Popular Music
Popular music is both a cultural phenomenon of extraordinary reach and a set of creative practices that reward serious academic and practical study. Since the mid-twentieth century, popular music, encompassing rock, soul, hip-hop, electronic music, pop, R&B, and their many variants and hybrids, has become one of the dominant forces in global culture, shaping identity, politics, fashion, language, and the experience of everyday life for billions of people. Studying popular music at degree level means engaging with both the making of music and the critical understanding of what music does, where it comes from, and why it matters.
At Nottingham Trent University you will study this three-year full-time degree with a typical entry tariff of 120 points. The programme combines practical music-making with critical and contextual study, developing your abilities as a performer, producer, or songwriter alongside your understanding of popular music history, theory, industry, and cultural significance. You will work in recording studios and performance spaces, developing your skills on your primary instrument or in production and songwriting.
Contextual study takes you through the history of popular music from its roots in blues, gospel, and folk through to contemporary genres, examining how music reflects and shapes the societies in which it is made. The music industry dimension of the programme introduces you to the commercial, legal, and technological contexts in which popular music is now produced and distributed.
Graduates from popular music programmes pursue careers as performers, session musicians, songwriters, record producers, sound engineers, music managers, music journalists, and arts educators. Many build portfolio careers that combine multiple roles, as most music professionals do. The music industry knowledge developed during the degree is also valuable in music publishing, streaming, and the wider entertainment sector.
Further study in music, music technology, or arts management is taken by some graduates who wish to specialise or develop their practice further.