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Blockseminar: 28/29 April and 23/24 June 2023
Popular music genres such as rap, reggae, hip-hop or afro beats continuously spread with the help of digital platforms, most recently TikTok, across large parts of the world. Over the decades, many popular American artists from Madonna to Miley Cyrus have incorporated, borrowed or remixed musical codes, styles, language, fashion from other parts of the world into their creative outputs. Recently, these transcultural musical exchange processes spark public debates about political correctness, cultural representation, ownership, and appropriation. Aspects such as who participated in a genres creation and to what extent (authenticity), or who is allowed to participate in it today and thus profit from its popularity are commonplace. These concerns go back to a historical experience of exploitation of marginalized musical styles and marginalized musicians, mainly people of color, Black or indigenous artists by privileged (white) colleagues, and also by superordinate societal and thus music industrial structures. At the same time, debates are often characterized by essentializations, exaggeration and simplification, which causes a stir and has a high reach in social media. The course aims at analyzing the current debates on cultural difference, representation and appropriation among the markers of race, class and gender from a cultural studies perspective by utilizing various media and musical examples.
Within the framework of the practical seminar, students have the task of creating a short multimedia presentation –using We Video or a similar tool– that weaves photographic, video, audio and text material into an interactive story. Students will learn how to realize basic digital storytelling and interactive contents and be guided technically and methodically. The development of the storyline (portfolio) takes place in cooperation with the lecturer.
Requirements: Active participation, including reading assignments, participation in class discussion, a short multimedia presentation including portfolio. |
