I took LGBTQ Perspectives in Pop Music (M137) in Fall 2009 and I have to say this class was much harder than I expected. That's not to say it wasn't interesting. I enjoyed this class very very much because of the amazing amount of information Professor Morris knows about the subject. However, there is so much work involved that it's ridiculous. There is reading every week, three papers that each have a couple papers within them, and homework assignments for the discussion. On top of that, both the midterm and the final have several parts, one of which requires you to write essays. He will give you all possible essay prompts (5-7) and want you to write well thought out, long essays and memorize all of them and then write two or three on the test! As I said, it is a lot of work. If you like music and think you can handle the work, then I recommend the class.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I took MUS HIST m137: LGBTQ Perspectives in Pop Music F09. I feel so strongly about this class that it's the first time I've ever posted on Bruinwalk. Sure, the topic seems interesting enough, but there are SEVERAL problems with its format: 1) There is a 50 minute midterm and a final. In order to finish, you absolutely have to take up the entire time; Morris expects you to write extremely fast and jam packs his exams so that you have to. 2) There are THREE 4-6 page papers for this course. Though the prompts may seem fun, they are most definitely not. If you are not LGBTQ you will have a hard time choosing songs to write about from an LGBTQ perspective. Plus, he expects these short papers to be well-written, and because they are shorter it is actually HARDER to fit everything you want to say and still make it a good paper. 3) Furthermore, all the evidence in this course and the reader doesn't seem to help fully illustrate what's going on historically. For the midterm, final and all three papers I had to go to Wikipedia countless times because Morris likes to dibble dabble by naming tons of artists, tons of songs, and elaborates on their significance for maybe two minutes. Basically, he throws a TON of information at you so it's hard to discern what's really going to be on the exams. It forces you to take lots of notes and write down lots of names, so a laptop is a must. 4) The readings sound nice but unlike other courses you take maybe one or two main points from them. There are a ton of readings for this class and discussion is mandatory. You HAVE to go to lecture to do well in this class.

The difficulty rating is LOW but the workload is HIGH HIGH HIGH. There are SO Many other classes you can take to qualify for a GE. I did really well (aced everything going into the final) in this class, but I would absolutely NEVER recommend it, it is such a pain. Lecture for 2 hours, 1 hr discussion on Fridays, 3 papers, a midterm AND a long, 3-hour final? NO THANKS. Look somewhere else.