Documenting Music Cultures
Beschrijving
Course goals
- critically discuss key theoretical concepts and debates relating to music and culture.
- scrutinise and implement a theoretical concept in relation to documented case study material.
- effectively draw on online-offline ethnographic methodologies to study music cultures.
- document spaces, practices, objects, and sounds associated with specific musical genres and scenes through video essays.
Content
Music both reflects and produces cultural formations that can be documented through a variety of media (such as printed and archival material, documentary films, and online discourse). Studying the communities organized around music requires an engagement with these media as well as scholarly documentation through ethnographic inquiry. From wittebroekentrance to dub reggae; from punk to church choirs; from hyperpop Discord servers to opera theatres, the study of music cultures necessitates careful documentation and theorization.
In this course we will explore how music can be studied as a cultural practice with the help of different conceptual and methodological tools. We will discuss debates pertaining to subculture, genre, and various aspects of identity before bringing this to bear on specific case studies of your own choosing. Methodologically, the course introduces traditional and digital ethnographic techniques for studying music cultures. As such, we will learn and practice online-offline research methods with a view to creating a critical music documentary on your chosen case study (in the form of a video essay).
Assignments:
Essay (40%): An essay of 1600 words (+/- 10%). The essay assignment will ask the student to consider a specific theoretical concept (e.g. genre, subculture, middlebrow, musicking) in relation to a set case study chosen by the instructor (e.g. hyperpop, opera, punk).
Video-essay (60%): A video essay of 8–12 minutes in duration. The task asks the student to create a critical music documentary relating to the musical event(s) they are observing as part of the course. Within these documentaries, students are required to engage with one or several analytical concepts introduced in the course literature. Students must choose a different case study from assignment one for their video essays.
Documenting Music Cultures is the third course of the Music and Media track (‘verdiepingspakket Muziek en media’).
LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major, need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment. See for more information: https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/
Additional information
Priority rules
This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you
- are a student in the BA Muziekwetenschap and this course is part of your specialisation (verdiepingspakket)
- are a student in the BA Liberal Arts and Sciences or Taal- en Cultuurstudies and this course is part of your specialisation (kernpakket)
- are an exchange student and meet the course’s entry requirements
In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.
Equivalancy
This course is equivalent to the following courses:
MU3V20001 Subculturen
MU3V22002 Music Cultures
If you have already completed this course, you may not take Documenting music cultures due to too much overlap in content.
Schedule
Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the third Wednesday of September.
Reviews0 reviews
Heb jij dit vak gevolgd?
Deel je ervaring met toekomstige studenten. Inloggen met je Universiteit Utrecht mailadres duurt één minuut.
Schrijf een review