Adventures in Contemporary Music

What is “emo”? When did hip-hop become mainstream? How and why has rock music evolved? Now that everyone has an iPod, and underground artists from evey genre see their music featured in car commercials, what is music about anymore? This course will attempt to answer some of those questions, and to examine how subcultures are created and commodified within contemporary music. Since this is a writing and research course, we’ll do all of this through reading and writing, and begin by examining the work of the guy who gave birth to a lot of current ideas about dissent, protest, and confessionalism in music: Bob Dylan. We’ll then move on to look at punk rock, emo, and post punk as genres, and finally wind up by looking at the history of hip hop through a novel and through a chronicle of the music’s history. The reins will be handed over to you for the final research project; you’ll examine a current musical subculture, look at its roots, and see how it has evolved, been co-opted, and changed.