LET OP: dit gastcollege is engelstalig.

The Role of Women in Popular Music: From the Classic Blues Singer to the Global Pop Star
Women have long played a pivotal role in popular music from the first classic blues singers such as Bessie Smith in the 1920s to the internationally digitally mediated pop divas of today. This course highlights the ways that these talented performers have carved out performance careers within many different musical genres, all the while coping with the obstacles presented to them such as sexism or the demands for extreme beauty and youth. In this course, we look at the recordings and films of the classic blues singers of the Jazz Age, then move to the all-girl groups of the 1960s and travel to the 1990s to review the role of women artists in alternative music and as singer songwriters. Finally we examine how the contemporary digital climate of music video has provided new opportunities for today’s dance-oriented international pop stars.