Popular Music and the Internet - AHC3918

Assessment 1: Other

Formative assessment is ongoing and will take place through informal seminar presentations.

Other

Assessment 1: Project Work

Written assignment or project work: a case study essay in either written (2500 words) or audio form (20 mins), depending on students’ individual preferences). Choose one topic from the module and a relevant case to explore within the topic (e.g. one musicians’ innovative use of social media to generate income). Draw on a range of contemporary research and theoretical perspectives to examine the case study in detail, making a particular argument about the case in light of research at the forefront of the disciplines.

Project Work

Assessment 2: Project Work

Project work: a creative project (equivalent to 3000 words) that explores a ‘problem’ and poses a potential solution (e.g. a piece of longform music journalism that considers how musicians use the internet to aid learning).

Assessment 3: Written Assignment

Written assignment. A critical piece of writing (500 words) that explains the rationale for the Assessment 2 project, how it engages with the problem and what research has informed the project.

Written Assignment

From Grateful Dead fans using early social media bulletin board systems in the 1980s to Web3 presenting new opportunities for immersive experiences in the metaverse, the internet has wrought big changes to popular music and its culture. Neither the record industry nor how we connect with musicians and other fans, or even the music itself have been left unchanged. This module explores these changes and supports students to explore their own interests through a case study, and to make creative projects that reflect on music and its relationship with the internet in the past, present, and into the future.
Using up-to-the-minute research and case studies, we will explore a broad range of issues from the points of view of musicians, the music industry, music production, and audiences and fans. The module is interdisciplinary and so our theoretical frameworks will be drawn from cultural and media studies, popular music studies, gender studies and science and technology studies. You will learn to critically analyse issues related to the socio-cultural, industrial, economic and technical aspects of the relationship between popular music and the internet. You will be supported to apply the critical frameworks to your own practice as musicians, music journalists and/or creative practitioners.

School of Arts and Humanities

Indicative texts:
<ul>
<li>Baym, N. K. (2018). Playing to the crowd: musicians, audiences and the intimate work of connection. New York University Press.</li>
<li>Jones, E. (2020). DIY music and the politics of social media. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.</li>
<li>Kjus, Y. (2018). Live and recorded: music experience in the digital millenium. Palgrave Macmillan.</li>
<li>Berkers, P., &amp; Schaap, J. (2015). YouTube as a virtual springboard: Circumventing gender dynamics in offline and online metal music careers. Metal Music Studies, 1(3), 303-318.</li>
<li>Werner, A. (2022). Feminism and gender in mediated popular music.</li>
</ul>

Media, Journalism and Film

AHC3918 - Popular Music and the Internet

Popular Music and the Internet

be able to critically analyse and evaluate developments at the forefront of music’s entanglement with the internet, with reference to current theories and research.

be able to critically evidence and defend points with reference to key literature to devise and sustain arguments at the forefront of academic thinking about the relationship between music and the internet.

be able to understand issues related to the socio-cultural, industrial, economic and technical aspects of popular music in relation to the internet.

be able to investigate self-chosen topics, using knowledge and theoretical approaches from the module, to examine a case study and to make a musical, journalistic or other creative project informed by and reflecting the issues and themes.

be able to plan and manage a creative project with critical reflection using scholarly reviews.