Lana Del Rey NYU course: Description, how to apply and all about the Clive Davis Institute program

New York University’s Clive Davis Institute has introduced a course on Lana Del Rey scheduled to take place this fall. The course, titled “Topics in Recorded Music: Lana Del Rey,” will be taught by journalist and author Kathy Iandoli.

The two-credit course will run from October 20 to December 8 and will focus on Del Rey’s relationship to feminism, musical influences and connections to social justice movements. These include movements like #BlackLlivesMatter, #MeToo and #TimesUp.

Interested students can apply for the course via the official website of the Clive Davis Institute.

According to reports, the course will examine the Summertime Sadness singer's contributions to 21st Century pop stardom and also the artists she has influenced.

The course description reads:

“Over the course of eight critically-acclaimed albums, the six-time Grammy nominated artist has introduced a sad core, melancholic, and baroque version of dream pop that in turn helped shift and reinvent the sound (and mood) of mainstream music beyond the 2010s.”

It further adds:

“Through her arresting visuals and her thematic attention to mental health and tales of toxic, damaged love, Del Rey provided a new platform for artists of all genders to create ‘anti-pop’ works of substance that could live in a mainstream once categorized as bubblegum.”

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Lana Del Rey’s Fall course will focus on the sad girl pop genre

Speaking to Variety, journalist and author Kathy Iandoli said:

“In so many ways, I feel like Lana Del Rey is both a blueprint and a cautionary tale, a complicated pop star who resonates so much with her fans, not because of how she makes them feel about her, but rather how she makes them feel about themselves.”

She noted that Del Ray has changed the "parameters of baroque pop" and sad girl pop with her music. She also added:

"There are so many pieces in this mosaic that we have now come to know as Lana Del Rey, and this course examines every dimension of it.”

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The course will be chaired by veteran music writer and musician Jason King. Speaking about the course, King said that it will help students think through larger political issues and movements. He added that Lana Del Rey refracts various changes in contemporary culture. He also noted:

“Studying Lana Del Rey means thinking more critically the growing popularity of so-called anti-pop. It means finding ways to consider the increased interest in mental health and issues of psychological damage, and to evaluate changes in they 21st way we think about identity, especially in terms of race, gender, nation and class.”

The Davis Institute has previously included classes taught by Questlove, “Dilla Time” author Dan Charnas, Q-Tip, and producer-engineer Bob Power, among others.

Earlier this year, NYU’s Clive Davis Institute introduced a course on Taylor Swift, which was launched on January 26 and went on till March 9. The class focussed on Swift’s evolution as a creative music entrepreneur. It also highlighted the legacy of pop and country songwriters, discourses of youth and girlhood, and the politics of race in contemporary popular music.