There is a great chance that you all consume music in a very different way than your parents and certainly your grandparents. Music today is often made in bedrooms on digital audio work stations (DAWs); Billie Eilish’s debut is perhaps the most famous example of this paradigm. Today, there is perhaps more new recorded music than ever before, yet it is hard to find on Bandcamp or on streaming services. Record companies have largely become archives for legacy acts and much music beyond rap and pop have become museum pieces. This is a relatively new development considering the long history of music publishing.
This course will explore how music has been disseminated since the advent of what could be considered ‘popular’ music in the mid-19th century. From sheet music to the beginnings of recording, an industry developed including various parties. Throughout the historical developments of the music industry, notions of authorship, ownership, race, money, sex and the concept of companies and artists as arbiters of culture and popularity have all figured prominently. We will be considering different periods of recording and examining how the industry moved from sheet music to media conglomerates to streaming.
An avid interest in music is not necessarily a prerequisite but certainly desired. |
