Music Appreciation: History of Music Genres & Cultural Identities

Music Appreciation is an introductory course to music. Student will explore music’s various functionalities to gain deeper understanding and appreciation for all types of music. The course begins by examining basic music literacy and core musical elements such as melody, rhythm, harmony, form, and texture. This class is a general but in-depth survey of the major styles, periods, and influence streams that make up the extremely large and varied categories of music to include Classical, Rock, Pop, Hip Hop, Rap and Reggae. The text covers many styles, but focus is on mainstream popular music, produced between circa 1954 until present. By the end of the course students will have a greater understanding of where the music came from (historically), what it is doing (musically), and how it was created (technologically).