32-1626 Hip-Hop: A Sonic History

Course focuses on hip-hop as a musical culture, exploring the social conditions of the music’s emergence and the factors that have facilitated its broad dissemination. We will investigate the social and technological factors that have affected hip-hop’s development, as well as considering the ways in which the work of hip-hop musicians has affected both American music and social dynamics. With its ubiquitous presence at the top of the pop music charts, in mainstream advertising, and as a component of personal style, hip-hop has established itself as one of the most significant cultural movements of the last half-century. Course will strive to explore hip-hop’s musical language in considerable depth. Through close listening and intensive analysis of a broad selection of musical examples, and through careful study of the musical techniques and aesthetics of hip-hop artists, course will offer students a detailed exploration of the dense and multi-layered hip-hop soundscape.

3 Credits
PL