This course considers the role of music as a form of political expression - that is, as a way of commenting on core concerns such as justice, freedom, equality, rights, and dignity, and of challenging entrenched systems of power and privilege. Examples from a variety of 20th and 21st Century American genres - rock, hip hop, jazz, country, R&B, and the blues - are used alongside key texts to analyze how music makes politics and politics makes music.