BA (Hons) Popular Music and Record Production (Full Time)

This innovative course explores popular music by combining studio-based recording with academic study.

Course overview

The BA (Hons) Popular Music and Record Production degree at Southampton Solent University is an innovative course which explores popular music through combining studio-based recording with academic study. You will gain hands-on experience of the studio and live production of popular music and investigate popular music styles, genres, histories and cultures.

Underpinned by work investigating the wider music industry, you will gain experience and understanding of the cultural and creative contexts of contemporary popular music. You will benefit from full access to our digital and analogue multi-track recording facilities and audio production suites.

Alongside studio recording and production, you will gain experience in live music production, studying the professional structures and working practices of the live music industry sector. Advanced music production work is complemented by academic research skills and critical tools developed through the analysis of the structures, meanings, histories and cultural contexts of popular music. A great deal of personalisation is offered through negotiated academic and practical projects and in option units in Years 2 and 3.

To boost your employability, you can undertake work based learning in Years 2 and 3 - work on the contemporary music industry is undertaken throughout the course. Depending on choices made during the course, the practical to academic ratio is approximately 60:40.

Professional accreditation

Accredited by Skillset (the Sector Skills Council for the Creative Media) as part of the University's  Skillset Media Academy| – a national centre of excellence in media education.

We are also a Pro Tools Certified Training Location offering 101, 110, 201, and 210M courses.

In addition to that we recently became a Digidesign Sponsored School.

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Course content

Depending on choices made during the course, the practical to academic ratio is approximately 60:40.

Year 1  

• Understanding the Music Industries
• The Art of Record Production
• Popular Music Styles and Genres
• Introduction to Studio Recording 1
• Introduction to Studio Recording 2

Year 2  

• Histories of Popular Music
• Live Music Production
• Advanced Studio Production 1 
• Advanced Studio Production 2
• Two options from the following: Experimental Music Production; Music Radio Documentation; Music and Audio Post Production; Global Pop; Pop, Politics and Protest; Pop the Invisible Mainstream; Subcultures and Scenes; Noise Annoys.

Year 3  

• Collaborative Music Project
• Individual Music Project
• Working in the Music Industry
• One option from the following: Festival Cultures; Music Audiences & Consumption; Technologies of Popular Music; The Global Music Industry; Popular Music and the Moving Image; Hello 20th Century: Bartok to Branca. 

Assessment

Assessment is through coursework in the form of, for example, essays, practical production projects, group and individual projects, learning journals and seminar presentations, portfolios and reflective writing projects.

Special features

We are proud to be a Pro-Tools Certified Training location. This means that we include the Pro-Tools 101 course as part of the first year, with the 110 course as an extracurricular option in the Year 2. With the endorsement of Digidesign, we are also able to offer Pro-Tools 201 and 210M courses, both will be extracurricular and a portion of the cost is subsidised.

Special facilities

• Nine recording studios networked with Pro Tools HD & Logic
• Investment of more than £1million over the past three years in studio facilities
• All studios run on high spec Apple Mac Pros
• Three studios are equipped with Digidesign D-Command Worksurfaces
• One Studio has a 5.1 PMC Surround Sound System and Control 24 Worksurface
• One studio has a TL audio valve mixer with analogue outboard
• 13 rehearsal rooms
• Dedicated 25 station music lab including Logic, Ableton Live, Sibelius and DJ & VJ applications
• Live performance studio
• Two fully equipped Standard definition digital television studios
• 58 Final Cut Pro editing stations
• View more information about our media facilities