What is popular music, and what is its role in American culture? What makes music popular? What do we listen for when we listen to popular music? How and why do we determine popular music genres? In this course, we will explore these questions and more as we study the history and development of American popular music from the turn of the nineteenth century to today. We will focus, however, on music in the United States during the twentieth century. We will examine various genres and styles, including blues, country, rock, and hip-hop, from a musical-analytical perspective, as well as a social and cultural perspective. We will listen critically to popular music in order to better understand how it might reflect, shape, and/or challenge prevailing notions of American identity.