MUS 1110 - Roots of American Popular Music

Goals: To learn how the social and economic history of the early 20th century helped create the new American musical forms of R&B, blues, country, folk, gospel, and bluegrass; to provide a musical context to address the broader social issues facing America in the late 19th-and early 20th-century: Immigration, racism, social class, urbanization, ethnic integration, and youth protest.

Content: This course provides students with a background to the origins of contemporary popular music. Content will include readings, recordings, documentaries, and video performances of early American musical styles, including R&B, blues, country, folk, gospel, and bluegrass.

Credits: 4