Tuesday, February 2
Song Exploder: Neko Case; Writing Experiment
Thursday, Feburary 4
Powers, Good Booty, Introduction + Chapters 1 & 2
Tiarney Miekus, “Where The Metaphor Fails: ‘Writing about music is like dancing about architecture’”
Video: Writing About Popular Music (Jason Tougaw)
Song Exploder: Clipping
Video: Fontana, Needle Drop: Clipping
Record Club: Jason Tougaw
Assignment: Some time before this class session, post an introduction. Tell the rest of us something about you–maybe what music you like, why you chose this course, your goals for college, your interests. If you’re comfortable, post a photo with it. If you want to make a video introduction and post it, that would be great.
Tuesday, February 9
Powers, Good Booty, Chapters 3 & 4
Master Class, Songwriting 101: Common Song Structures
Ann McGinnis, Basic Song Structure Infographic
Song Exploder: Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Record Club: Tatiana; Responders: Aysha, Nathalie
Thursday, February 11
Powers, Good Booty, Chapters 5 & 6
Song Exploder: Hozier
Video: The Needle Drop, Hozier
Video: Kalani, Time Signatures
Record Club: Nathalie; Responders: Erik, Ryan
Tuesday, February 16
Powers, Good Booty, Chapters 7, 8, & Epilogue
All Songs Considered: New Music Friday Top 8 Albums for January 15, 2021, with Ann Powers
Record Club: Salia; Responders: Victoria, Jarybel
Thursday, February 18
Ann Powers on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (How to Write about Music)
Lou Reed on Kanye West’s Yeezus (How to Write about Music)
Introduction and Expert Advice from the Album Review Chapter (How to Write about Music)
Writing Prompts: The Blind Review & Make It Better (How to Write about Music) Note: Read these to get ideas, but you do not have to do the assignments they suggest.
Record Club: Erik; Responders: Mahpara, Corey
Song Exploder: Raphael Saadiq
Video: The Needle Drop, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories
Tuesday, February 23
Paul Morley on Joy Division at University College London (How to Write about Music)
Charles Aaron on Hole at Nautica Stage (How to Write about Music)
Introduction and Expert Advice from the Live Review Chapter (How to Write about Music)
Writing Prompt: The Live Review on Deadline (How to Write about Music) Note: Read these to get ideas, but you do not have to do the assignments they suggest.
Record Club: Dominique; Responders: Muniba, Salia
Thursday, February 25
All Songs Considered: New Music Friday Top 8 Albums for January 15, 2021, with Ann Powers
Introduction to Audacity and Soundcloud
Watch in advance: Ziovo, Audacity Tutorial for Beginners
Group workshop on developing reviews
Sunday, February 28
Reviews due–to me via email. I’ll distribute the relevant reviews for workshop.
Tuesday, March 2
Workshop: Corey, Salia, Mahpara, Turtle, Johnny
Record club: Aysha; Responder: Allison
Thursday, March 4
Workshop: Nathalie, Victoria, Jimmy, Sabina, Jonathan
Tuesday, March 9
Workshop: Allison, Tatiana, Jarybel, Pete, Aysha
Thursday, March 11
Workshop: Ryan, Erik, Muniba, Dominique, Erynn
Tuesday, March 16
Introduction to Infographics
Ethan Hein, “Visualizing Music”
Ethan Hein, “This Is America”
Ethan Hein, Sample Genealogy: “Funky Drummer”
Brook Evelyn, “Track Analysis: ‘Redbone'”
Record Club: Mahpara; Responders: Jonathan, Sabina
Thursday, March 18
Joel Eastwood and Erik Hinton, “How does ‘Hamilton,’ the non stop, hip-hop Broadway sensation tap rap’s master rhymes to blur musical lines?”
Kyle Vanhemert, “GOOGLE WHIZ VISUALIZES THE BEACH BOYS’ HEAVENLY HARMONIES”
Sahil Chinoy and Jessia Ma, “Why Songs of the Summer Sound the Same”
Record Club: Jimmy; Responders: Turtle, Pete
Tuesday, March 23
Sebastian Laan, “Do You Know What Pop Songs are Samples?”
“The Indian Rock Scene”
“Whitney Houston: A Life in Music” (Infographic World, Anonymous)
Adam Neely, “Lady Gaga’s Mixed Meter Star Spangled Banner?!”
Podcast or radio show:
Record Club: Victoria: Responders: Jimmy, Dominique
Thursday, March 25
Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest (Chapters 1 – 2)
Podcast: Lost Notes 1980: The Sugarhill Gang (written and narrated by Abdurraqib)
Record Club: Turtle; Responders: Erynn, Johnny; Sabina: Responders Aysha, Nathalie
Tuesday, March 30
Spring Break
Thursday, April 1
Spring Break
Monday, April 5
Infographics due (post to our site); Note: If you want to post before spring break, that’s fine too.
