Survey and Application of Popular Song Styles
This course provides an overview of the contributions that songwriters have made to 20th-century American culture, analyze historical songwriting and production styles, determine characteristics of periods and genres, and apply them to new original works through songwriting assignments. Included will be the sources of, and trends in, various popular American styles, including spirituals, blues, jazz standards, show tunes, country, rock, R&B, soul, reggae, folk, and hip-hop. This course will use the basic analytical tools taught in SW-221 and SW-211 to study, analyze and apply significant popular songs and song styles.