Programme

The course aims to provide students with theoretical and methodological tools to focus on popular music since its inception, as part of the industrial revolution, to our days. Starting from the very same definition of "popular music", the meaning of the expression itself will be clarified, especially in relation to the Italian use of the word "popolare" and to the other Italian terms utilized for music of this kind ("folk", "traditional" and the likes). Next to that, the context which gave birth to popular music will be explored (urbanization, technological development, the spread of mass media) to follow its history along the whole Twentieth century and the first decades of the new century in relation to the folk, jazz and classical tradition.
Given to the multidimensional nature of the object, the course adopts a multidisciplinary perspective, which necessarily needs not only musicological and ethnomusicological resources but also sociological and anthropological ones.
The programme, by means of audio and video materials (and with maps, records and music scores), will handle the different genres which make up popular music, both in the West and in the rest of the world, and with the environment in which they took place (theatres, café-chantants, cabarets). The relationship between oral and written music, the advent of recording, the birth of the microphone, the electrification and the amplification of musical instruments, the creative use of the recording studio, the relationship between music and noise will also be discussed: namely, all that makes popular music what it is today.
Lots of space will be given to the break-in of African American music genres, with their peculiar features and their lexicon (swing, groove, riff etc.) for the strong influence they had on rock music (a genre which will be analyzed in detail even in its spectacular component). Last but not least, we will be discussing the folk music revival, in its national variants, and with its evolution in what was called "world music".
Italian song will also be dealt with, including the "fracture" caused by the "cantautori" ("singer-songwriters").

Core Documentation

Fabbri Franco, Storia della popular music, Utet, Torino 2016.
Mignogna Dino, La musica possibile, Arcana, Roma 2022.

Reference Bibliography

Adorno Th. W., Introduzione alla sociologia della musica, Einaudi, Torino 1971. Adorno Th.W., Sulla Popular Music, Armando Editore, Roma 2004. Attali Jacques, Rumori, Mazzotta, Milano 1978. Bernieri Claudio, Non sparate sul cantautore, Mazzotta, Milano 1978. Borgna Gianni, La grande evasione. Storia del Festival di Sanremo: 30 anni di costume italiano, Savelli 1980. Borgna Gianni, Storia della canzone italiana, Mondadori, Milano 1992. Cappelli Gaetano – Cappelli Tomangelo, Minimal, Trance Music e elettronica incolta, Stampa Alternativa, Viterbo 1982. Carrera Alessandro, Musica e pubblico giovanile, Feltrinelli, Milano 1980. Cerchiari Luca, Il disco, Sansoni, Milano 2001. Cerchiari Luca, Civiltà musicale afro-americana, Mondadori, Milano 1999. Eisemberg Evan, L’angelo con il fonografo, Instar Libri, Torino 1997. Fasce Ferdinando, La musica nel tempo. Una storia dei Beatles, Einaudi 2018. Frith Simon, Sociologia del rock, Feltrinelli, Milano 1982. Gentilucci Armando, Introduzione alla musica elettronica, Feltrinelli, Milano 1972. Gillett Charlie, The Sound of the City, Edizioni Lakota, Roma 1989. Gilroy Paul, The Black Atlantic, Meltemi, Sesto San Giovanni 2019. Goddard Françoise E., La voce, Franco Muzzio editore, Padova 1985. Kajanová Yvetta, Musica Rock, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2021. Jona Emilio, Le canzonette che fecero l’Italia, Longanesi, Milano 1962. Jones LeRoi, Il popolo del blues, Shake Edizioni, Milano 2010. Libro bianco sul pop italiano, Arcana Editrice, Roma 1976. Middleton Richard, Studiare la Popular Music, Feltrinelli, Milano 2001. Musiche/Realtà (Generi musicali/Media/Popular Music), Quaderni di M/R 23, Edizioni Unicopli Milano 1989. Prato Paolo, La musica italiana, Donzelli, Roma 2010. Santoianni Chiara, Popular Music e comunicazioni di massa, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Napoli 1993. Scarnecchia Paolo, Musica popolare e musica colta, Jaca Book, Milano 2000. Sibilla Gianni, L’industria musicale, Carocci editore, Roma 2006. Silva Francesco – Ramello Giovanni (a cura di), Dal vinile a internet, Edizioni della Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, Torino 1999. Tagg Philip, Popular Music Da Kojak al rave, Clueb, Bologna 1994. Vacca Giovanni, Memorie della canzone francese, LIM, Lucca 2022. Viscardi Rosa, Popular Music, Ellissi, Napoli 2004. Walker John A., L’immagine pop. Musica e arti visive, EDT, Torino 1994.

Type of evaluation

Students need to show they understood and critically reworked the content of the lessons.