Performing Arts Music

This course provides a broad, culturally comparative framework for understanding the basic elements of musical sound, including rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, texture, timbre, for m, acoustics, notation etc. Though primarily serving as a foundation for students with no background in music, this course also provides new ways of thinking about music for students grounded in a particular musical traditions, thus helping them expand the ir musical horizons and inspire their future creations. Students will also be encouraged to think about the relationship between musical sound and the social and cultural context out of which it has arisen. However, the primary focus is neither on discrete cultural areas nor historical eras, but on sound.

This course surveys the history of American popular music beginning with the songs that roused Americans to civil war and continuing to the confrontational battle rhymes of hip hop artists of the present. Students will be encouraged to engage with this music on a variety of levels, aesthetic, technical, political, and cultural. Special emphasis, however, will be given to the significance of popular music for reflecting broader cultural attitudes, tensions, histories and struggles. This course further introduces students to issues or topics that animate the study of popular culture more generally, such as the role of popular music in the construction of social identities, the influence of mass media and technology, and the problems of cultural representation and appropriation.

This course focuses on the role of music in the struggle to secure equal citizenship for African Americans both politically and culturally. Importance is also given to the ways this struggle has intersected with the related struggles of other aggrieved communities in America, such as other ethnic minorities, sexual minorities and women, as well as to their diasporic and transnational connections. In addition to music, other a rtistic traditions such as literature, dance, theater and folk arts will be considered. Students will be encouraged to struggle productively in theorizing the possibilities and limitations that music offers for resisting social inequalities and generally speaking truth to power.” Musical repertory includes slave songs, spirituals, blues, jazz, gospel, rock and roll, concert music, hip hop, among others.

The course Music of Asian America explores the intersections of music, popular culture, and Asian American identity. Students examine how musical sound and performance have been used to represent, challenge, and negotiate racialized and gendered identities. The course covers topics such as orientalism, yellowface, diaspora, hybridity, and cross-racial experimentation, as well as post-9/11 cultural responses. Through lectures, listening sessions, discussions, group presentations, and writing assignments, students develop analytical and critical skills to interpret music within social, historical, and political contexts. By the end, students can formulate informed arguments about Asian American music and its role in shaping cultural identity.

The course South Asian Performing Traditions explores the rich and diverse performance practices of South Asia, including music, dance, and theater. Students examine how caste, class, gender, religion, ethnicity, and diaspora shape these traditions, situating performances within their social, cultural, and political contexts. The course covers regional practices such as Theyyam, Hindustani classical music, Sufi popular music, and diasporic expressions like Bhangra in Britain. Through lectures, in-class viewing, listening, discussions, presentations, and reflective writing, students develop critical perspectives and analytical skills, enabling them to interpret, evaluate, and engage with South Asian performing arts while contributing to broader debates on tradition, identity, and cultural change.

This course explores world music through the lens of space, place, and identity, encouraging students to critically engage with music in global and intercultural contexts. It examines how music reflects culture, ethnicity, and politics, from colonial brass bands and Balinese gamelan to hip-hop Desis and Indian diasporic traditions. Students analyze debates around authorship, ownership, and cultural critique while developing active listening and analytical skills. Through lectures, in-class listening, discussions, group presentations, and response essays, students gain a deeper understanding of how music shapes and expresses social identities, cultural connections, and historical narratives across the world.