Annotation
This course introduces the students to a variety of music cultures from around the world, and at the same time, enables them to understand and appreciate music as an integral part of particular socio-political and cultural contexts. In the class, we consider court, village, religious, and popular music cultures, both in their traditional and contemporary manifestations.
Through the examination of particular case studies, we mainly focus on the music cultures of ten different areas and peoples from around the world: West Africa, South Africa, India, Egypt, Balkans, Indonesia, Japan, Andes, Mexico, and the Caribbean. We discuss these music cultures through the perspective of sound, setting, and significance, and comprehend them in relation to a variety of socio-political issues such as nationalism, transnationalism, post/colonialism, globalization, tourism, minorities, gender, religion, identity, cultural appropriation, exoticization, authenticity, and resistance.
Class discussions are based on short weekly reading and writing assignments, and on the analysis of music and video examples. No preliminary requirements.
See attached syllabus above.