MUS10220 Popular Music

Academic Year 2023/2024

This module introduces students to a variety of methods to interpret, analyse, and understand popular music and its impact on society. Each week focuses on a selected genre or thread in modern popular music, from rock and roll to hip-hop to underground and dance music; by examining these genres and threads, students are encouraged to use theoretical frameworks that help reveal the cultural and musical significance of the chosen examples. These frameworks include media theory, gender and performativity, and the critical examination of race and identity. We also focus more broadly on how popular music propagates itself over time via its relationship to technology, cultural and subcultural movements, and political currents. Although the course does introduce and employ a few musical-analytical concepts, it is an elective course and has no prerequisites.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

In this course, students will:

1. Undertake close and sustained study of a number of representative genres in popular music.
2. Examine and gain knowledge of the social significance and contexts of these genres.
3. Develop skills in representing popular music and its theoretical issues through writing and analysis.
4. Become familiar with a number of current approaches to discussing and conceptualizing the structure, history, and cultural significance of popular music.

Indicative Module Content:

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12
Tutorial

5
Specified Learning Activities

20
Autonomous Student Learning

50
Online Learning

20
Total

107
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Students will be provided with a weekly resource pack on Brightspace (UCD's virtual learning environment), which will consist of audio (and sometimes video) examples of music, required and supplementary reading material, short video lectures and/or powerpoint slides, and (sometimes) musical scores. Students will also be given a road map through this material, indicating how to work through it. Weekly classes will consist of both lecture and discussion-based tutorials. Students are expected to attend these sessions, and to have reviewed the materials in the folder for that week prior to attending (all materials will be posted at least one week in advance of the class).

Weekly attendance is expected and will be monitored. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Portfolio: Portfolio based on weekly discussion / tasks. Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

50
Journal: Weekly Tasks or Reflection
Students respond to discussion prompts or prepare materials for tutorials. Information on this will be posted weekly.		 Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

50

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
Repeat Within Two Trimesters
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Each week, students will prepare a journal entry that either prepares materials for or responds to a reflection prompt. The final portfolio builds upon this work. You will choose two or three of your best entries and expand upon them, submitting a final portfolio. Detailed guidelines for this will be provided at the beginning of the trimester.

Name Role
Judit Csobod Tutor
Subhashini Goda Venkataramani Tutor
Jonathan Pickett Tutor
Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 
Autumn
      
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Mon 15:00 - 15:50
Tutorial Offering 1 Week(s) - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Tues 10:00 - 10:50
Tutorial Offering 2 Week(s) - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Tues 11:00 - 11:50
Tutorial Offering 3 Week(s) - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Tues 13:00 - 13:50
Tutorial Offering 4 Week(s) - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Tues 12:00 - 12:50
Autumn
      
Spring
      
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Tues 13:00 - 13:50
Tutorial Offering 1 Week(s) - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Thurs 13:00 - 13:50
Tutorial Offering 2 Week(s) - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Thurs 14:00 - 14:50
Tutorial Offering 3 Week(s) - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Tues 14:00 - 14:50
Tutorial Offering 4 Week(s) - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Tues 15:00 - 15:50
Tutorial Offering 5 Week(s) - 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 11:00 - 11:50
Spring