Radical Listening (MUS 31) considers music through the lenses of extra-musical epistemologies - aesthetics and philosophies related to culture, memory, identity, gender, etc. Listening to music with such considerations can foster and illuminate personal emotional stakes. Cultivating personal stakes in listening has the benefit of moving us towards a greater capacity for empathy - what we do in our most personal aesthetic spaces can project outwards into how we engage with others, publicly, as caring citizens. Tactically, we will rehearse applying “radical listening” concepts on some of the most ubiquitous and influential music in Western culture in tandem with important, though esoteric, exponents of experimental music (e.g. Vocaloids).

Radical Listening (Music 31) considers music through the lenses of extra-musical epistemologies (aesthetics and philosophies related to culture, memory, identity, gender, etc.) with the purview that listening to music enhanced with such considerations can foster and illuminate personal emotional stakes. Cultivating personal stakes in listening has the benefit of moving us towards a greater capacity for empathy - what we do in our most personal aesthetical spaces can project outwards into how we engage with others, publicly, as caring citizens. Tactically, we will rehearse applying “radical listening” concepts on some of the most ubiquitous and influential music in Western culture – The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Missy Elliott, David Bowie, Kanye West, et al. – in tandem with important, though esoteric, exponents of experimental music and new trends (e.g. Vocaloids). The class is open to all, including those with no prior training in music.

The class is open to all, especially those with no prior training in music.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills