BA (Hons) Popular Music Production (Full Time)

This degree enables you to gain extensive experience of studio and live sound, while investigating the art of popular music production, its history and place in society.

Key elements include:

• Digital and analogue multi-track recording facilities and audio production suites
• Professional structures and working practices of the music industries
• Cultural and creative contexts of pop music
• Advanced live and studio music production experience
• Development of academic research skills and critical tools
• Exploration of the evolving nature of music creation and consumption
• Flexibility to choose academic and practical projects suited to your interests and career plans
• Practical to academic study ratio of approximately 60:40
• Wide range of academic support options, including one-to-one tutorials.

The dedication of our expert staff team has been repeatedly mentioned in surveys, and satisfaction ratings have been increasing every year.

Industrial focus

This course has employability at its heart, and is designed to help students find work in the music and media industries – as well as developing a wide range of transferable skills.
Many of our tutors have high profiles in the contemporary music industry and are published authors in their specialist fields. They can help you build up-to-date industry awareness and contacts, as well as supporting you to arrange work-based learning in Years 2 and 3.

Course content

Balancing theory and practice is a core feature of the course, and many units feature both practical and theoretical work.

Year 1

• Introduction to Studio Recording 1 and 2
• Understanding the Music Industries
• Style and Genre
• The History of Music Production
• Creative Electronic Sound

Year 2

• Advanced Studio Recording 1 and 2
• Live Music Production
• Music Business Networking
• The Art of Record Production

One option from the following:

• Music and Audio Post Production
• Pop Politics and Protest
• Experimental Music Production
• Songwriting
• Pop the Invisible Mainstream
• Urban and Electronic Music: Genre studies
• Noise Annoys: Experiments and Alternatives
• Advanced Live Sound

Year 3

• Major Music Project
• Advanced Studio Recording 3
• Live Project Brief
• Entrepreneurship and Career Building

One option from the following:

• Festival Cultures
• Music Audiences and Consumption
• Technologies of Popular Music
• Popular Music and the Moving Image

Why choose Solent?

We are proud to be an Avid Learning Partner, and we include the Pro Tools 101 course as part of the first year. Students can also undertake the further 110, 201 and 210M courses as extracurricular study, at a subsidised cost.

Facilities:

• 9 recording studios with Pro Tools HD, upgraded every year.
• Comprehensive Plug-In suite including Sonnox and McDSP
• Three studios equipped with Icon D-Command Worksurfaces
• Audient ASP 8024 Large Format Recording Console
• Analog Outboard including Neve 1081, Teletronix LA2A, Universal 1176
• Monitoring by Dynaudio PMC and Yamaha
• Ongoing investment in high-spec Apple MacPro and iMac
• One studio with Valve (Tube) mixer
• Dedicated 25 station Music Lab including Logic, Sibelius, Ableton Live
• 13 Rehearsal Rooms
• Two fully equipped digital television studios
• 58 Final Cut Pro editing stations.

Assessment

Coursework in the form of essays, practical production projects, groupwork, seminar presentations, portfolios and reflective writing projects.

Key info from UNISTATS

You might notice the data is the same in multiple widgets below. That’s because if there isn’t enough data about each version of the course, the data is combined. For more info, visit the Unistats website.