Module Catalogue 2025/26

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 in the twenty-first century
-To introduce students to a range of themes and topics that characterise global music cultures of the historical period under study via a series of contemporary case studies
-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 contemporary global music cultures
-To improve student communication and critical thinking skills

Outline Of Syllabus

The module typically covers a range of topics related to the dissemination and reception of contemporary global musics, which typically includes:

-The importance of musical media (and especially digital media) and related technologies to the global networks of contemporary music
-Discourses of the new, the retro and the present as encountered in twenty-first century musics and critical responses to them
-Music, place and mobility
-Concepts of journeying in and via sound
-21st century reappraisals of 'world music' and 'global pop'
-The challenges of curating global pop musics in a fast-moving, hyper-networked world
-Cosmopolitans and cosmopolitanisms
-Features and repertoires associated with global music genres such (e.g. global rock, hip-hop and DJ cultures)
-Methods for connecting case studies to sociocultural contexts

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will have gained:
• A familiarity with and critical understanding of a range of concepts related to contemporary global music genres, styles and cultures
• An understanding of various scholarly approaches to studying contemporary musics of the world
• Critical awareness of the student’s own position with respect to contemporary global music and its recent history
• Practical experience of researching, analyzing, curating and discussing contemporary global music repertoires of the present and recent past

Intended Skill Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students should have gained:
• An enhanced ability to connect musical case studies with contemporary and historical sociocultural contexts
• An ability to critically engage with the cultural context of contempoary global music styles, artists and repertoires
• Improved critical, analytical and self-reflexive skills
• Improved written, bibliographical and discographic 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 contemporary music and significantly enhance teamwork, communication and critical skills through small group discussions with staff and other students. Workshops provide opportunities to clarify understanding of summative assessment requirements. 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 contemporary musical repertory and scholarly perspectives on the role of popular music in society.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Poster assesses:
-comprehension of issues, theories and concepts introduced in lecture materials
-methodology: connecting case studies to contexts
-research skills developed during PSA tasks and seminar preparation
-reflective and critical skills
-creative skills (presenting case study in concise visual format)

Written essay (Case study option 1) assesses:
-methodology: connecting case studies to contexts
-comprehension of issues, theories and concepts introduced in lecture materials
-research skills developed during PSA tasks and seminar preparation
-reflective and critical skills

Creative project (Case study option 2) assesses:
-comprehension of issues, theories and concepts introduced in lecture materials
-research skills developed during PSA tasks and seminar preparation
-reflective and creative skills
-ability to creatively respond to a case study

Professional skills assessment assesses:
-comprehension of topics presented in lecture materials and independent study
-reflective and summative skills
-tasks associated with small group sessions
-continued engagement with module
-ongoing development of methodology: connecting case studies to contexts

General Notes

N/A