Colorado College Asian Studies
Home | Curriculum | News and Events | People | Related Sites
MUSIC
208 Balinese Dance. This course, taught by a native Indonesian artist, introduces traditional Balinese dance. (One semester, extended format, blocks 1-4 and/or blocks 5-8.) (Also listed as Dance 209.) 1/4 unit - Lasmawan
223 From Bombay to Bollywood: Music and the Popular Indian Film. Since the 1930s, the presence of the film song sequence has been a hallmark of Indian popular cinema, to the extent that film song sequences and songs often play an important role in helping promote the films they appear in. This course examines how film music has helped define Bombay cinema as the global industry now known as "Bollywood", as well as how film song sequences work within and outside films' narratives to create a unique aesthetic. Although international audiences have enjoyed Bombay films and film music since the 1950s, the term "Bollywood" did not emerge until the late 1980s. Since then, it has often accompanied descriptions of Bombay films' transformation from a regional industry into a multimedia global brand- experienced through cinema; the Internet; satellite television; music and video recordings; radio; and ring tones, almost all of which feature music at their core. This viewing-intensive course surveys older as well as recent popular Bombay films and explores their film songs' stylistic conventions, context within films, and their life outside the cinema hall. In doing so, students trace the shift from Bombay to "Bollywood" as well as gain a fundamental understanding of South Asian popular culture. (Meets the Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques requirement.) (Also listed as Anthropology 222 and Music 233.) 1 unit — Bhattacharjya.
250 Popular Music from South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. This course explores popular music from South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa - as well from these regions' diasporic populations in the United States and Europe. Throughout the course, we consider how technology, mass media, and migration have over the last century shaped and still shape communities' respective cultural identities, particularly in the contemporary context of globalization. (Meets the Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques requirement.) (Also listed as Anthropology 222 and Music 232.) 1 unit - Bhattacharjya
295 Indonesian Music. Surveys Indonesian history, culture, society, religion, and aesthetic values through music. Students become familiar with a variety of Indonesian musical repertories, styles, and performance contexts, including court traditions of Java, Sunda, and Bali and village traditions throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Traditional as well as new musics are discussed. (Also listed as Music 295 and Anthropology 295.) 1 unit - Lasmawan and Levine
