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Dance Music Cultures - MUS00193C

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  • Department: Music
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Jack McNeill
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: C
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24

Module summary

This module will look at Electronic Dance Music from historiographical, sociological and practical perspectives, focusing on global Electronic Dance Music cultures spanning the last 50 years.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

This module aims to provide students with an in-depth exploration of the multifaceted and cross-disciplinary study of Electronic Dance Music Cultures (EDMCs). The historiographical development of EDMCs has been clearly documented, covering the evolution of Disco into House, the afrodiasporic Techno of Detroit and its connections with Berlin, and more contemporary global genres like Durban’s unmistakeable Gqom, and the UK’s own Drum and Bass and Jungle. The study of creative practices around the composition and production of these genres is also widespread. More recently, research has focussed towards philosophical and sociological concerns in EDMCs in the form its inclusive (and exclusionary) tendencies, intersectional perspectives on the culture, and the utopian ideals that it projects. This module will cover all of these areas, and look at how they interact with one another in the study of EDMCs.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the project all students should be able to:

  • Articulate and appraise a variety of histories and developments in Electronic Dance Music Cultures (EDMCs);
  • Critically engage with historical, sociological, and creative aspects of EDMCs;
  • Synthesise practical perspectives on EDMCs with more theoretical or conceptual concerns that contirubte to understanding of the cultures;
  • Participate in critical and analytical listening sessions and assess common tropes and idiosyncrasies across EDM genres and produce pastiche compositions;
  • Assemble historical and theoretical accounts of contemporary or historical EDMC.

In their independent work for this module, students will be required to demonstrate Learning Outcomes B1–7 and 9, 10 and/or 12 as appropriate.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark Group
Essay/coursework
Essay : Critical essay		 N/A 100 A
Essay/coursework
Critical Composition : Stylistic composition		 N/A 30 B
Essay/coursework
Critical essay		 N/A 70 B

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Option 1: Critical essay of c. 4000 words

Option 2: Stylistic composition of c. 3' (30%) and critical essay of c. 3000 words

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark Group
Essay/coursework
Essay : Critical essay		 N/A 100 A
Essay/coursework
Critical Composition : Stylistic composition		 N/A 30 B
Essay/coursework
Critical essay		 N/A 70 B

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

Brewster, Bill, and Broughton, Frank author. Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: the History of the Disc Jockey / Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. Revised edition. New York: Grove Press, 2000.

Brown, DeForrest. Assembling a Black Counter Culture / DeForrest Brown, Jr. Brooklyn, N. Y.: Primary Information, 2022.

Jori, Anita, and Martin Lucke. The New Age of Electronic Dance Music and Club Culture. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2020.

Lawrence, Tim. Love Saves the Day: a History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 / Tim Lawrence. Durham [N.C.]; London: Duke University Press, 2003

Maloney, Liam (2018) "…And House Music Was Born: Constructing a Secular Christianity of Otherness", Popular Music and Society, 41:3, pg231-249.

Rief, Silvia. Club Cultures. Vol. 48. London: Routledge, 2009.

Rietveld, H.C. (1998). This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies. Abingdon: Routledge.

Reynolds, Simon. Energy Flash: a Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture / Simon Reynolds. London: Picador, 1998.

Salkind, Micah. (2018) Do You Remember House?: Chicago’s Queer of Color Undergrounds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thornton, Sarah. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital / Sarah Thornton. Chichester, England: Polity, 2001.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.