Popular Music offers students hands-on experiences

Dr. McCusker talks her students through some of the themes found in music as it relates to the industrial revolution.

Students from on and off campus can get a hands-on experience at the Center for Popular Music each semester. CPM librarian Lindsay Million and staff members are happy to offer student tours of the CPM, located in the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, Room 140. These tours include a brief presentation about the Center for Popular Music, its mission and the sorts of materials that are housed there, as well as a visit to the closed stacks in the archive.

Students are given the opportunity to handle and examine primary source materials. Some class sessions can even include a cylinder recording demonstration by the Center’s very own Curator of Recorded Media Collections, Martin Fisher.

The CPM staff members are happy to work with professors and instructors to tailor each presentation to a particular topic based on historical period, musical genre or other class subjects. They often work with faculty to create assignments for classes to complete using CPM materials. Just in the last month, the Center welcomed a U.S. History class that used primary sources to learn about the industrial revolution. Another class, part of the African American Studies program, learned about minstrelsy by looking at various items found in the collection.

Please contact the Center today to schedule a tour. Click here.

Curator of Recorded Media Collections Martin Fisher explains a cylinder recording to students in a History of Recording Industry class.