Creativity in Popular Music - MUS00200C
- Department: Music
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2026-27
Module summary
This module explores creativity in popular music as a socially situated and continually evolving practice, informed by ethnomusicological, cultural, and popular music studies perspectives and practices. Emphasis is placed on the ways creative processes are shaped by individuals, communities, subcultures, technologies, and the broader social and industrial contexts in which popular music circulates. In addition, the module briefly touches on pedagogical approaches to creativity, encouraging students to understand how creative skills are learned, developed, and shared within popular music cultures. This supports employability by helping students develop transferable skills, such as collaboration, which are highly valued in the music and creative industries. Although theoretically grounded, the module maintains a practical orientation, incorporating critical listening, hands-on exploration of creative approaches, individual reflection, and music-making activities to develop an embodied understanding of creativity in practice.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2026-27 |
Module aims
This module aims to develop students’ critical and practical understanding of creative processes in popular music by examining how musical ideas are generated, shaped, transformed and refined within specific social, cultural, technological, and industrial contexts. This involves familiarisation with key theoretical and disciplinary perspectives on creativity drawn from ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and popular music studies, encouraging students to use these perspectives to analyse creative practices, artefacts, and scenes. The module also aims to support students in reflecting on their own creative processes and decisions, fostering an awareness of how creative skills are learned, re-elaborated and developed, and shared within popular music cultures. Through a combination of critical listening, discussion, hands-on activities, and music-making, the module aims to cultivate an integrated, reflective, and practice-informed approach to understanding creativity in popular music.
Module learning outcomes
Students will understand key concepts, frameworks, and debates surrounding creative processes in popular music. This will involve examining creativity as a socially and culturally situated process; exploring the role of genres, subcultures, identity, and collaboration in shaping creative practice; considering the impact of technologies and studio environments on musical creativity; and engaging with issues relating to authorship, reinterpretation, and the popular music industry. Students will also develop an awareness of selected pedagogical perspectives on creativity in popular music and how creative practices are learned and transmitted within musical communities.
Academic and Graduate Skills
- Ability to understand and apply key ideas, concepts, and theoretical perspectives relating to creativity in popular music;
- Ability to analyse and evaluate individual and community-based creative practices using scholarly frameworks;
- Ability to reflect critically on one’s own creative processes and relate them to relevant conceptual and cultural perspectives;
- Ability to demonstrate practical competence associated with these understandings and skills through creative work, oral discussion, and written communication.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
A short creative musical artefact (e.g. song demo; performance video; song collage) accompanied by a 1000-word commentary that draws on the conceptual and practical perspectives explored in the module. This commentary should demonstrate how the student’s creative decisions relate to relevant concepts, frameworks, and debates in creativity studies and popular music scholarship.
Or
Analytical essay (2,000 words) examining creativity in popular music in a selected artist, production, or scene, including a reflective component
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
Report with marks and feedback within University standard turnaround time.
Indicative reading
Bennett, J. (2011). Collaborative songwriting – the ontology of negotiated creativity in popular music studio practice, Journal on the Art of Record Production, 5.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Implications of a systems perspective for the study of creativity. In Sternberg, R.J. (Ed.). Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 313–336.
Dale, P. (2016). Popular Music and the Politics of Novelty. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Davies, R. (2024). Repetition and Performance in the Recording Studio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Elements in Twenty-First Century Music Practice).
Green, L. (2002). How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education. London: Routledge (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series).
Haddon, M. (2020). What Is Post-Punk?: Genre and Identity in Avant-Garde Popular Music, 1977-82. London: University of Michigan Press.
Heiser, M. (2023). Popular Music, Power and Play: Reframing Creative Practice. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
McIntyre, P. (2006). Paul McCartney and the creation of “Yesterday”: the systems model in operation, Popular Music, 25(2), pp. 201–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3877559
Negus, K. (1999). Music Genres and Corporate Cultures. 1st edition. Routledge.
Thompson, P. (2019). Creativity in the Recording Studio: Alternative Takes. Palgrave Macmillan.
Toynbee, J. (2000). Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity and Institutions. London: Bloomsbury Academic.