Tuesday, April 6
Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest
Podcast: Lost Notes 1980: Ian Curtis (written and narrated by Abdurraqib)
Podcast or radio show: Johnny, Jonathan, Salia
Record club: Allison; Responders: Ryan, Tatiana
Thursday, April 8
Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest (Chapters 3 – end)
Podcast: Lost Notes 1980: Grace Jones
Podcast or radio show: Ryan, Allison, Pete
Tuesday, April 13
Infographics workshop
Group 1: Nathalie, Erik, Corey
Group 2: Muniba, Tati, Jonathan, Aysha
Group 3: Ryan, Turtle, Dominique
Group 4: Johnny, Salia, Jimmy
Group 5: Sabina, Victoria, Pete, Erynn
Group 6: Mahpara, Allison, Jarybel, Victoria
Podcast or radio show: Corey, Erynn, Jimmy
Thursday, April 15
Infographics workshop
Group 1: Nathalie, Erik, Corey
Group 2: Muniba, Tati, Jonathan, Aysha
Group 3: Ryan, Turtle, Dominique
Group 4: Johnny, Salia, Jimmy
Group 5: Sabina, Victoria, Pete
Group 6: Mahpara, Allison, Jarybel, Victoria
Podcast or radio show: Erik, Nathalie, Jarybel
Tuesday, April 20
Introduction + Advice from our Experts, “The Artist Profile” (How to Write about Music)
Sasha Frere Jones, “The Queen: Beyonce, At Last” (How to Write about Music)
Jason King, “Michael Jackson: An Appreciation of His Talent”
Tracey Thorn, From Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Signing, Chapter 4: Singing into a Void & Chapter 6: Lead Sister, & Chapter 20: Spooked by the Beauty
Record Club: Jarybel; Responders: Salia, Turtle
Podcast or radio show: Tati, Mahpara, Dominiuque
Thursday, April 22
Introduction: The Blog Piece (How to Write about Music) + “Advice from Our Experts”
Nicholas Croggan and James Parker, “The Trouble with Contemporary Music Criticism” (How to Write about Music)
Matt Melis, “On Fandom” (How to Write about Music)
Podcast or Radio show: Victoria, Turtle
Record Club: Johnny; Responders: Mahpara, Corey
Record club: Muniba; Responders: Victoria, Jarybel
Tuesday, April 27
Ella Cerón, “Selena Quintanilla’s Legacy as a Mexican-American Superstar”
Tyler Malone, “In Memory of George Michael, In Praise of Mistakes”
Elias Muhanna, “Mashrou’ Leila and the Night Club’s Political Power”
Zadie Smith, “The Zen of Eminem”
Jason King, “Aretha Franklin Knew How to Make Us Laugh Too”
Podcast or Radio show: Sabina, Victoria, Mahpara
Record Club: Jonathan; Responders: Muniba, Johnny
Thursday, April 29
Introduction + Advice from our Experts, “The Personal Essay” (How to Write about Music)
Largehearted Boy: Lauren Groff, “Fates and Furies”; R.O. Kwon, “The Incendiaries”; Roxanne Gay, “Ayiti”; Haroon Moghul, “How to Be a Muslim”; Jason Tougaw, “The One You Get”
Memoir Mixtapes: Jackie Huertas, “Your Chicanx Playlist”; Mackenzie Tozan, “Songs in the Mirror”; Nick Gabriel, “My Maxell Mixtape”: Timothy So, “EMS Mixtape”
Podcast or Radio show: Muniba, Erynn, Aysha
Record Club: Ryan; Responders: Jonathan, Sabina
Tuesday, May 4
Workshop: Music Terms, Essay Topics, and Portfolios
CONSIDER THESE READINGS OPTIONAL
Tracey Thorn, From Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Signing, Chapter 19: Me and My Microphone, from Naked at the Albert Hall
Simon Morrison, “Spray–Kosovo” (How to Write about Music, p. 338)
Jason Tougaw, “The Human League Effect,” from The One You Get
Aurin Squire, “My Nina Simone Experiment”
Record Club: Pete; Responders: Jimmy, Tatiana
By midnight: Personal essays, blog pieces, or artist profiles due
Thursday, May 6
- Workshop
Group 1: Nathalie, Erik, Jonathan, Aysha
Group 2: Muniba, Tati, Jarybel
Group 3: Ryan, Turtle, Dominique
Group 4: Johnny, Salia, Jimmy
Group 5: Sabina, Pete, Erynn
Group 6: Mahpara, Allison, Victoria, Corey
Record club: Erynn; Responders: Pete, Dominique
Tuesday, May 11
Portfolio Workshop
Group 1: Nathalie, Erik, Jonathan, Aysha
Group 2: Muniba, Tati, Jarybel
Group 3: Ryan, Turtle, Dominique
Group 4: Johnny, Salia, Jimmy
Group 5: Sabina, Pete, Erynn
Group 6: Mahpara, Allison, Victoria, Corey
Record club:
Thursday, May 13
Portfolio Workshop
Group 1: Nathalie, Erik, Jonathan, Aysha
Group 2: Muniba, Tati, Jarybel
Group 3: Ryan, Turtle, Dominique
Group 4: Johnny, Salia, Jimmy
Group 5: Sabina, Pete, Erynn
Group 6: Mahpara, Allison, Victoria, Corey
Record club: Erynn; Responders: Pete, Dominique
Record Club: Corey
Tuesday, May 18
Portfolios due
