[UConn Storrs]

The use of music for political ends has a long history, but the relationship between popular songs and political institutions, ideas, and movements has become more prevalent in the 20th and 21st centuries. In this course, you will explore influential political theories from the modern era and the relationships of those theories to musical genres such as hip-hop, pop, punk, reggae, folk, and rock. You and your classmates will also conduct original research examining the connections between the lyrics of popular songs and ideas about the state of nature, classical liberalism, feminism, racial equality, communism, anarchism, and conservatism. This interdisciplinary course draws upon normative political theory, empirical political science, psychology, communications, musicology, ethnomusicology, masculinity studies, and public ethics.

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