Module description
This module provides an in-depth critical introduction to a range of important themes, scenes, artists, groups, recordings and/or performance in popular music and explores both their impact on musical culture more broadly and their relationship to wider political, social and artistic issues.
In 2025/6, the topic is Post-War Jazz. This module explores a wide range of post-WWII jazz styles in their social and political contexts. In particular, it seeks to understand post-war jazz's position at the intersection of avant-garde and popular musical traditions. Lectures are in pairs, alternating a focus on more adventurous or experimental jazz with one on more traditional or popular styles. Rather than seeking to reaffirm the distinction between avant-garde and popular, however, our purpose will be to assess the extent to which their paths crossed, in and around jazz. We will also interrogate post-war jazz's paradoxical status as at once national and international, ‘ethnic’ and ‘universal’; and explore the careers of select post-war jazz musicians in terms of their stylistic consistency and/or eclecticism. The module will move broadly but not strictly chronologically, pairing weeks on bebop and New Orleans revival in the 1940s, cool jazz and hard bop in the 1950s, free jazz and activism in jazz in the 1960s, fusion and neoclassicism in the 1970s/80s, and world jazz and smooth jazz from the 1990s on. While the module focusses on the post-war decades, students will have an opportunity in their coursework to include examples of contemporary jazz, if they wish to do so.
Assessment details
- 2500 word essay (60%)
- Take-away 2 hour examination (40%)
Educational aims & objectives
To provide a detailed understanding of a range of important themes, scenes, artists, groups, recording and/or performances and their impact on popular music and culture.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will be able to demonstrate intellectual, transferable and practical skills appropriate to a Level 5 module and in particular will be able to demonstrate:
- A thorough understanding of a variety of important themes, scenes, artists, groups, recordings and/or performance in popular music and culture
- A good understanding of the relationship between popular music and wider social, political and artistic issues
- An ability to discuss a range of relevant scholarly texts and to make use of them in a coherent, persuasive argument.