| Course Number: | EDX 5710 S03 |
| Instructor: | Geoffrey Kim, M.S. |
| Location: | Remote Hybrid. Synchronous meetings (via zoom) on June 24 and Aug 5. Exact times will be set by the group to ensure attendance. The remainder of the course in an asynchronous format. |
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Dates and Times: |
Jun 24 - Aug 05, 2025 |
| Credits: | 3 Graduate Credits |
| Tuition: | $1,195 |
The course surveys the history of social protest within popular music from the contextual vantage point of individual songs - from Billie Holiday to Green Day and the music of modern protest movements. We will explore specific eras of history, examine the antecedents of social dissent, and analyze protest songs as a reaction to cultural movements. For each song that is studied, we will find the connections between musical style, social dissent, consumerism, political movements, or media. As a final project, each student will create their own annotated playlist that encompasses a recent social protest movement.
Audience: All public school teachers with an earned bachelor’s degree, especially teachers of music, social studies, and language arts.
Course Goals & Objectives:
Geoffrey Kim is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and teacher who specializes in jazz, pop/rock, Cuban and Brazilian music. He performs on guitar, clarinet, tres cubano, and cavaquinho and has composed music for orchestra, voice, chamber ensemble, big band, dance, theatre, and latin jazz ensemble. He currently teaches jazz guitar at the University of Vermont and has taught a class in Social Protest and Popular Music for the Castleton University Center for Schools. Other experience includes teaching at the Latin Jazz Intensive and 13+ years as a teacher at Centerpoint School, a therapeutic-alternative school for youth with social, behavioral and academic challenges. Geoff leads the Cuban/Brazilian ensemble, Guagua, and recorded 3 critically acclaimed albums including “Pan Frito” which was hailed by Seven Days Magazine as “the local jazz album of the year.”
Cost for Required Texts, if any, are not included in the course tuition.
Required Readings/Texts:
Dazed Digital. (2018, May 21). How techno became the sound of protest in Georgia. Dazed. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/41340/1/inside-bassiani-tbilisi-georgia-techno-protests
The New Yorker. (2013). The instant protest song. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-instant-protest-song
Lynskey, D. (2011). 33 revolutions per minute: A history of protest songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day. Ecco.
Martirosyan, L. (2016, August 3). Check out this cumbia response to the word feminazi. [Radio series episode]. The World. WGBH. https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-03/check-out-cumbia-response-word-feminazi
Miller, A. (2023, October 19). Macklemore’s ‘Anthem’ and the Gaza protests: A case for apolitical music. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/24153524/macklemores-anthem-gaza-protest-song-apolitical-music
Powers, A. (2020, June 5). New sounds of protest and hope. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/870259123/the-new-sounds-of-protest-and-hope
Weinstein, D. (2006). Rock protest songs: So many and so few. In I. A. N. Peddie (Ed.), The resisting muse: Popular music and social protest (pp. 3-16). Ashgate.
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