27152 - Music Laboratory (1) (G. B)

Academic Year 2020/2021

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Drama, Art and Music Studies (cod. 0956)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students are supposed to know the central theoretical issues in the field of popular music studies. Moreover, they are familiar with a number of empirical research projects carried out in the last two decades in various countries on popular music fields, subcultures, festivals, digital industry.

Course contents

The program deals with the analysis of popular music. It is articulated into two sections. Theoretical frameworks and empirical research projects will be recontructed, presented and discussed also by the students, individually or in teams.

The first section focuses on the theoretical state of the art. It defines core concepts from the sociology of music, (sub)cultural studies, and popular music studies. The aim is building a conceptual tool-kit to analyse the social, cultural, economic, and tecnhological dimensions of popular music.

The second section focuses on the methods and results of various empirical research projects carried out in the US, the UK, Italy and Spain over the last two decades. Their research objects deal with the practices of production and consumption of popular music and the increasing role of digital technologies; the organization and role of urban music festivals; the institutionalization and symbolic conflicts of various popular music fields (e.g. 'indie', jazz, hip hop and rap); the political and identity-building role of popular music.

Readings/Bibliography

  1. Thornton, S. (1995) Club Cultures. Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital, Cambridge, Polity.

  2. Spaziante, L. (2008) La musica popular e gli studi culturali, in C. Demaria and S. Nergaard (Eds.), Studi culturali. Temi e prospettive a confronto, Milano, McGraw-Hill, pp. 255-291.

  3. Magaudda, P. (2009) Il rischio di dilapidare un capitale (sottoculturale). Processi di istituzionalizzazione e conflitti culturali nel «campo» della musica indipendente in Italia, in M. Santoro (Ed.), La cultura come capitale. Consumi, produzioni, politiche, identità, Bologna, il Mulino, pp. 117-140.

  4. Magaudda, P. (2013) I festival di musica elettronica e le culture giovanili. Successi e fallimenti, dal Sònar ai festival italiani, “Polis”, 27 (1): 55-80.

  5. Santoro, M. and Solaroli, M. (2013) Ecologia istituzionale di un festival: il caso Umbria Jazz, "Polis", 27 (1): 81-124.

  6. Barra, L., Manzoli, G., Santoro, M., Solaroli, M. (2019) Un marziano all'Ariston. Mahmood tra televisione, musica, politica e identità, "Studi Culturali", 16 (2): 329-343.

  7. Bonini, T., Caliandro, A., Anselmi, G. (2019) La diffusione della musica pop nel sistema ibrido dei media: tra piattaforme digitali e broadcaster tradizionali, "Studi Culturali”, 16 (2): 225-256.

  8. Magaudda, P. and Solaroli, M. (2020) Platform Studies and Digital Cultural Industries, "Sociologica", 14 (3): 267-293. 

Teaching methods

Due to the restrictions imposed by the current health emergency, teaching will be carried out online only in March 2021. Starting in April 2021, teaching might be carried out with traditional methods: in that case, the professor will always be present in the designated classroom, students will alternate in attendance according to shifts scheduled via the app "Presente", and it will always be possible to connect remotely and follow live lessons via the TEAMS platform.

Please note: given the pace of change of the current health emergency, please check Professor Solaroli's homepage for possible updates on teaching methods.

Assessment methods

At the of the course students will get a pass certificate only if they attended at least two thirds of the meetings, and delivered the final presentation (individually or in team) in class.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Solaroli

SDGs

Good health and well-being Quality education Gender equality Responsible consumption and production

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.