Heads up Swifties: NYU Clive Davis is having a course all about Taylor Swift!
Why do Taylor Swift’s fans constantly latch onto her music, even she wrote them years ago? This is because her lyrics always felt so personal, yet relatable at the same time. Well, who in here did not feel the pain in her ‘All Too Well’ lyrics?
A class talking about Taylor Swift?
If you are a devoted Swiftie, you are in for a treat! The New York University (NYU) Clive Davis Institute is now offering an entire course on this phenomenal music artist.
With the three-month short course, participants will learn about Taylor Swift‘s life and legacy, including her growth and evolution as a big name in the industry. The course will also take on discussions about youth and prodigies through Swift’s lens, and “politics of race in contemporary popular music.”
What is the goal of having a course about this artist/composer?
Below are the five objectives of this course:
- Develop an understanding and appreciation for Taylor Swift as a creative music entrepreneur;
- Learn about the legacy of pop and country songwriters that have influenced Swift as well as the discourses around “prodigies” in pop music history;
- Gain an understanding of how discourses of youth and girlhood are often exploited in the media and music industries;
- Learn about the politics of race in contemporary popular music, and to interrogate whiteness as it relates to Swift’s politics, songwriting, worldview and interactions with the wider cultural world around her;
- Develop greater sophistication in their artistic appreciation, critical thinking, research and writing skills.”
Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos will be the instructor of this class. She said that it has been her dream to teach a course in Clive Davis. Spanos also recalled that she’s been covering Taylor Swift since the start of her writing career 10 years ago. Talk about a super fan!
Clive Davis Institute chair and veteran musician Jason King instantly agreed to Spanos’ idea of having this class. He added,
To me, the class was a no-brainer when Brittany first suggested it. She’s a Taylor fan but she also understands how to contextualize her culturally, and get students to think more deeply about her and her music through the lens of gender, feminism, race, class, and other categories related to identity, and that deeper thinking is what this program is all about. She’s also an NYU alum and a former student of mine and I’ve watched her rise as a journalist and as a person and I’m so excited to bring her in.
The course began in January 26 and it will end on March 9, 2022. Clive Davis invited Swift for a class speech, although the status of that request is still pending.
Swift demonstrated her songwriting prowess early on, and her achievements still strongly continue. We think that this short course is pretty interesting since it might inspire budding musicians and composers.
Do you guys agree? NYU seems to do so.
