American Popular Music

Two guitars combined into one.

An acoustic and an electric guitar. In this course, students analyzed the instrumentation form of various assigned popular songs. (Acoustic guitar courtesy of Megan Allen on Flickr; electric guitar courtesy of Ethan Prater on Flickr. Licenses: CC BY.)

 

 

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21M.295

As Taught In

Fall 2014

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

Course Features

Course Description

This course surveys the development of popular music in the United States and in a cross-cultural milieu relative to the history and sociology of the last two hundred years. It examines the ethnic mixture that characterizes modern music, how it reflects many rich traditions and styles, and provides a background for understanding the musical vocabulary of current popular music styles.

Related Content

Teresa Neff. 21M.295 American Popular Music. Fall 2014. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


For more information about using these materials and the Creative Commons license, see our Terms of Use.


Close