The Clive Davis Institute at New York University has created its first-ever Taylor Swift course, which will run from January 26 to March 9.
According to a representative for the program, the course will address Swift’s progress as a creative music entrepreneur, the heritage of pop and country composers, discourses of youth and girlhood, and the politics of race in current popular music. Swift has been invited to speak to the class, but no decision has been made yet.
Questlove, Dan Charnas, Q-Tip, famed producer-engineer Bob Power, and others have taught workshops at the Davis Institute, which is chaired by veteran music journalist and musician Jason King.
“Through thorough readings of Taylor Swift’s music and public discourse as it pertains to her own progress as an artist and a celebrity, this course seeks to deconstruct both the attraction and aversions to Taylor Swift,” according to the course description. The class digs into analyses of teen girlhood culture and politics in pop music, fandom, media studies, whiteness, and power as it pertains to her image and the images of others who have come before and behind her through readings, lectures, and other activities. Copyright and ownership, American nationalism, and the continuing effect of social media on the pop music industry will all be discussed.
“When Brittany originally offered the class, it was a no-brainer to me,” King says to Variety. “She’s a Taylor fan, but she also knows how to put her in context culturally, and how to inspire students to think more deeply about her and her music through the lenses of gender, feminism, racism, and class, as well as other categories connected to identity, which is exactly what this program is about. She’s NYU alumni and a former student of mine, and I’ve watched her blossom as a journalist and as a person, and I’m thrilled to welcome her.”
Source:www.variety.com
