2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
MUSS2125 Music, Culture, Politics: the Long Sixties
20 creditsClass Size: 50
Module manager: Dr Stan Erraught
Email: s.erraught@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
This module is approved as a discovery module
Module summary
The ‘long’ sixties (1958-1974) is an era in which popular music assumed an unprecedented cultural centrality and social and political significance, particularly in the USA and the UK. Music played a key part at the time in the ways in which social and political change was negotiated and understood, and remains crucial to our understanding of that era. In this module we will look at matters such as the interaction between popular music and the Civil Rights movement, the various discourses around ‘Black Power’, gender politics, the relationship between folk and rock music and the war in Vietnam, psychedelia, and the role of the Beatles in transforming the music industry. We will also consider the aftermath of the 1960s – how the social, political and artistic gains of the decade played out as popular music was refracted through new forms, such as the beginnings of punk and the birth of disco.Objectives
The module is designed to introduce students to the body of research and repertoire associated with music, culture and politics of the ‘long’ 1960s (1958-1974). Students will engage with relevant scholarship to develop critical and analytical skills appropriate to the study of these musics and their contexts. The module also supports the development of broader research and writing skills through dedicated sessions focused in these areas.Learning outcomes
1. Demonstrate the broadening of their musical knowledge through musicological study of the music, culture and politics of the ‘long’ 1960s.
2. Evaluate sources to show critical understanding of a body of research.
3. Apply appropriate historical, analytical, critical and comparative methodologies to the articulation and development of arguments.
4. Demonstrate the development of research, and essay-writing skills.
Syllabus
Taught sessions will usually focus on specific topics from within the broad area of music, culture and politics in the ‘long’ 1960s, offering a holistic exploration of the subject and more focused investigation of key aspects of these musics. Lectures will be structured around a synthesis of social and political context, and defined and closely investigated musical examples, in order to demonstrate how musical and social practices reflected each other and in turn nested within a particular historical context.
Teaching methods
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
| Lecture | 2 | 1.00 | 2.00 |
| Lecture | 7 | 2.00 | 14.00 |
| Seminar | 3 | 2.00 | 6.00 |
| Tutorial | 1 | 0.25 | 0.25 |
| Private study hours | 180.75 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 22.25 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 203.00 | ||
Private study
4 hours evaluation of notes per topic lecture: 28 hours7 hours reading and listening per topic lecture or seminar: 70 hours
Skills lectures preparation: 12 hours
Work towards assessment: 70.75 hours
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Formative feedback will be provided on the literature review assignment through a plenary feedback seminar session, enabling all students to benefit from knowledge about common errors and examples of best practice from across the cohort. Formative feedback will also be provided through contribution to class discussions in lectures and seminars, and in the module tutorial.Methods of assessment
Coursework
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
| Essay | 3800-4200 words | 70.00 |
| Literature Review | 1400-1600 words | 30.00 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100.00 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 29/04/2024 16:18:37
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