African Popular Music Performance
MUSC 444
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| This course may be repeated for credit. |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: African Studies, African Studies Minor |
This course aims at bringing together students with diverse musical skills to explore the riches of African popular music (broadly defined to include a range of styles such as highlife, hiplife, hip-hop, dancehall, reggae, azonto, and gospel highlife) through performance. Popular music, first and foremost, is an urban genre. Its origins go back to the early 1900s when, because of European presence in the coastal areas of West Africa, and later spreading to other parts of the continent, new musical instruments, ideas, and imaginings became available. Today, popular music is the driving force of the music industry in Africa. Through intensive studio practice, reading, listening, viewing, and individual and group rehearsals, the goal of the course is twofold: to develop proficiency in African pop music performance and to become familiar with the intellectual discourse on African popular music, its interactions with traditional African music, and its role in the formation of generational identities. The course is fundamentally performance-based; hence, enrollment is limited to skilled musicians with some proficiency in singing and the following instruments: guitar, keyboard, drum sets, bass guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Performance | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (MUSC) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Auditions are required. Please contact the instructor to schedule an audition. |
| Instructor(s): Dankwa,John Times: ..T.R.. 01:20PM-02:40PM; Location: RHH109; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 15 | Permission of instructor approval will be granted by the instructor during pre-registration through the Electronic Portfolio. Click "Add to My Courses" and "To request a POI electronically, click here" to submit your request. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 3 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 2 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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