Popular Music and Sonic Cultures

The MA track Popular Music and Sonic Cultures examines music and audio cultures within global and local contexts. Unique in its kind, it combines attention for creative practice and music analysis with a wide array of methodological and theoretical approaches at a World Top 100 university.
Students are guided by an internationally recognized faculty of scholars whose specializations and research range from hip hop, R & B, and electronic dance music to jazz, music video, soundscape, video game, dance, and theatrical sound design. These scholars offer insight into the music industry, and the field of music criticism, and from a variety of perspectives which address the key approaches and challenges of our times. In the various courses and internships, students will develop highly relevant and transferable skills that prepare them for a professional future in the popular and contemporary music world.This programme focuses on cutting edge developments in popular music including the impact of new media upon modes of creativity, distribution, and reception. Through applying a range of theoretical approaches, the programme will offer students an in-depth understanding of how such processes affect musicians and the music industries in light of rapidly changing economic, political, and technological structures.

Students critically examine the organization, experience, and creati