Contemporary Issues in Popular Music Studies
Contemporary Issues in Popular Music Studies explores academic discussions in popular musics with an emphasis on critical and social theory foundations rather than music analysis.
Summary
Lectures are small, with a median of 11 enrolled students in the recorded sections.
What you’ll be able to do
Discuss the literature and conceptual repertoire of popular music studies.
Interpret and apply difficult texts in conversation and writing.
Integrate contemporary academic conversations with personal research interests.
Pose a research question, identify relevant resources, and make evidence-based arguments.
Set discussion goals, manage time, and ask good questions to facilitate discussion effectively.
Track key terms across several bodies of academic literatures and across geographic and temporal contexts.
Demonstrate advanced research, analysis, and writing skills to a rigorous standard appropriate to graduate-level work.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗No recorded grade history.
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapMUSIC 212 or declared in Music MA, Music MM, Music PhD, Music: Performance DMA, or Doctoral Minor in Music
- MUSIC 212
- declared in Music MA, Music MM, Music PhD, Music: Performance DMA, or Doctoral Minor in Music
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- MUSIC 212
- declared in Music MA, Music MM, Music PhD, Music: Performance DMA, or Doctoral Minor in Music
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
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Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Explore contemporary discussions in the academic study of popular musics. Emphasis on foundations of critical and social theory, rather than music analysis. Discuss influential theories regarding mass media, music commodities, and the social construction of musical meaning as well as emerging discourses and concerns. Explore research themes related to a variety of genres, such as jazz, K-Pop, rap, and more.
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Foundations of critical and social theory
- Mass media, music commodities, and social construction of musical meaning
- Research themes in genres like jazz, K-Pop, and rap
Skills
- Discussing literature and conceptual repertoire of popular music studies
- Interpreting and applying difficult texts in conversation and writing
- Posing research questions and making evidence-based arguments
- Tracking key terms across academic literatures and contexts
Grades
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Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
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Raw records
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Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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