Anthropology of Popular Music

After introductory historical overview of the development of popular music in the 30th century and presentation of historical divisions between traditional, classical and popular music, the course introduces initial popular music streams and genres (ragtime, blues, jazz, evergreen/kuplet) and their studies (Oliver, Guralnick, etc.). After the presentation of further development of popular music in decades between the world wars (swing, mixing of folk and popular music) follows the first academic analyses of popular music (Adorno and concept of standardization; theories of “mass culture”). Post-WW2 relations between popular music and social movements (subcultures), development of electronic media, music industry and concert activities. Then follows the overview of early rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, underground, rock, soul, funk, and other streams developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Besides an overview of the development of popular music since the 1970s, the course presents development of critical and analytical approaches to popular music, with accentuation on selected ethnographic examples, starting with the work of Howard Becker and Paul Willis, all to the works of Sara Cohen, Andy Bennett and Rajko Muršič. The course will introduce the work of other researchers of popular music (Richard Middleton, Philip Tagg, Peter Wicke, Alenka Barber Keršovan, Charles Keil, Steven Feld, Roy Shuker, Simon Frith, George Lipsitz…).