I know that on one level, music is abstract — like a thought, as you say. But it’s also like a feeling, a real sensual and emotional pull. Music can make you feel like a room without a roof. When that’s happening, all the categories we build as thinkers recede, and whatever sound made it happen is glorious. –Ann Powers, “Why We Fight About Pop Music”

Why do we fight about popular music? Why do we write about it? Music critic Ann Powers argues that music can “move us in new directions”—emotionally, bodily, personally, intellectually, socially, and politically. In this course, we’ll write about popular music in a variety of nonfiction genres, including reviews, liner notes, infographics, personal essays, mixtape memoirs, and annotated playlists. Students will also produce podcasts, radio shows, or video essays. All of these genres require practice in the craft of creative nonfiction writing: voice, description, scene, storytelling, translation, argument, analysis, and dialogue. As we read the work of other writers in these genres, we’ll pay close attention to how they experiment with elements of craft. But we’ll also seek to balance our examinations of popular music’s meanings with the ineffable experience it makes possible. In Powers’s words, “Music can make you feel like a room without a roof. When that’s happening, all the categories we build as thinkers recede, and whatever sound made it happen is glorious.”

We’ll read about artists like Neko Case, A Tribe Called Quest, The Beach Boys, Childish Gambino, Joni Mitchell, Mashrou’ Leila, Beyoncé, The Sex Pistols, Liz Phair, Eminem, Talking Heads, Dusty Springfield, George Clinton, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Bessie Smith, The Beatles, Selena, Animal Collective, George Michael, Joy Division, The Carpenters, Daft Punk, Prince, Hole, Elvis Presley, Nirvana, TuneYards, and Michael Jackson, by writers like Ann Powers, Hanif Abdurraqib, Tracey Thorn, Rick Moody, Roxanne Gay, Haroon Moghul, Jason King, Charles Aaron, Laurie Anderson, and Zadie Smith.

This course fulfills one of your two Writing-Intensive (W) requirements.