Music History 8: The History and Practice of EDM

It was a pretty chill class. Lectures are necessary for passing the class, but no worries prof. Fink's dance moves and cheesy jokes will make a 2 hour lecture pass by fast. Even though he has a powerpoint 80% of the information you need to retain is verbal, especially when it comes to the significance of songs. The readings are not necessary but will benefit you during discussions in section and on essay portions on the tests. The class was supposed to be two assignments the groove assignment and the venue assignment, a midterm and the final but prof. fink started giving out playlist quizzes during the second half of the class. Like people said before, make sure to download the playlists he puts on ccle and be able to recognize the songs and the song info as soon as you can.

The only people that were dissapointed in the class were people that thought fink was going to start teaching Tiesto and Diplo the first day. For the first half of the quarter he covers fundamental genres (funk, soul, disco) that influence edm and post-midterm he starts going over house and trance etc. He doesn't want to put any sub-genre like trap, that are too modern because they are not fully developed yet. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting class and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest interest in electronic dance music.

p.s. go to his office hours and talk to him he's a really interesting guy!

EDM
Simply, you have to memorize 100 songs with specific date, artist, title, features.
Listning, ID, Essay for the mid,final.
I personally learned a lot from this class, but I can't agree its an easy A GE. It covers too broad

I took Music History 5: History of Rock 'N' Roll with this professor and it was probably the greatest class I have taken on campus. He goes in depth with his lectures and makes them really entertaining. Some days they can get a little dry as it is a history class, but if you listen to rock/metal, it can be very intriguing.

His exams are not difficult in the slightest. You have a song identifying portion, a term definition section, and then an essay that are all very easy to do. The Final is in the same format. Part of your grade is attending discussion as well and participating. Part of this comes from a song analysis that you have to put on the discussion board, but it is just commenting on a song that they played that week and that is not difficult. This is all manageable to do if you voice your opinion at least once during class.

Overall, it is a really enjoyable and easy class to take. It literally takes like 2 hours of studying for the final and midterm. That's how long it took me to get my A+

I was in his music history 5 class (History of Rock n Roll).

This class was great. Definitely one of the top GE courses I have taken. The course overall was very entertaining and, in some cases, interesting to learn about. Fink's jokes for the most part, where actually funny. I can confidently say that I have learned quite a bit about the historical and technical aspects of Rock n Roll throughout the quarter. People overall did very well in the class, but Fink made us all work for it. Studying for the midterm and final took a lot of time. The end of quarter project was also time consuming. But unlike other GE exams and projects, I felt like the exams and the project served at least some sort of purpose, which was good.

A minor complaint here. Each lecture was 2 HOURS. I don't know about you guys, but I have trouble staying up in a 50 minute lecture, let alone a 2 hour one. I just had to accept that, regardless on how entertaining and/or interesting the current class was, I would have to nap for about 20 minutes per lecture. Alternative time scheduling would be great.

Take Away: Enroll in this Class!

I took the EDM class

This class was rated by Spin magazine as the best college class on electronic dance music in the country. I can attest that it was. If you like music, drugs, swearing, raving and talking like jamaicans, you will like this class.

MUS HIS 8: As a huge edm fan, I absolutely loved this class! Although the first half of the class does not focus on what normally would be considered as "electronic music," Fink strings together several genres to prove how each have contributed to edm today (not only in the US, but in the UK as well).

By attending all the early morning lectures & taking good notes (especially on the significance of the songs he plays), the midterm and final were extremely easy. Fink is hilarious and, in my opinion, genius.

MUSIC HISTORY 8: HISTORY OF EDM

Here's the deal: don't be a total E-tard in this class.

No wait, fuck that. I know a bunch of people who didn't attend a single lecture and just crammed before the midterm/final and still ended up with a B. You want an easy A? Wake up and go to lecture. Yes, even it's at 9 am and it's 2 hours long and there aren't detailed slides that you can copy down verbatim. Take notes. Especially on specific songs he plays during class. Most of all, just listen to the dude. He's an anecdotal, vivacious speaker. If you're not sleep deprived (which most of us are, sadly), he's easy to listen to, and the information sticks (mainly because it's just so damn simple to understand).
I would say the hardest part is the groove assignment if you're not musically inclined. I think they're pretty lenient, though. I'm a retard when it comes to music theory and composition and I still got a 90%. The venue report is a joke. It's pretty much a diary entry about a rave you went to.

Long story short:
1. go to class
2. take notes
3. do the required assignments
4. get A
Voila.

EDM: THe class is not that easy as you think. Midterms and final are very detail specific. However, the projects are incredibly easy so that will compensate for midterms and final. I liked this class, i thought it was a fun GE. I got a B+ but i seriously thought i did worse and i don't think its true how other reviewers say that fink only gives c's and d's. If I got a B+, then surely there were tons of people who got A's and B's

MHS8: The class is simple. Attend class, write notes on your playlist sheet, know what genre his music examples come from. The first midterm was a joke. The final was a bit harder, but still a joke. If you stayed awake during lecture (easily to do with his antics on stage), you should do well in the class. The groove assignment might be difficult if you aren't musically inclined, but the venue assignment was super easy. Just write about an EDM show you went to and talk about the genre's played, the people there, the things going on (be an outsider). Seriously take this class for an ez A.

Took MH8 with Fink. It's pretty necessary to attend lecture since he doesn't podcast and you can only gain so much from someone else's notes. However, the concepts were pretty easy and they didn't expect you to know a ton about music theory or composition. The assignments (concert report & making drum beats) were both pretty simple if you followed instructions. Plus, the midterm was curved even though the average was in the 80s. And I thought north campus couldn't get any easier! but really, I learned a lot about music in this class, although I didn't expect it to be so heavily focused on old music. I'm not a fan of dubstep though, so I wasn't too disappointed. If you take this class, go to class and take it seriously. It's not even hard.