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From the Beats to the Bachelorette: Popular Culture Since the 1950s
Undergraduate | MAQ-MHIX3065 | 2024
Previously MAQ-MHIX365
Be there for the emergence of sixties counterculture. Immerse yourself in the eighties and hip hop. Tune into the rise of reality television. Look for the influence of gender, race and politics on pop culture across the past seven decades.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 18 weeks
HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
From the Beats to the Bachelorette: Popular Culture Since the 1950s
About this subject
On successful completion of this subject , you will be able to:
- locate, read and analyse different kinds of historical evidence (primary sources), including visual and textual sources
- devise and answer research questions drawing on primary and secondary evidence
- identify key arguments in secondary source materials and apply them in your own historical arguments
- communicate thoughtfully in classroom discussions, and in a range of written forms
- be able to identify and analyze key developments in the history of popular culture since 1945
- analyze selected examples of popular culture produced since 1945 in their historical contexts, and to describe the ways these examples relate to, and reflect, broader social, cultural and political trends
- Historians and popular culture
- Popular culture and family life
- Suburban rebels
- Youth cultures
- The sixties and the counterculture
- Black power and popular culture
- Essay workshop
- The sexual revolution and the seventies
- The eighties
- Hip-hop and black culture
- Postmodern gender cultures
- Interactivity and reality TV
This subject was previously known as MHIX365 From the Beats to Big Brother: Popular Culture Since the 1950s.
What can we learn about the past when we examine it through the lens of popular culture? This subject traces a history of popular culture in the United States of America and Australia from the 1950s to the present, exploring the ways that popular culture can magnify and reflect changing ideas about race, class, gender, and ideology. We will examine the impact of new technologies, moral panics over popular culture, and whether popular culture constituted a form of cultural citizenship. Film, television, music and other media are used in this unit to evoke seminal moments in the history of popular culture and students are encouraged to explore these non-discursive forms as primary sources. Students are also encouraged to consider the reception of popular culture by audiences and to think about their own experience of popular culture historically. This subject will be of particular interest to students in media, education, and cultural studies, as well as history.
- Analysis Task (10%)
- Weekly Quiz (25%)
- Research Project Proposal (25%)
- Research Essay (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- QS Ranking 2024:
- 10
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 10
Entry requirements
Prior study
You must have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject:
one of
MAQ-MHIX2040-Land, Life and Liberty. Australia From Pre-Contact to Nationhood (no longer available)
- MAQ-POIX2070-Governance, Power and Public Policy
and one of
Equivalent subjects
You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:
MAQ-HST370 (Not currently available)
MAQ-MHIX365 (Not currently available)
Others
NCCW (pre-2020 units) HST370, MHIS365, HIST265, HIST365, MHIX365
Pre-requisite 130cp at 1000 level or above OR (20cp in HIST or MHIS or POL or POIR or MHIX or POIX units at 2000 level)
NCCW (2020 and onwards)
MHIS3065 From the Beats to the Bachelorette: Popular Culture Since the 1950s
Additional requirements
- Other requirements -
Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
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