Postgraduate Course: Popular Music Technology and Society (PGSP11261)
Course Outline
| School |
School of Social and Political Science |
College |
College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits |
20 |
| Home subject area |
Postgrad (School of Social and Political Studies) |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
None
|
Taught in Gaelic? |
No |
| Course description |
Popular music is one of the primary leisure and entertainment resources in late modern society and understanding links between technology, music and everyday life is an attractive way to exercise the sociological imagination. The course offers a representative selection of ways of studying popular music from a broadly cultural sociological perspective that attunes itself to the question of technology. It will be based on a mix of theoretical and empirical approaches to popular music?s socio-technical organisation and its active role in ordering everyday life. The aim is to assess how music is created and consumed in increasingly complex networks of culture, examine the changing sites and locales that situate or circulate musical forms and describe the challenges faced by music sociology as it grapples with an increasingly digitalised and globalised social and technological landscape.
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Entry Requirements
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites |
|
| Prohibited Combinations |
|
Other requirements |
None
|
| Additional Costs |
None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2010/11 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | 11:10 - 13:00 | | | | | | Central | Seminar | CMB room 6.20 - Bi weekly | 2,4,6,8,10 | 16:10 - 17:00 | | | | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Monday, 11:10 - 13:00, Zone: Central. Faculty Room South DHT |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, post-graduate students should be able to:
1) Evaluate a range of concepts and approaches within sociology to the development of popular music.
2) Critically assess accounts of technological innovation in changing forms of musical production and consumption.
3) Recognise the formation of popular music genres as a social accomplishment dependent on micro and macro social processes.
4) Assess the relevance of theory in understanding the impact of popular music on everyday life.
5) Recognise and comment on issues raised by the digitalisation of popular music, such as changing practices of music making and listening.
6) Critically reflect on their own experiences of popular music as producers or consumers.
7) Recognise and explain the inseparability of humans and machines in the creative process.
8) Summarise key historical moments in the development of technologies of popular music, from the phonograph and the microphone to MIDI and MySpace.
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Assessment Information
| The course will be assessed by way of two essays; 1) 1,500 word essay, worth 25% of total course mark; 2) a long essay, of between 3,500-4,000 words, worth 75% of total course mark. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords |
Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Dr Nicholas Prior
Tel: (0131 6)50 3991
Email: n.prior@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Miss Cristyn King
Tel: (0131 6)51 3865
Email: cristyn.king@ed.ac.uk |
|
copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh -
13 January 2011 6:34 am
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