Course syllabus
Lecture: Thursday 2-4 pm in 303-G02 (Science-Maths-Physics)
Tutorial: Friday 3-4 pm in 105-018 (Clocktower)
Convenor: Associate Professor Nabeel Zuberi
Contact: email: n.zuberi@auckland.ac.nz
(I will reply to email during working hours);
Tel: 373 7599 ext. 7722;
Office hour: Friday 11.30-12.30
536, Human Sciences building
This course explores the relationships between
(i) the sounds and cultures of popular music,
(ii) the formats in which media industries and musicians have produced and distributed music e.g. vinyl records, radio, cassettes, CDs, downloadable MP3s and streaming platforms such as Spotify, and
(iii) the ways in which people have listened to this recorded music.
Beyond the prerequisites for this course, students are not expected to have specialised or technical knowledge of music, sound recording or media technologies to participate in this class. We will consider music and media in their wider contexts, and relate them to debates about cultural politics, aesthetics and political economy.
The course will make you more familiar with interdisciplinary scholarship on popular music, with an emphasis on approaches in media and communication studies, sound studies, cultural studies and sociology.
We will listen to a wide range of music styles and genres from the past and present and from around the world, including but not limited to folk, blues, rhythm & blues, soul, funk, pop, rock and roll, rock, metal, reggae, disco, punk, hip hop, house, techno, drum and bass, grime and other electronic dance music. Students will have the opportunity to research and write about particular music and media from anywhere in the world that interests them.
The assessment consists of written coursework and discussion of the readings, lecture material and assignments in tutorial. There is a quiz on the reading but no final exam. More details on specific assignments will follow.
Students are expected to complete all required reading and any related listening and viewing before the lecture and tutorial that week. This is especially important this year since the one tutorial for the course is scheduled the day after the lecture. Students will be involved in group exercises and workshops on lecture material, required reading, research ideas and writing in progress. They will need to demonstrate full preparation and active participation in the tutorial to receive marks.
A minimal lecture outline will be posted on Canvas after the lecture. Lecture recordings are not available. If you do not think you are going to be able to attend and participate fully in both the lecture and the single tutorial for the course, then you should not take the course.
Assessment
There are four assessment components for this course:
- Active participation in tutorial exercises (10%)
- Research Paper 1 on a topic from weeks 1-5
(1500 words; 40%; due by 11:59 pm on Thursday 13 April, week 6)
- Research Paper 2 on a topic from weeks 7-10
(1500 words; 40%; due by 11:59 pm on Monday 5 June, week 12)
- Quiz on required reading in Week 12 (10%)
There is no plussage on this course. A total of 50% (C-) is the minimum pass mark.
Presentation of coursework
You must type your research papers in plain, 12 pt. font and double-space. Allow a 1-inch left and right margin for the marker’s comments. Number your pages and also give the word count at the end of your paper (the word count includes footnotes/endnotes but not the list of works cited). You may include carefully chosen images. Keep electronic and/or hard copies of your assignments as backup. Failure to present your coursework appropriately will lose you marks.
Referencing correctly and avoiding plagiarism
All assignments which are submitted via Canvas are checked by turnitin.com. You must reference the sources from which you have taken ideas, arguments and/or quotations, according to MLA style. Please consult the following University website which provides information on referencing: www.cite.auckland.ac.nz/ and/or the 2009 MLA Guide at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. You must cite relevant page numbers, full titles and publication details when you refer to other people’s work. All directly quoted writing must be placed in quotation marks. You must include in-text referencing and a list of Works Cited. You may also use footnotes.
Anything that is the work of another person must be referenced. Page numbers and web addresses must be included. All direct quotations must be placed in quotation marks. All students in this course are required to submit their coursework assignments to turnitin.com, which reveals both direct and paraphrased use of published material. The University of Auckland regards plagiarism seriously and proven cases will result in a fail grade and the assignment being withheld. All cases of plagiarism are brought before a Disciplinary Committee and a record of the student’s academic misconduct is kept on file until one year after the student graduates. The most serious cases can result in disciplinary action at the Faculty level, suspension or expulsion from the University and/or a fine. The University of Auckland’s approach to plagiarism can be found at http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/honesty/.
Submission of coursework
The research papers must be submitted by the deadline in electronic form only to Canvas before midnight on the due dates.
Deadlines, late penalties and extensions
Deadlines for coursework are non-negotiable. In circumstances such as illness you may seek an extension but you will require a doctor’s certificate. Extensions must be personally negotiated with the course convenor at least two days before the assignment is due. All late assignments will be penalised one mark per day. This includes each day of the weekend.
