HNR-220 - Popular Music, Social Movements, and Protest

3 credits

This interdisciplinary course examines the relationship between popular music, social movements and social change. We will study the ways that social movements have embraced popular music to further a cause as well as the ways that social movements have, in turn, influenced popular music. The role and effect of the expansion and increased corporatization of mass media and the music industry will be explored. Within this context, the course will serve as an introduction to the study of social movements and protest from a social science perspective as well as an analysis of the impact of cultural expression on institutional arrangement, material conditions and a general understanding of the social world. The course will examine the role of popular music in social movements such as, but not limited to, the United States labor movement, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War-era antiwar movement, gay rights/liberation movements and contemporary social movements for racial justice.

Prerequisite(s): Course is restricted to Honors Students or permission of the instructor.

Mass Transfer Gen Ed Foundation: Credits earned in this course are counted towards the Mass Transfer Gen Ed Foundation’s Behavioral and Social Sciences requirements.