MusM Music (Ethnomusicology) / Course details

This team-taught course unit is available as an option to all postgraduate students of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. Its object of study is the expression of cultural identities (such as nation, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, generation, and more) and their representation through popular music. Defined inclusively, ‘popular music’ allows us to examine and compare different music genres from the late 19th century to the present, ranging across (depending on staff availability and specialism) genres such as Russian rock music, Spanish flamenco, Latin American cumbia, French yéyé, American protest music, and many more. Popular music is studied from the combined perspectives of artistic production and critical reception, with primary material encompassing lyrics, music, performance, record sleeves, fan response and journalistic reviews. The theoretical framework is interdisciplinary and dependent on each case-study, mainly drawing from sociology, history, ethnomusicology and area studies, while the concepts discussed incorporate those of cultural identity, authenticity, consumerism, prestige, heritage, export strategy, and more. This unit also draws on the rich soundscape and music-playing facilities of Manchester itself, and may include, depending on funding and risk assessment, visits to local landmarks, guest talks, concerts and immersive fieldwork.

By encouraging students to think critically and comparatively about popular music and about the meanings of cultural practice, the course develops the analytical skills and inter-cultural awareness central to postgraduate study in the Humanities. This course also allows interested students to develop their own popular music-related topics for their MA Dissertation, and to think ahead to PhD study thanks to the highly regarded specialist supervision available in SALC in this area.

No prerequisite in a modern foreign language or in musicology is needed.

 

• To provide graduates holding a first degree in a Humanities subject with the opportunity to acquire an advanced understanding of the formation of cultural identities through popular music, across a range of national contexts.
• To provide a thorough grounding in current theoretical approaches to race, gender, prestige, authenticity, nostalgia and heritage, as applied to specific cultural and musical contexts.
• Through reading, listening to songs, using web resources, leading seminar presentations and the writing of essays, to make students fully conversant with the methods of scholarly enquiry in a Humanities discipline, and with the resources necessary for such research.

This syllabus is indicative of the taught programme, and remains subject to variation depending on staff availability.

Weeks 1 and 2: Introduction (taught by Barbara Lebrun, French Studies) The academic study of Popular Music –an interdisciplinary approach. Key issues in the study of ‘musical identities’.

Weeks 3 to 9: A selection of case-studies of different musical genres and identities, taught by various SALC colleagues depending on availability, which might include:

- Race and rock’n’roll (taught by Molly Geidel, American Studies)

- US hip-hop (taught by Eithne Quinn, American Studies)

- yéyé in 1960s France (taught by Barbara Lebrun, French Studies)

- Flamenco and national identity in Spain (taught by Samuel Llano and Carlos van Tongeren, SPLAS)

- Guitar poetry in late 1950 and 1960s Russia (taught by Rachel Platonov, Russian Studies)

- TBC Weeks 10 and 11: Essay Preparation (with course convenor and seminar leaders) Folllowing methodology workshops, students will give brief oral presentations on their choice of essay topic, and receive extensive peer and tutor feedback on their assessment preparation.

A combination of tutor-led and student-led seminars, where key theoretical concepts are deployed (e.g. race, class, diaspora, authenticity, commercialism, prestige, nostalgia and heritage) and specific case-studies of popular music genres are used to illustrate the use of these concepts.

By the end of the course unit students will normally:

 

1)      Have acquired an advanced knowledge of selected aspects of the popular music genres covered on the course.

2)      Have developed an understanding of theoretical and methodological approaches to the advanced study of cultural identities in popular music.

By the end of the course unit students will normally:

 

1)      Have mastered the essential skills necessary to pursue independent research in literary, cultural and social studies in relation to popular culture. These include analysis, argument, independent thinking and effective oral and written self-expression. (NB for students proceeding to doctoral research in a modern foreign language, the relevant language skills must be acquired, and for those proceeding to doctoral research in music, the relevant musicological skills must be acquired).

2)      Have demonstrated, through seminar presentation and the writing of an essay, their specialized knowledge of a chosen field, and their ability to analyse and evaluate material (including print, electronic and audio-visual resources) and to construct an argument in an appropriately lucid, rigorous and scholarly manner.

By the end of the course unit students will normally:

 

1)      Have mastered the use and relevance of a range of primary sources.

2)      Have demonstrated their capacity to think critically and to demonstrate an argument with supporting evidence.

3)      Have demonstrated their capacity to speak clearly in public.

4)      Have demonstrated their capacity to organise and structure an essay in a rigorous and convincing, logical fashion. 

All the above are transferable skills and personal qualities, as are the employability skills listed below (e.g . independent research, critical thinking and analysis, inter-cultural awareness, writing and speaking, meeting deadlines). 

Assessment task	Formative or Summative	Weighting within unit (if summative)
1 academic essay on a music genre, national context and key concept(s) of the student’s choice	Summative	100%

Feedback method	Formative (during the semester) and Summative
Individual written comments on draft essay plan	Formative
Oral individual and global comments about in-class participation	Formative
Further individual feedback by appointment	Formative

 

This list is indicative; the final reading list will be provided to students in relation to the finalised programme in a particular year.

  

Popular Music Studies:

 

Adorno, Theodor. ‘On Popular Music ’ [1941] in Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (eds), On Record (London: Routledge, 1990) 301-14

Machin, David. Analysing Popular Music: Image, Sound, Text (Los Angeles: Sage, 2010) Longhurst, Brian. Popular Music and Society (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995)

Sloan, Nate and Charlie Harding. Switched on Pop. How popular music works, and why it matters (OUP, 2019)

Tagg, Philip. ‘Analysing popular music: theory, method and practice’, Popular Music, 1982, 2, 37-67

Winterson, Julia. Rock and Pop Theory: The Essential Guide (Faber Music/Eds Peters, 2014)

20 contact hours plus a minimum of 3 hours of independent study per week; 1 dedicated consultation hour per week with tutors; attendance at online popular music research seminars; workshop (pending confirmation of final schedule).