La música como fenómeno sociocultural (19BBA00844)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	2 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Eduardo Muraca	Ciencias Sociales	ESP

In-class sessions: 18 hours
Independent study (time to explore, research and create new knowledge): 32 hours

Music is extremely important in our lives: it influences how we live and feel life¿s different moments. It is capable of generating unique experiences that we can recall immediately simply by hearing the associated notes. This dimension explains, in part, our need to consume music and, as a result, the importance of an industry which generates millions of dollars every day. In addition, music is a very powerful means of communication, which lays it all on the line in powerful economic and business scenarios such as advertising and boutique shopping. These are all examples of ¿music in society¿, phenomena about which we generally don¿t know too much. However, they can help to open a door to better comprehend communications in marketing, for example, or how the music industry works.

In this subject, students will learn about some of the key concepts and theories which, from different areas of knowledge (music, sociology, history and aesthetics), provide keys to understand how music in society functions: the type of existing music, how it¿s developed and what it¿s principle traits, uses and functions are. Through class participation in lecture sessions with a participatory structure and practical exercises based on research and individual reflection both inside and outside of class, students will have a more complex musical vision by the end of this subject. This will help them to establish connections with different future activity areas as executives.

If you are interested in exploring music, its characteristics and functions in depth through visual, sound and audiovisual documents as well as actively participating in personal research tasks in this area, this course is for you.

Upon completing this subject, students will have learnt to:
- Appreciate the keys to music, its traits and functions throughout its history, all with visual, sound and audiovisual documents from its beginnings to today.
- Interpret information and generate personal knowledge to understand specific musical aspects and its socio-cultural dimensions.
- Personally research questions related to specific aspects of music in society.
- Open a door for future reflections on the subject matter and connect these to their own professional and personal interests.

1. Concepts linked to music as a socio-cultural phenomenon Music in society is a little-known phenomenon. Despite its omnipresence, music and its different dimensions (social, cultural and aesthetic, amongst others) are not easily accessible for those who don¿t specialise in this area. This hinders an in-depth understanding of music as a life experience, in addition to making it difficult to interrelate music and other areas of knowledge such as politics, economics, industry, trade and communications. This subject will examine concepts related to music as a socio-cultural phenomenon in the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular: - Its historical setting - Technical concepts - Music¿s communicative dimensions and its reception - Transmitting and communication knowledge about music - Material instrument industry - Editorial industry (distribution and formats) - Live music industry

2. Learning tools As mentioned in the methodology section, this seminar/research workshop will address data and concepts related to understanding music in society. Faculty will propose different activities to help students to generate their own knowledge. Concretely, these activities include: participating in the thematic sessions to acquire quality knowledge and information and explore music across its different dimensions. To help students make the most of these learning opportunities, they will have access to different tools, for example, guidelines to help them to focus on the process of discovering, learning and knowing.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Group	Teacher	Department
	Eduardo Muraca	Ciencias Sociales