Course Info: HACU-0258

CourseHACU-0258 African Popular Music
Long TitleAfrican Popular Music
Term2021F
Note(s) Textbook information
Meeting InfoMusic and Dance Building RECITAL on T,TH from 2:30-3:50
FacultyOlabode Omojola
Capacity25
Available17
Waitlist0
Distribution(s)
Cumulative Skill(s)
Additional InfoStudents in this course can expect to spend 6 to 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.
Description

This course focuses on African popular music. It examines musical genres from different parts of the continent, investigating their relationships to the historical, political, and social dynamics of their respective national and regional origins. Musical idioms like highlife, soukous, kwaito, afrobeat, hiplife, and afrobeats will be studied to assess the significance of popular music as a creative response to social and political developments in colonial and postcolonial Africa. The course also discusses the growth of hip-hop music in selected countries by exploring how indigenous cultural tropes have provided the basis for its local adaptation. The themes explored in the class also include music and identity, music, politics, and resistance; appropriation, cosmopolitanism, neo-traditional forms, and the politics of musical nostalgia.