Students study the aesthetic, cultural, and political dimensions of Chinese-language popular music in this course. (Concert of Taiwanese metal band ChthoniC; Image courtesy of I-Ta Tsai on Flickr.)
Instructor(s)
Dr. Meredith Schweig
MIT Course Number
21M.S53
As Taught In
Spring 2014
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to the major popular music cultures of the Chinese-speaking world. We will consider a wide variety of genres, from Shanghainese shidaiqu to Cantopop to Taiwanese rap, with the goal of listening beyond the notion of a monolithic "Chinese popular music" to something more dynamic, multivocal, and translocal. We will ask: What, if anything, is so "Chinese" about Chinese popular music? How does popular music participate in the formation of identities for artists and audiences in these areas? How does it enable the articulation of diverging social and political values while also facilitating meaningful connections among disparate communities? We will approach these questions through a diverse array of source materials, including sound recordings, music videos, films, and online multimedia.