Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
During the 2026-2027 academic year, "Issues in the History of Popular Music" will explore rap, particularly in relation to certain questions and issues at the heart of current research on popular music. The course will combine a history of rap with themes as varied as economics, music technology, gender and race, autobiographical discourse, and media legitimization.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
By the end of this course, students will have mastered the main frameworks of rap history (chronology, locations, key figures, seminal works, social issues, and styles). They will be better able to contextualize and provide insightful commentary on audio clips, whether familiar or unfamiliar. Furthermore, they will have gained an awareness of a number of current socio-economic and cultural issues and will be able to formulate a relevant and critical analysis by drawing on the key elements.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
As this is not a music analysis course, it does not require any musical skills such as "solfège." However, students are expected to have a certain ability to analyze music "by ear" (particularly the ability to recognize different musical instruments).
Students must also be able to consult and understand (academic) texts and audiovisual documents in English.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lectures and seminars.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
For a general introduction to the history of jazz:
- Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop : une histoire de la génération hip-hop, traduit de l'anglais par Héloïse Esquié, préface de DJ Kool Herc, Paris, Éditions Allia, 2006.
- Karim Hammou, Une histoire du rap en France, Paris, La Découverte, 2012.
- Justin A. Williams (dir.), The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop, coll. « Cambridge Companions to Music », Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Justin D. Burton et Jason Lee Oakes (dir.), The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Music Studies, 2018.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam AND oral exam
Further information:
Depending on the number of students, the second-session exam may be an oral exam
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Contacts
cpirenne@uliege.be