1980s popular music genres and the battle for the ’soul of rock’, 7 times 2 h, total 14 hours, period III and IV, 19.3.-14.5.
This course will take a look at the wide and various styles and discourses of 1980s popular music genres, and from the point of view, how this decade questioned the 1960s-based rock-canon and -history, inspired by the punk- and post-punk revolution. The proliferation and diversification of genres and musical styles (dance: e.g. synth- and electropop, disco, Britsoul, acid house, rap and hiphop; rock: e.g. post-punk, metal, indiepop, industrial, goth), often overlapping and interacting with each other, will be connected to the acts, stars and groups defining the decade.
Popular and cultural historical context (beginning of the neoliberal era, politics and ideologies, media revolution and ’style bibles’, heritage-culture and advertising, birth of MTV and music videos, sampling and new audiovisual technology) will help to understand the philosophy and style of genres, as well as their connections to the 1980s lifestyles and sub- and youth-cultures.
- Teacher: Kari Kallioniemi