Music 102 - States of Pop

What makes pop music pop? Or not pop? And who decides? In this course, we’ll dive into the history of popular music through the lens of four contemporary albums: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (Parkwood Entertainment, 2024), Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment,2025), Apsilon’s Haut wie Pelz (Four Music Productions, 2024), and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Amusement Records, 2023). From country to the Blues, hip hop to reggaetón, salsa to “simple” pop, we’ll explore how genres develop and identities are constructed in and around popular music from the late nineteenth century until today. Dissecting aspects of performance, production, and consumption, we’ll learn about the development of the popular music industry and study popular music as a place where questions of race, gender, citizenship, power, and belonging intersect in complex ways. In addition to analyzing annual moments of national media spectacle such as the Grammys and the Superbowl Halftime Show, we will also turn to the local and inquire about the construction of Amherst College identity through sound and music, diving into materials held in the College’s Archives and Special Collections. Throughout the semester, students will work collaboratively on a series of podcast episodes, in which they will present their ideas and analyses of the topic(s) and performances at hand. These episodes will build into a mix-tape project, in which students take on the role of the DJ to construct an album of spoken word (podcast) and music tracks organized around a topic or theme of choice. 

Spring semester. Visiting Assistant Professor Fitz Gibbon.

How to handle overenrollment: priority given to AC first years and seniors

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on readings, class discussion, and written work; group work; independent research