Not sure why I’m leaving a review, all the reviews below are accurate. I guess I’m here to reiterate that Jessica Schwartz’s teaching is so incredibly bad, that our TAs had to report her to the department chair. I took this class solely because I knew both of the TAs were amazing, and I ignored all the Bruinwalk reviews...but please, I cannot stress this enough: do NOT take a class with Jessica Schwartz. What the hell was this class? Genuinely, what the hell? It’s too bad, because some of us really wanted to learn. I literally had no idea what she was talking about all quarter. Her “teaching” style, if you can call it that, made absolutely no sense to anyone but her. Truly the most unorganized and unprepared (and honestly, most annoying) professor I’ve ever seen, and yet she acts like it’s all part of her grand plan. She provided us with no guidance. She would tell us to do readings or assignments and then never bring them up again. She speaks for two straight hours about absolutely nothing of substance. Her vagueness drove me NUTS. I am shocked to see she’s been teaching this class for so long.

By all means read all the negative reviews of this class ('bruh this is the worst class ever' etc) which are posted below but I would suggest that before you jump to any conclusions, ask yourself- how does one teach 'punk'? Professor Schwartz introduced this question and made us answer it for ourselves, prompting us to question our assumptions about the genre and investigate why punk music exists. THAT is punk. If you want a typical survey style music history course in which you are fed information to regurgitate on tests, don't take this class. If you like punk music and culture and want to think about what it stands for, you will probably love this class.

The class overall was easy. However, the modules were very time consuming and rather odd. I rarely attending class because it was not really necessary. Our final paper required outside research and the discussion were centered around reading that did not always overlap with the lectures. The professor was highly entertaining, but I just was not as interested by the material than I thought I would be.

I thought I liked music, but apparently, I did not like it enough to really enjoy this class.
If you are not a true fan of punk or musical analysis, I would dissuade you from taking this class. Why? This class is mostly memory-based, so it will be a nightmare if you are not extremely interested in the class to begin with. I know that was the case for me.
As far as teaching goes, I don't think Professor Schwartz is a very good lecturer. Her powerpoints are filled with words(many copied directly from primary sources), and she does not speak very clearly. She has a way of making simple sentences very complicated.
All in all, though, I think Prof. Schwartz really do care about this class and her students. Her TAs tend to be very great too!

I really enjoyed this class. I never really listened to punk music that much (Before this class I was only exposed to mainstream pop punk bands) so this class really introduced a lot of punk background and history to me.

Professor Schwartz gives engaging lectures and gets the material across decently with slides but the second half of the quarter we switched to another classroom and the screen was small as heck and her slides became unreadable. Other than that as long as you pay attention to lecture (or just have general knowledge of punk history already) and listen to the songs she plays during lecture you should do well in this class.

The readings weren't really necessary and the TAs are pretty chill about grading. I would definitely recommend this class if you're interested in punk.

I thought this class was okay. I was actually pretty excited to take the class because of the topic but I felt a bit let down by it. Professor Schwartz was an okay professor. She was a bit disorganized at times, mainly during the last half of the quarter. She was very friendly and approachable though. The class consisted of a midterm, final paper, final exam, creative project and class discussion. Discussion did count towards the grade . All parts were pretty doable. You get the questions that will be on both exams before hand to study so that was helpful. There is a listening section on both exams in which she basically tests your memorization of the specific bands you hear in class. Apparently a lot of people missed the most points in that section so study up.

She also gives a decent amount of time to complete the project and the paper, the paper wasn't due until after finals week. There were also some guest speakers all of which were great. My personal favorite was the all female panel. My TA was Albert(strongly recommend); he was very cool and friendly. He even got us donuts the last day of discussion but the other TA(Scott) seemed pretty cool too.

Overall the class was okay. Also, it is not curved so you have to put in time/work for a good grade.

Schwartz is a really fun professor who loves punk and has a great personality. Lectures could be a bit disorganized sometimes but they were always engaging and interesting. Workload was super light and this class was an easy A (p.s. you don't need to do the readings). I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a Visual & Performing Arts GE.

Schwartz is pretty cool and the material is interesting, but she's new to teaching and it kind of shows. The whole second half of the class was totally not planned ahead of time, which made it a lot more disorganized and more difficult to study for the final. Overall an easy A if you're into the topic.

Music History 13: Punk Music, History, and Subculture was one of my favorite classes at UCLA. The lectures are very organized and engaging. We go in depth on various punk scenes in the United States and internationally. I'd highly recommend taking this class if you have an interest in punk or music history.