MUS 160 - Popular Music in America

3 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
3 lecture periods 0 lab periods

Study of the history of popular music culture in America through current trends in today’s society. Includes background of music, sources of music, birth of music, syncopated song and dance, jazz, crooners and jazz singers, musical theater, country music, Latin music traditions, and roots of rock and roll. Also includes impact of technology, motown and soul, rock in the seventies, and modern trends.

Gen-Ed: Meets AGEC - FA or HUM and C; Meets - CTE - A&H and C.

2.  Describe forms, structures, instruments, rhythms and styles of the music.

3.  Explain how our culture affects the music, and how music affects our culture.

4.  Discuss the influence of technology upon the music (records, CD’s, microphones, amplifiers, electronics, multi-track recording, video, computer technology).

          A.  What is popular music?

          B.  Instruments

          C.  Melody and harmony

          D.  Form, structure and texture

II.       Sources of the Music

          A.  European heritage

          B.  Anglo-American folk song

          C.  African heritage

III.      Birth of the Music

          A.  Stephen Foster and the Minstrelsy

          B.  After the Civil War

          C.  Ragtime

          D.  Blues styles

IV.     Syncopated Song and Dance

V.      Jazz

VI.     Crooners and Jazz Singers

VII.    Musical Theater (Broadway)

VIII.   Country Music

1. Latin Music Traditions

XV.    Roots of Rock and Roll

          A.  Rhythm and blues

          B.  Chuck Berry

          C.  Elvis

          D.  British invasion and Beatles

XVI.   Impact of Technology

XVII.  Motown and Soul

XVIII. Rock in the Seventies

XIX.   Modern Trends

          A.  Age of MTV

          B.  Rap music

          C.  “Alternative” styles