Summer Project: 

Our project consisted of a broad exploration of genre and boundaries. In early discussions, questions emerged about how we might, as listeners, discern historical/cultural information about music. Put another way: how do we know what genre we're listening to? When does music of one genre become another? How can genre be helpful in understanding music, and when does it come up short? 

Students explored a series of musical parameters (tempo, rhythm, melody/pitch, texture, and instrumentation) through discussion and making. Creating musical textures in Google's Chromelab, experimenting with tempo/instrumentation in Bandlab (a continuation of our work in the school year),  learning about rhythms in cumbia and hip hop, and robust conversations about melody and pitch all converged to approach a stronger understanding of the variable "stuff" of music. While our activities and discussions often revolved around abstract musical parameters, students were always encouraged to consider the historical, geographic, cultural, and political context of music in assessing and understanding genre.

Our final project invited students to invent their own musical genre and create music in that style. While most students didn't end up finishing this activity, beginning the process gave students some new and concrete starting considerations for their music (what tempo feels right for this music? as opposed to defaulting to the given project tempo in Bandlab, etc). 

On our last day, we went to Reckless Records in Wicker Park. This was an opportunity to explore records of different genres, see how Reckless organized their wares according to genre, and also pick up some new music for us to take home. Given the abstractness and magnitude of the question of genre, it was a fun culmination to use our knowledge of genre more casually to navigate a record store.