I think Professor Holmes is a great lecturer and the subject material is pretty interesting. You have to do weekly readings, which I skimmed/ didn't read and still got an A. The grades are made up of participation and 3 essays (2 pages double spaced). Your dis section instructor is pretty important because they grade everything (I recommend Alex Hallenbeck if he's teaching!).

This class with Professor Holmes is ICONIC! Seriously my favorite class that I have taken at UCLA up to this point. She is so awesome and knows her stuff about rock and roll. She is also very empathetic and articulates the problematic parts of the industry extremely well. All the lectures were asynchronous this quarter, but lectures on Friday were synchronous. I really enjoyed this format because I got to watch the lectures stress-free on my own time and then participate in some lively discussion sections at the end of the week. You will learn so much in this class and listen to some really great tunes as well. There are three 2-page papers due throughout the quarter and a quick additional assignment at the end. A very light workload, but definitely worth your time to do the readings and watch the lectures to learn about some pretty amazing music history.

Workload consists of 3 2-page papers, a 100-word blurb on any song, and participation in discussion. The class was asynchronous so when I didn't have time/ I wasn't interested in the material I didn't watch the lectures and it never affected my grade in any way. But I did learn some interesting things in this class and found new music! Would definitely recommend taking this class if you need the visual arts requirement!

This was by far my favorite class at UCLA!! The content of this course is extremely interesting for anyone who likes music and Professor Holmes' lectures are fun and informative. I'm interested in rock and blues music anyways so learning more about the origins and history of these genres was especially fun for me. I would highly recommend taking this class and if you can, I would suggest taking Thomas Hanslowe as your TA. He is very knowledgeable and his discussions were a lot of fun!

This was a spectacular class led by an amazingly talented professor and teaching assistants! The course consisted of three 2-page musical analysis papers throughout the quarter, where you'd analyze a song from the class playlist. There was also a 100-word blurb contribution to a "media gallery" on CCLE where students were tasked to share a song of their choice and write a short response on it. There was no midterm or final (the musical analysis papers replaced it, which were the most stress-free assignments I have ever done). Aside from that, lectures were asynchronous and based on the weekly readings (honestly reading was not necessary for success in the class) but discussion attendance does count! Despite it being mandatory, discussion was very interesting especially with TA Thomas Hanslowe! He'd whip out his guitar occasionally to demonstrate class vocabulary, musical styles, or just play a tune related to the class or not. It was awesome! Definitely recommend taking the class, especially if you're looking for a nice GE to balance out stressful STEM classes.

I was a little daunted at first because even though I heard this class was easy, I had no idea what kind of a teacher Holmes would be. Turns out Holmes is awesome. First of all, I took this class during fall quarter of 2020, so the era of COVID (hopefully someone will read this a few years from now and realize that COVID was genuinely an era of awfulness).

Anyways, I took this class remotely, so lectures were actually asynchronous! That means that she recorded her lectures and posted them on CCLE so we can watch them anytime we wanted to! Now, to be completely honest, it wasn't an ABSOLUTE necessity to watch lectures for me, because the main assessments were essays where you, the student, would have to do independent research to write a paper about a particular song. You could use information from lectures, but much of what you're writing about will require a bit of digging on the Internet.

That being said, lectures were brilliant. Engaging and interesting. I mean, what else would you expect from a class that delves into the history of rock and roll? Professor Holmes is passionate and fun with her lectures. She also ties in social issues with the lecture content, which is awesome.

Now for my TA - I had Hallenbeck. Hallenbeck's the GOAT. He's even said that he doesn't believe that grading should be harsh at UCLA because that encourages competition and discourages collaboration between students. Naturally, you'd deduce that Hallenbeck is an easy grader, and you'd be absolutely right. And I got so much more out of his easygoing approach because I was able to write about songs that I was genuinely passionate about in a way that was unique to me. He only deducts points when you don't follow instructions on the rubric (and the instructions are not at all hard to follow).

TL;DR -- TAKE. THIS. CLASS. GREAT. GE.

girl can sing!

This class makes me want to live and breathe

I absolutely adored this class, and it was definitely one of my favorite classes I have taken thus far at UCLA. Professor Holmes was awesome! I was always so engaged in the class material which I found fascinating. The assignments were not bad at all and were a great way to discuss the songs we liked most which gave them a personal touch. All in all the class was excellent and I highly recommend to anyone interested in music, no matter the genre.

This is your sign to take this class with Prof Holmes! She genuinely cares about the success of each student, was so welcoming in OH, and managed to make asynchronous class fun and enjoyable by providing fun content. She was very understanding of the difficult times (COVID, wishing us well during the stressful election times, etc.) and also didn't sugarcoat some of the rather dark parts of the music's history. I loved when she pulled from archival news clips and performances. Easy workload, so it's good to combine with other harder classes. 10/10 recommend this class!