TAKE THIS CLASS FOR A GE! This class was generally pretty easy. No midterms or final, just 3 papers and a final paper. Ruskin was pretty boring during lecture, so I didn't feel the need to come to class since our papers were opinion-based and basically had nothing to do with lecture. The only lecture that was interesting was when Ruskin brought in a guest Bollywood lecture. He also cancelled class for all of Week 1 and a couple more times throughout the quarter, so I wasn't used to waking up at 9am to go to class. He does require you to go to discussion, and there is one listening quiz on the songs we talked about in class, but it is a VERY small percentage of your grade. I believe the quiz was about 1% of your grade and I skipped discussion 2-3 times and still got an A. My TA (Maya Blair) was a pretty forgiving grader. I am very STEM-oriented and did not give very strong opinions on the topics given, but as long as you have correct formatting and grammar you should get a good grade.

i hated going to lectures so much expect for the occasional musical performances. they were just so long and weary and i almost never paid attention because prof is really unengaging. HOWEVER, it is such an easy class that you can absolutely grab an A. I actually enjoyed and looked forward to going to section (shoutout my TA Learsi) cuz it was so much fun and you actually made a connection to your own taste in music. The papers were fun to write, and the final project was to curate a playlist surrounding a topic of your own choosing and your own connection to the songs and the topic. the assignments were very personal and it is hard to bomb them. i just hated lectures, everything else was so easy and fun.

Doesn't require attendance, the class is not interesting, for lecture and section. An easy A, but very boring

This class is an easy GE. You just have 3 papers to write and an attendance Grade for discussion and readings you can preview to talk about. The professor is very passionate about the material and his lectures are more of a conversation but still the few times i actually attended it was an interesting conversation. Definitely recommend if you want something light.