Newcastle University

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aims of the module are:

• To familiarise students with the scale, history and social significance of the global recording industry
• To introduce students to the ways in which cultural gatekeepers have responded to musics of other cultures
• To encourage an understanding of the critical approaches to the study of global popular musics.
• To extend student knowledge of, and appreciation of, different repertoires and approaches to global popular musics
• To improve student communication and critical thinking skills

This module traces the growth in awareness of musics from around the world from the early twentieth century onwards, an awareness made possible by developments in sound recording. From the first global recording boom of the 1920s to the contemporary mania for digging into the past (vinyl archaeology), sound recordings have been a primary means for listeners to experience otherness, for the music industry to diversify its market and for ‘experts’ (musicians, critics, DJs, collectors, academics) to negotiate discourses around other cultures.

The module is taught via a combination of theory and practice. Lectures introduce students to concepts connecting developments in recording technology to the growth in global pop, as well as analysing attempts by Anglophone critics and collectors to negotiate music unfamiliar to them. Small group teaching sessions develop students’ powers of critique through analysis of primary sources and discussion of recent scholarship on world music, globalisation and empire. Practical activities provide opportunities to take on the task of explaining and curating a range of music cultures via writing, blogging, exhibiting, compiling and mixing. Assessment tests written critical skills and practical and creative application of concepts and musical knowledge.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module typically covers a range of topics related to the dissemination and reception of global popular musics, including:

• The importance of sound recording and related technologies to the spread of global pop
• Processes of gendering and racialisation arising from responses to global musics
• Value judgments associated with of the strange, exotic and weird as applied to global sound recordings
• Touring sounds and vagabond sounds: The migration of people and music
• Concepts of journeying in and via sound
• The World Music boom of the 1980s and the development of the World Music Network
• The challenges of curating world musics
• Relation between ethnomusicology, social media and convergence culture
• Crate digging global sounds, phonographic archaeology and outernational musics
• Cosmopolitans and cosmopolitanisms

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of the module students will have gained:
• A familiarity with and critical understanding of a range of concepts related to global popular music
• An understanding of various scholarly approaches to studying musics of the world
• Critical awareness of the student’s own position with respect to global popular music and its history
• Practical experience of researching, analysing, curating and discussing global popular music of the past and the present

Intended Skill Outcomes

At the end of the module students should have gained:
•       An ability to critically engage with the cultural context of global popular music of the past and present
•       Improved critical, analytical and self-reflexive skills
•       Improved written and bibliographical skills
•       Advanced research skills
•       Curatorial skills

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures materials present and discuss key critical concepts, musical examples and set texts and explore materials and methods of investigation. Seminars enrich and deepen student comprehension of key concepts and issues in global popular music and significantly enhance teamwork, communication and critical skills through small group discussions with staff and other students. Tasks set for small group teaching sessions focus on practical skills relevant to the analytical and curatorial aspects of the module. Student independent learning for this course involves listening, reading and reflecting on key sources and texts, which helps to develop and enrich knowledge of global popular music repertory and scholarly perspectives on the role of popular music in society.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Written essay (Sem 1 summative ) assesses:
•       comprehension of issues, theories and concepts introduced in Semester 1 lecture materials
•       research skills
•       reflective and critical skills

Written essay (Sem 2 summative option) assesses:
•       comprehension of issues, theories and concepts introduced in Semester 2 lecture materials
•       research skills
•       reflective and critical skills
•       ability to apply theories and concepts to a case study

Creative project (Sem 2 summative option) assesses:
•       comprehension of issues, theories and concepts introduced in Semester 2 lecture materials
•       research skills
•       reflective and creative skills
•       ability to creatively respond to a case study

Professional skills assessment assesses:
•       comprehension of topics presented in lecture materials
•       reflective and summative skills
•       tasks associated with small group sessions
•       continued engagement with module

General Notes

N/A