ANTHRO 327

Music and Culture in Bollywood

Please note: this is archived course information from 2021 for ANTHRO 327.

Description

The Hindi-language commercial cinema (“Bollywood”) is not only one of the world’s most influential cinemas, it is also the source of Indian popular music and culture. What is more, it provides the central content and model for Indian commercial and social media. The songs of the Hindi cinema occupy an unparalleled position in popular culture and history and constitute one of the world’s largest popular music repertoires. The film scenes in which these songs appear make the Hindi cinema unique and uniquely challenging for scholars of popular music and culture.

We study the conventional, cultural and semiotic meanings of Hindi film songs and song scenes as well as the cultural and industrial processes of their creation and their place in Indian (and global) popular media streams.

As part of this course you will conduct individual and group research on specified topics, write reports on media and cultural uses of Bollywood content, and study the effects of the global media on this important alternative popular culture.

Availability 2021

Not offered in 2021; planned for 2022

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Professor Greg Booth

Assessment

Coursework only

Points

ANTHRO 327: 15 points

Prerequisites

30 points at Stage II