BA (Hons) Music: Popular Musicology

This module develops both your individual and ensemble instrumental ability. You will receive weekly one-to-one instrumental tuition from a specialist tutor, focusing on technique and its application across a broad range of repertoire. You will also join one of the many Ensembles within the Directorate, including Popular Music Choir, Big Band, Brass Band, Wind Band and Classical Choir.

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This module aims to provide the theoretical foundations for all further areas of study. You will learn to recognise and confidently use fundamental theoretical terms in your work, notate all perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished intervals, and identify and notate a range of basic chords and progressions. The assessment requires you to compose idiomatic music incorporating all these elements. You will also develop your Aural and Transcription skills with focused ear training tuition.

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This module will equip you with the necessary analytical skills, IT skills and research techniques to complete written academic assignments. You will analyse a broad range of musical styles within the Popular, Jazz and Classical idioms. It will provide you with the appropriate reference framework from which to critically evaluate examples of these styles, as well as the use of harmonic and analytical terminology within the discussion of music.

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This module consolidates and expands the instrumental skills developed in semester one, with a continuation of the weekly one-to-one instrumental tuition with your specialist tutor. For your assessed Ensemble activity you will have the option to form your own Popular Music group, or join Big Band, Brass Band, Wind Band or Classical Choir.

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This module builds upon the theoretical knowledge from within semester one, introducing more advanced concepts and techniques including extended chord progressions, notation and recognition of diatonic melodic lines, moving bass lines, and complex rhythmic patterns, and SATB scoring. You will also receive further ear training within the Aural and Transcription tuition.

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This module introduces software based solutions for recording and composition. You will learn to notate musical ideas appropriately with respect to instrumentation and genre and to identify appropriate software pathway to communicate musical ideas effectively. You will work with notation, sequencing and recording interfaces and interrogate the relationship between them.

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Available in the PM and M pathways, this module develops reading and writing skills appropriate for academic work using a variety of core musicological texts. You will be introduced to key issues in the subject of contemporary popular musicology and gain practice in the evaluation of arguments and evidence.

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Available in the PMR, PM and IMSP pathways, this module provides an overview of the history of English-language popular music and interrogates and problematises the concept of genre in popular music. You will develop an understanding of music style analysis and improve your aural skills.

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Available in the PM pathway, this module develops knowledge of advanced popular music theory and identifies key concepts relating to the parameters of rhythm, melody, harmony, form and structure, timbre, and texture. You will gain a working knowledge of relevant transcription techniques/methods and improve aural awareness through critical listening and individual keyboard lessons.

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Available in the M and PM pathways, this module introduces a variety of materials available for research in music. You will be given practice in the use of these materials for academic work and develop independence in matters of research and problem solving.

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Available in the PMR, PM and IMSP pathways, this module explores the social, political, and economic contexts impacting upon the production of popular music. It presents key ideas from Culture Theory, Critical Theory, and Postmodernism in order to understand popular music in these various cultural contexts. You will be introduced to a systematic and rigorous method by which to critically examine popular music and develop abstract thinking.

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Available in the PM pathway, this module introduces appropriate methodologies for the textual analysis of popular music and enhances awareness of the relationship between musical texts and the wider culture they exist in. You will develop an understanding of semiotic theory, intertextuality and transtextuality, and apply music theory and transcription skills to interpretative analyses.

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Available on the PM and M pathways, this module provides an historical overview of developments in music technology since 1877, explaining how those developments have influenced the artistic and commercial production of popular music. It facilitates the analysis of popular music recordings from a technological perspective.

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Available in the PM and M pathways, this module explores the relationship between various forms of music and the media. You will examine music within a variety of media contexts and apply media theories to everyday examples.

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Available in the PMR and PM pathways, this module explores ways in which gender and ethnicity are constructed in popular music texts and develops an awareness of international musics, including instruments, styles, and patterns of organisation. You will apply analytical critique to a range of repertoire and engage with cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of music.

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Core to all pathways, this module provides an in-depth examination of the UK creative economy, focusing on current economic and professional structures and potential development. You will explore concepts of copyright, authorship and ownership and gain an understanding of the processes involved in successful personal development planning.

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Available in the PMR, PM and M pathways, this module provides an overview of journalistic methodologies as applied to the fields of music and the music industry. You will examine and construct a variety of forms of journalistic output as related to music and  develop a critical understanding of the interrelationship between market, industry and culture.

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Available in the PMR, PM and M pathways, this module develops an understanding of the scope, methods and aims of Ethnomusicology with reference to the historical development of the subject; the analysis of music in culture and music as culture with special reference to enculturation and acculturation, the stature of the musician in society and cultural identity. You will develop performance skills and an understanding of a musical tradition from outside your own practical musical experience.

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Available in the PMR and PM pathways, this module consolidates and extends ideas and theories introduced in Interpreting Popular Music. It develops skills in research methodology and in self-management and provides practice in the presentation of short papers. You will apply theoretical models and methodological techniques to investigative research and learn how to defend critiques and analyses.

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Available in all pathways, this module is designed to enhance an artistic skills base in two areas of specialist study. It assists the realisation of creative work that will feed into the negotiated major project and encourages the exhibition of a high level of individuality, versatility and confidence within the chosen fields.

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Available in the PMR, PM and M pathways, this module develops professional practices by broadening work experience in areas requiring a leadership and/or team role. You will gain experience in one of the following areas of professional practice: band management and promotion, arts administration, musical directing, business enterprise and community music in its broadest sense.

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Core to all pathways, this module enables the completion of a comprehensive project encompassing two areas of specialist study. It assists the realisation of creative work (practical and/or written), encourages the development of a personal style within the chosen fields of study, and hones your artistic and academic skills base.

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