Tuakana Arts Undergraduate Mentoring Programme
This programme provides academic support for all Maori and Pasifika students. Details to be announced. Contact: tuakana.ftvms@auckland.ac.nz
Other University-wide academic support and services
UoA provides a range of resources to support students towards achieving their academic potential. These resources are not restricted to assisting students who are encountering difficulties in their studies. To access information about the range of academic and learning support services at the University, please visit:
Student Learning Centre web site: http://www.auckland.ac.nz/slc
ELSAC web site: http://elsac.auckland.ac.nz/
COURSE TIMELINE
Week 1 (March 9) Introduction to Recorded Music & Media Formats
Week 2 (March 16/17) Listening to Recorded Music
Laing, Dave. “Recorded Music.” The Routledge Reader in the Sociology of Music. Eds. John Shepherd and Kyle Devine. New York: Routledge, 2015. 259-268.
Week 3 (March 23/24) Excavating Shellac and Early Phonographic Culture
Denning, Michael. “Phonograph Culture: The Remaking of Vernacular Musicking.” Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution. London: Verso Books, 2015. 109-134.
Moist, Kevin M. “Collecting, Collage, and Alchemy: The Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music as Art and Cultural Intervention,” American Studies 48.4 (2007): 111-127.
Week 4 (March 30/31) Vinyl: the Album and the Single
Keightley, Keir. “Long Play: Adult-Oriented Popular Music and the Temporal Logics of the Post-War Sound Recording Industry in the USA.” Media, Culture & Society 26.3 (2004): 375-391.
Magoun, Alexander B. “The Origins of the 45-rpm Record at RCA Victor, 1939-1948.” Music and Technology in the Twentieth Century. Ed. Hans-Joachim Braun. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. 148-157.
Bartmanski, Dominik and Ian Woodward, “The Vinyl: The Analogue Medium in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” Journal of Consumer Culture 0.0 (2013): 1-25.
Week 5 (April 6/7) Radio and its Formats / Paper 1 Workshop
Baade, Christine. “Radio.” The Routledge Reader in the Sociology of Music. Eds. John Shepherd and Kyle Devine. New York: Routledge, 2015. 309-317.
Weisbard, Eric. “Introduction.” Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. 1-27.
Week 6 (April 13) No Lecture (Research paper work)
Extra online office hours:
Monday April 10, Tuesday April 11
Research paper 1 due by 11.59 pm, Thursday, April 13
Mid-Semester Break: April 14 – April 30
Week 7 (May 4/5) Cassettes and Tape Culture
Produce, A. “A Short History of the Cassette.” The Cassette Mythos. Ed. Robin James. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1992. 4-5.
Drew, Rob. “The Space Between: Mix Taping as a Ritual of Distance.” Popular Communication (2016): 146-155.
Curran, Kieran. “‘On Tape’: Cassette Culture in Edinburgh and Glasgow Now.” 21st Century Perspectives on Music, Technology, and Culture. Eds. Richard Purcell and Richard Randall. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 33-54.
Week 8 (May 11/12) Compact Discs and Digital Music
Straw, Will. “The Music CD and its Ends.” Design and Culture 1.1 (2009): 79-91.
Clayton, Jace AKA DJ Rupture. “How To Hold On?” Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2016. 219-255.
Week 9 (May 18/19) The MP3 and Mobile Listening
Sterne, Jonathan. “How the MP3 Became Ubiquitous,” Handbook of Mobile Music Vol. 1. Eds. Sumanth Gopinath and Jason Stanyek. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 37-55.
Quiñones, Marta Garcia. “Body and Context in Mobile Listening to Digital Players.” Ubiquitous Musics: The Everyday Sounds That We Don't Always Notice. Eds. Elena Boschi, Marta García Quiñones, and Anahid Kassabian. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013. 107-118.
Week 10 (May 25/26) The Cloud, Streaming and Social Media
Morris, Jeremy Wade, and Devon Powers. “Control, Curation and Musical Experience in Streaming Music Services.” Creative Industries Journal 8.2 (2015): 106-122.
Krukowski, Damon. “Love Streams.” 21st Century Perspectives on Music, Technology and Culture: Listening Spaces. Eds. Richard Purcell and Richard Randall. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 113-119.
Week 11 (June 1/2) Audio-visual Media
Perrott, Lisa, Rogers, Holly, and Carol Vernallis. “Beyoncé’s Lemonade: She Dreams in Both Worlds.” Film International, 2 June, 2016. http://filmint.nu/?p=18413
Research paper 2 due, 11:59 pm, Monday 5 June
Week 12 (June 8/9) Summary of the course & revision for reading quiz
Quiz on required reading
Any LATE assignments must be submitted by Friday 9 June
Course summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|