Nonmajor Summer Classes 2025
GEN MUS 170-0-1
Introduction to Music
Instructor: Daniel Atwood
6-week session, June 23 – August 3
TTh, 1:00-3:30 p.m.
Location: RCMA 1-160
This course is designed to provide students with the foundational tools and vocabulary to critically engage with a variety of kinds of music. Surveying a diverse range of musical traditions ranging from classical to popular, we will consider music in its historic and present cultural contexts while developing a working familiarity with the stylistically appropriate terminology of musical description and analysis. Assignments include topical quizzes, short written assignments, and a final project/exam. No musical training is assumed or required.
Class materials: No materials required for purchase. Assigned readings will be made available through CANVAS.
GEN_MUS 175-0-1
Special Topics: Popular Music and Society
Instructor: Jennifer Blackwell
3-week session, June 23 – July 13
MTWThF, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Location: RCMA LL-113
How does music shape, enhance, and change our society? This course illustrates fundamental social institutions, theories, sociological concepts, and processes surrounding the place of popular music in society. Through explorations of popular music in a variety of contexts, including protest music in the Estonian singing revolution, hip-hop culture’s role in social change, and popular music and the socialization of children (among many others), students will develop enriched understandings of how music can enhance the study of social life. Students will be invited to connect popular music to their own interests or primary areas of study in assignments and discussion. No formal musical background is expected or required to participate in this course.
Class materials (required): Joseph A. Kotarba, Understanding Society Through Popular Music, 3rd edition. Routledge, 2018. ISBN: 9781138806528. Estimated retail price: $30.
GEN_MUS 175-0-1
Special Topics: Music of the African Diaspora
Instructor: Diego Pinto
6-week session, June 23 – August 3
MW, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Location: RCMA LL-121
This course is designed to explore various music cultures born among African peoples and communities forcibly dispersed during the Transatlantic Slave Trade and their descendants. Some of those music genres and rhythms will include Brazilian samba reggae, Colombian currulao, Jamaican mento, and African American spirituals. The course aims to address the musical, historical, cultural, and social contexts of each music culture being featured. Students will actively engage in learning by reproducing musical elements of each culture through movement, singing, and playing instruments. Previous music experience is neither required nor expected.
Learning Objectives
As a result of the successful completion of this course, students will:
- Recognize basic musical elements through attentive and engaged listening
- Identify the main music features of the music traditions studied
- Describe the historical, cultural, and social contexts of the music traditions studied
- Articulate similarities between the music traditions across the diaspora, when applicable
Class materials: None required for purchase. Assigned reading, listening, and other materials will be available on CANVAS.
GEN_MUS 175 -0-2
Special Topics: Black Popular Music & Media
Instructor: Jeremy Rowland
6-week session, June 23 – August 3
TTh, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Location: RCMA LL-121
Are we, as consumer of music, truly understanding what Black artists have to communicate in contemporary genres of music? How has the expression of the Black lived experience in music changed as we move through the 21st century? With these central questions in mind, this course will provide context to explore the various frameworks for analyzing the social, political, and cultural references included in the media of Black Rap, Hip-Hop, and R&B artists. Through exploring the music videos, visual albums, and interviews of various artists, we will consider how music can enhance the study of social life. In addition to the assigned artists (Kanye West, Beyoncé, Janelle Monáe, Childish Gambino, and Falz) students will be invited to examine the work of a chosen artist that connects to their own interests or primary areas of study.
This course is designed as a combination of both lecture and discussion-based instruction. Students will experience an instructor-led unit of analysis for selected material and be asked to independently replicate it to facilitate discourse on a selected piece of media. Through use of short reflections, one longer critical essay, a short presentation and facilitation of whole-class discussion, students will create artifacts that highlight their emerging knowledge. No prerequisite or formal musical background is required to participate in this course.
Class materials: None required for purchase. Class texts and media will be provided by the instructor via CANVAS.
GEN_MUS 175-0-3
Special Topics: Hidden Women of Music
Instructor: Victoria Smith
6-week session, June 23 – August 3
TTh, 2:30-5:00 p.m.
Location: RCMA LL-111
Women have a played a key role in the development and success of music, though their personal voices may not have been heard. Overshadowed by husbands and brothers or written out of musical history completely, the significant contributions of these women require that their places in history are revisited and restored. Through readings, weekly in-class and online discussions, and a final project, students will use critical thinking and listening skills to explore music of a variety of cultures and time frames. From Helen May Butler, the first female band director, to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock ‘n roll – and many other artists and genres in between – we will investigate the history of music and uncover some previously unrecognized contributors to music. The course is open to undergraduate non-music majors with all levels of musical experience and backgrounds.
Class materials (required): Julie C. Dunbar, Women, Music, Culture: An Introduction, 3rd edition. Routledge, 2021. ISBN: 9780367138127. Estimated retail price: $50.
GEN_MUS 175 -0-1
Special Topics: Children’s Musical Cultures
Instructor: Clayton Dahm
3-week session, July 14 – August 3
MTWThF, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Location: RCMA LL-113
This course explores the multifaceted role of music in childhood, emphasizing the social, political, cultural, and historical contexts that shape children's musical experiences in their families and communities. Students will consider a global array of musical cultures and analyze the various forms, genres, and styles of musical expression that constitute children’s first and earliest musical experiences. The course will examine how these musical practices reflect and shape social identities, and how adult-facilitated experiences, both formal and informal, nurture musical development from infancy to adolescence. In doing so, students will develop their ability to discuss, interpret, and write about music and the cultural and social influences that inform children’s musical expression. No prior musical background is required.
Class materials: None required for purchase. All course materials will be provided by the instructor.
MUS TECH 321-0-1
Producing in the Virtual Studio
Instructor: Chris Mercer
6-week session, June 23 – August 3
MW, 1:00-3:30 p.m.
Location: RCMA LL-121
The class will explore session and post-production techniques in the computer-based project studio, including accompanying hardware components. Topics include running a multi-track session, intensive audio editing, effects processing, mastering, and basic surround mixing. Students will produce audio projects of their own choosing from start to finish with the goal of creating tracks at professional standards.
Class materials:None required for purchase.