MUSIC 1308 - CULTURAL POLITICS OF SOUL

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This is an introductory level course which examines soul music as a lived cultural practice, an artistic genre, a transnational phenomenon, and an important historical site for the articulation of gender, race and class in both American popular culture and the African diaspora. Special attention is placed on the transitions and parallels of "soul" as a musical genre, with "soul" as a marker of cultural politics and identity. As a musical genre, "soul" was first recognized as the secular reinvention of the Southern, gospel tradition, acting as a soundtrack to the Civil Rights Movement. Once the Black community merged this music with the ideals of Black radical politics, it transformed the popular genre into an urban practice of "Soul Power," which then acted as a soundtrack to the Black Power Movement. Positioning music within a broader context of postcolonial, technological, and transnational development, this course analyzes the rich intersections of music, culture, and politics as it exists in soul music as well as the entire media apparatus, including independent and corporate record labels, African American print media, and radio, television and film, that gave rise to the soul music industry. There are no prerequisites for this course, nor do students need to have any formal training in music or need to know how to read western music notation.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis
Course Attributes: DSAS Diversity General Ed. Requirement, SCI Diversity General Ed. Requirements, Undergraduate Research

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