Tiarney Miekus, “Where The Metaphor Fails: ‘Writing about music is like dancing about architecture’”
Song Exploder: Clipping
Video: Fontana, Needle Drop: Clipping
Listen: Clipping, “The Deep”
Record Club: Jason Tougaw

Thursday, September 1
Sloan and Harding, “Meter: Outkast–‘Hey Ya'” & “Melody: Taylor Swift, ‘You Belong with Me'”
Master Class, Songwriting 101: Common Song Structures
Ann McGinnis, Basic Song Structure Infographic
Video: Kalani, Time Signatures
Song Exploder: Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Watch: Outkast, “Hey Ya” and Taylor Swift, “You Belong with Me”

Tuesday, September 6
Powers, Good Booty, Chapter 3
Ann Powers on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (How to Write about Music)
Lou Reed on Kanye West’s Yeezus (How to Write about Music)
Introduction and Expert Advice from the Album Review Chapter (How to Write about Music)
Writing Prompts: The Blind Review & Make It Better (How to Write about Music) Note: Read these to get ideas, but you do not have to do the assignments they suggest.
Video: The Needle Drop, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories
Record Club: Brendan; Responders: Katherine, Ara

Thursday, September 8
Powers, Good Booty, Chapter 4
Paul Morley on Joy Division at University College London (How to Write about Music)
Charles Aaron on Hole at Nautica Stage (How to Write about Music)
Introduction and Expert Advice from the Live Review Chapter (How to Write about Music)
Writing Prompt: The Live Review on Deadline (How to Write about Music) Note: Read these to get ideas, but you do not have to do the assignments they suggest.
All Songs Considered: New Music Friday Top 8 Albums for January 15, 2021, with Ann Powers

Tuesday, September 13
Review Workshop: Monica, Katherine, Brendan, Sadia (post by the Sunday before)
Record Club:  Jason; Responders: Monica, Alessia

Thursday, September 15
Review Workshop: Sabina, Jason, Tiffany, Ara,  (post by the Tuesday before)
Record Club: Monica; Responder:  Jason, Brendan

Tuesday, September 20
Review workshop: Randy, Latchmie, Fateha, Deborah, Alessia (post by the Sunday before)

Tuesday, October 4
No class

Tuesday, October 11
Switched on Pop: Harry Styles and the Sledgehammer Horns
Switched on Pop: It’s About Damn Time for Another Lizzo #1
Introduction to Audacity and Soundcloud
Watch in advance: Ziovo, Audacity Tutorial for Beginners
Record club: Tiffany; Responders: Fateha and Deborah

Thursday, October 13
Song Exploder: Raphael Saadiq
Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding: “Syncopation–Kendrick Lamar, “Swimming Pools (Drank)”
Watch: Kendrick Lamar, “Swimming Pools (Drank)”

Tuesday, October 18
Questlove, Music Is History, pp. 7-27 & 77-97
Powers, Good Booty, pp. 216-229
Podcast: Why Play Music?: A Conversation with Questlove and Maggie Rogers (New Yorker Radio Hour)
Record Club: Ara; Responders: Jason, Latchmie

Thursday, October 20
Introduction to Infographics
Ethan Hein, “Visualizing Music”
Ethan Hein, “This Is America”
Ethan Hein, Sample Genealogy: “Funky Drummer”
Brook Evelyn, “Track Analysis: ‘Redbone’”
Record Club: Katherine; Responders: Monica, Tiffany

Tuesday, October 25
Hishan Dahud, “30 Years of Sampling”
Joel Eastwood and Erik Hinton, “How does ‘Hamilton,’ the non stop, hip-hop Broadway sensation tap rap’s master rhymes to blur musical lines?”
Kyle Vanhemert, “GOOGLE WHIZ VISUALIZES THE BEACH BOYS’ HEAVENLY HARMONIES”

Record Club: Alessia; Responders: Tiffany, Sabina

Thursday, October 27
Sahil Chinoy and Jessia Ma, “Why Songs of the Summer Sound the Same”
Adam Neely, “Lady Gaga’s Mixed Meter Star Spangled Banner?!”
“The Indian Rock Scene” (scroll down)     
“Whitney Houston: A Life in Music” (Infographic World, Anonymous)

Tuesday, November 1
Infographic Workshop: Alessia, Sabina, Brendan  (due the Sunday before)

Thursday, November 3
Infographic workshop: Randy, Monica, Jason, Latchmie, Sadia (due the Tuesday before)

Tuesday, November 8
Infographic workshop: Tiffany, Katherine, Deborah, Fateha, Ara (due the Sunday before)
Record Club: Sadia; Responders: Latchmie, Fateha

Thursday, November 10
Tracey Thorn, From Naked at the Albert Hall, Chapter 1: A Handful of Notes, Chapter 2: Tissue and Skin and Bone
Badiene Magaziner, “What Is Vocal Phrasing and Why Is it Important?”
Watch: Everything But the Girl, “Anytown” & “Missing”; Tracey Thorn, “Sister”
Record club: Latchmie; Responders: Deborah, Brendan

Tuesday, November 15
Introduction + Advice from our Experts, “The Artist Profile” (How to Write about Music)
Tracey Thorn, From Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Signing, Chapter 6: Lead Sister, & Chapter 20: Spooked by the Beauty
Watch/Listen: The Carpenters, “Goodbye to Love”; Dusty Springfield, “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore”; Scott Walker, “Montague Terrace”
Record club: Fateha; Responders: Jason, Deborah

Thursday, November 17
Introduction + Advice from our Experts, “The Personal Essay” (How to Write about Music)
Tracey Thorn, From Naked at the Albert Hall, Chapter 19: Me and My Microphone
Hanif Abdurraqib, Chapters 1 & 2  from Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest

Tuesday, November 22 (on Zoom)
Questlove, Music Is History,  98-108  & 275-321

Thursday, November 24
No class

Tuesday, November 29
Jason King, “Michael Jackson: An Appreciation of His Talent”
Zadie Smith, “The Zen of Eminem”
Ella Cerón, “Selena Quintanilla’s Legacy as a Mexican-American Superstar”
Jason King, “Aretha Franklin Knew How to Make Us Laugh Too”
Elias Muhanna, “Mashrou’ Leila and the Night Club’s Political Power”
Record Club: Randy; Responders: Katherine, Ara

Thursday, December 1
Memoir Mixtapes: Roxanne Gay, “Ayiti”; Haroon Moghul, “How to Be a Muslim”‘; Nick Gabriel, “My Maxell Mixtape”: Timothy So, “EMS Mixtape”; Tougaw, “The One You Get”
Record Club: Deborah; Responders: Latchmie, Randy

Tuesday, December 6
Workshop: Music Terms, Essay Topics, and Portfolios
Group 1: Deborah, Jason, Sabina
Group 2: Alessia, Latchmie, Sadia
Group 3: Brendan, Katherine, Randy, Fateha
Group 4: Ara, Tiffany, Monica
Essay Drafts due (via email to your writing group and to me; bring a printed copy to class)

Thursday, December 8
Essay Workshop
Group 1: Deborah, Jason, Sabina
Group 2: Alessia, Latchmie, Sadia
Group 3: Brendan, Katherine, Randy, Fateha
Group 4: Ara, Tiffany, Monica

Tuesday, December 13
Portfolio Workshop
Group 1: Deborah, Jason, Sabina
Group 2: Alessia, Latchmie, Sadia
Group 3: Brendan, Katherine, Randy, Fateha
Group 4: Ara, Tiffany, Monica

Monday, December 19
Portfolios due (post to our site)