Studies in Experimental Pop

Since the 1960s, pop music has been a zone in
which experimental, avant-garde impulses have
coexisted with commercial and hedonistic
imperatives. In this course, we will look at
artists who have imported ideas and techniques
from the music academy or from visual arts schools
into song-based, danceable entertainment aimed
principally at young people. But we'll also be
exploring the experimentalism already embedded
within mainstream pop itself - the use and abuse
of new technology to create startling sounds that
are genuinely radical but also work on another
level as gimmicks that make a record stand out on
the radio and the dancefloor.

These mixed motives - stretching the boundaries of
sound versus commercialism, inventing the future
versus beating the competition - point to a vital
impurity intrinsic to pop. As well as iconic
figures of art-into-pop like the Beatles or David
Bowie, this semester we'll be paying particular
attention to "street" genres such as trap, grime,
Jamaican styles from dub to dancehall, and so
forth - scenes and styles that don't necessarily
use artworld discourse to describe their process
but share the same drive to create disruptive
sounds, use technology "incorrectly", incorporate
improvisation and error into the creative process.
Who gets to call themselves "experimental' and how
does that affect the framing and reception of
their music?

Although the primary focus of the course is on
sonic innovation, pop is inherently an
audio-visual form -even an audio-visual-textual
form, given the importance of lyrics, as well as
public statements and artistic rationales.
Experimental impulses rarely limit themselves to
music alone but manifest in promo videos and
visual albums, record artwork, performance, style
and costume, even marketing. Can there be such
thing as an experimental or innovative pop
personality? Fame and publicity can be a medium
for artistic expression and provocation, as the
careers of David Bowie, Prince, and Lady Gaga
illustrate.