MUS 302 - What to Listen for in Music

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-C ; Diversity
Overview of America’s popular music, with roots in the music of immigrant populations. Includes study of history and traditions of cultural groups, and the role of music and artists as advocates for social awareness and progress.

Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division Area C requirements.
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 with grade C- (CR) or better.
Possible Instructional Methods: Online-Asynchronous.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-C - Upper Division Arts or Humanities; Overlay - Diversity
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Express informed opinions and judgements about a variety of styles of popular music;
2. Communicate critical thoughts, opinions, and judgements about the creative work of different artists and bands from the 1950s forward;
3. Make connections between cultural influences, social/political movements, and relevant events and popular music of the same time period;
4. Quickly recall factual knowledge about different artists/bands and contributing factors to their artistry and artistic output from the 1940s forward;
5. Identify and discuss forms and influences of diverse cultures in American popular music;
6. Research and present a genre and a single artist/group that are of personal significance to the student.

UD-C. Upper-division Arts or Humanities Learning Outcomes

demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply the principles, methodologies, value systems, and thought processes employed in the arts and humanities;
analyze cultural production as an expression of, or reflection upon, what it means to be human; and
demonstrate how the perspectives of the arts and humanities are used by informed, engaged, and reflective citizens to benefit local and global communities.

Diversity Overlay Learning Outcomes

describe the histories and/or experiences of one or more U. S. cultural groups and the resilience and agency of group members;
identify structures of oppression and the diverse efforts and strategies used by groups to combat the effects of oppressive structures;
analyze the intersection of the categories of race and gender as they affect cultural group members’ lived realities and/or as they are embodied in personal and collective identities;
recognize the way that multiple differences (including, for example, gender, class, sexuality, religion, disability, immigration status, gender expression, color/phenotype, racial mixture, linguistic expression, and/or age) within cultural groups complicate individual and group identities.