In Dr. Michael Allemana’s Introduction to World Music course, students looked to their discussions, readings, and listenings to create their own sampling of world music. Along with their accompanying student essays, these playlists make up the class’ curated collection of world music, titled “Chronicles of Song and Society.”
“Drawing from our fruitful discussions, readings, and listenings, each student has constructed a ten-song playlist that explores a social, political, or musical theme through a critical lens. Over the quarter, students would once a week add a song to a personal playlist and write about how that song connected to the week’s readings and discussions. After collecting eight songs, the students rounded out their playlists to ten, curated an order, and then wrote an essay that explains their curatorial choices and critically examines the social, political, and musical themes and contexts that their playlist addresses. The resulting playlists that comprise this website explore a wide variety of themes and present quite a diverse collection of musical artists and songs. You will find Bollywood songs, anime music, rock performances from different locales, K-pop, and numerous other genres and styles.”
— Dr. Michael Allemana, course instructor and Teaching Fellow
Listen to the playlists and read the corresponding student essays on “Chronicles of Song and Society," including “Music: A Medium for Cathartic Expression” by Temilade Adekoya, “Around the World in 10 Songs: Through the Lens of Unity and Healing” by Oishee Chakrabarti, "Hybridity and Essentialism in Rock and Metal" by Rohan Kapoor, “Deconstructing Genre Through Hybridization” by Max Newman, and "Virtual communities through music" by Calvin Zhang.