible for
keeping their journals up to date. Journals will be checked at midterm and after the
last week of class. Journals are to be typed, double-spaced, stapled, and in 12-pt font
with standard margins.
SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE WITH TIMELINE OF TOPICS, READINGS/ASSIGNMENTS,
EXAMS/PROJECTS
TOPICS IN POPULAR MUSIC: RADIOHEAD
Week 1: Course Introduction
Week 2: Introduction to Radiohead and the Study of Popular Music
Reading: Edward Slowik, “Radiohead and Some Questions about Music.”
Mark Greif, “Radiohead, or the Philosophy of Pop.”
Mac Randall, “Exit Music: Chapters 2-4.”
Week 3: Pablo Honey: Context and ‘Creep’
Reading: Mac Randall, “Exit Music: Chapters 5-6.”
Carys Wyn Jones, “The Aura of Authenticity: Perceptions of Honesty, Sincerity and
Truth in Creep and Kid A.”
Listening: Pablo Honey (1993). (Recommended: Manic Hedgehog Demos (1991),
Drill EP (1992)).
Week 4: The Bends: New Refrains
Reading: Mac Randall, “Exit Music: Chapters 7-8.”
Greg Hainge, “Tor(rt)uring the Minotaur: Radiohead, Pop, Unnatural Couplings,
and Mainstream Subversion.”
Listening: The Bends (1995). (Recommended: My Iron Lung EP (1994)).
Week 5: OK Computer I: Songs
Reading: Dai Griffiths, “Listening to OK Computer.” Tim Footman, “Thank You for
Listening: The Album.”
Listening: OK Computer (1997)
Week 6: OK Computer II: Videos and Death of an Era
Reading: Tim Footman, “Makes you look Pretty Ugly—The Videos,” “The Emptiest
of Feelings: OK Computer and the Death of Indie Music,” and “A Song To Keep Us
Warm: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album.”
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Listening: OK Computer (1997)
Week 7: Meeting People is Easy (and Midterm Review)
Viewing (in class): Meeting People is Easy (1998)
Week 8: MIDTERM
Week 9: Kid A I: This Is Really Happening
Reading: Marvin Lin, “Introduction,” “Kid Aesthetics,” “Kid Authenticity,” “Kid
Adaptation,” and “Kid Activism.”
Mark B.N. Hansen, “Deforming Rock: Radiohead’s Plunge into the Sonic
Continuum.”
Listening: Kid A (2001)
Week 10: Kid A II: Themes, Images and Anti-Videos
Reading: Adam Koehler, “The Mutilation of Voice in ‘Kid A’ (Or, My John Mayer
Problem).”
Lisa Leblanc, “‘Ice Age Coming’: Apocalypse the Sublime, and the Paintings of
Stanley Donwood.”
Joseph Tate, “Radiohead’s Anti-Videos: Works of Art in the Age of Electronic
Reproduction.”
Listening: Kid A (2001). (Recommended: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
(2001)).
Week 11: Amnesiac: Antidotes
Reading: Marianne Letts, “After Years of Waiting, Nothing Came: Amnesiac as
Antidote,” and “I Might Be Wrong: Amnesiac and Beyond.”
Listening: Amnesiac (2001). (Recommended: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
(2001)).
Week 12: Hail to the Thief: Sonic Politics
Viewing (in class): The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time
Reading: Joseph Tate, “‘Hail to the Thief’: A Rhizomatic Map in Fragments.” Sean
Burt, “The Impossible Utopias in ‘Hail to the Thief.’”
Jason Lee, “Evil and Politics in ‘Hail to the Thief.’”
Listening: Hail to the Thief (2003)
Week 13: In Rainbows: Take Our Music!
Reading: Perry Owen Wright, “Sexier More Seductive.”
D.E. Witkower, “Everybody Hates Rainbows.” Colin Greenwood, “Set Yourself
Free.”
Listening: In Rainbows (2007)
Week 14: Group I Presentations
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Week 15: Group II Presentations
Listening Journals Due
