Program Overview

Course Overview

The Popular Music Practice MA is a postgraduate program designed to develop your creative, critical, and technical skills as a performer, recording artist, songwriter, or music educator. The course prepares you for roles in the contemporary music industry, focusing on global and professional contexts.

What You'll Study

The program consists of six modules:

The Musician's Craft

• Delve deeply into your craft as a performer, songwriter, or creative artist within the contemporary music industry.
• Identify and develop specific areas of expertise related to the creation and/or performance of popular music.
• Engage in exploration and experimentation, hone your professional and musical skills within a chosen instrumental or creative specialization, and work closely with your tutor to set and achieve your goals.

Performance and Technology

• Experiment with forms, conventions, techniques, and practices, and critically formulate how your own creative practice can be developed, reflecting the expectation within the contemporary music industry that musicians be fluent in the use of music and sound technologies.
• Approaches can include the use of technology in a supporting role, as part of a hybridized approach, or as a fully immersive experience.
• Work towards a live performance event using original and/or recreated music that explores the application of different technologies, followed by an open discussion of your practice as research.

Presence, Persona, and Identity

• Explore your place in the contemporary music industry and develop your professional profile.
• Focus on an area like pedagogy, entrepreneurship, performance, music business, or composition, or explore your intersection.
• Choose what to emphasize, such as a pedagogical, entrepreneurial, performance, recording artist, music business, or compositional outlook, or explore the nexus of a number of these within a specific professional focus.
• Through a negotiated project, develop research-informed, high-quality professional practices reflecting an innovative approach to the music industry.

Creative Frontiers Project

• This module offers personalized learning through independent research in a chosen area of the creative industries.
• Develop research skills and explore theoretical, conceptual, and professional issues.
• The outcome may be an essay or a practical project (for example, production, composition, or performance) with supporting commentary.
• Engage with research methods, industry-standard creative practice, and a negotiated project.

Professional Practice and Innovation

• This module examines the ecologies of the creative industries, exploring connections between independent, commercial, and public sectors.
• Developed in collaboration with the RSA, it covers topics such as the RSA Four Futures of Work, leadership mindsets, systems thinking, and participatory foresight.
• Focus areas include sustainability, regenerative thinking, professional skills, and future skills development.
• Successful completion awards an RSA digital credential.

Collaborative Technologies

• This module provides practical experience with high-end production equipment in collaborative settings, enhancing technical expertise and communication skills.
• Work with peers from other disciplines on projects such as motion capture, film, music, and sound.
• Engage with industry practitioners, apply technical skills in specialist studios, explore sound and image collaboration (for example, film, music, and AR/VR), and create live or recorded events.
• Develop professional networking skills throughout the process.

How You'll Learn

Teaching and learning methods may include:

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Tutorials
• Presentations
• Demonstrations
• Group projects
• Practical projects
• Workshops
• Practical studio sessions
• Live events

Entry Requirements

• An honors degree 2:2 or above in a music-related discipline, or international equivalent.

Fees and Funding

• UK students: £11,200 per year
• EU students: 2025/26 fees TBC
• International students: £18,600 per year

Facilities

• Neve recording studio performance space
• Music performance space
• Media loan service

Careers and Opportunities

On successful completion of the course, you could find yourself in roles such as:

• Freelance session musician/performer
• Songwriter
• Music and sound composer
• Sound designer
• Immersive sound technologist/Dolby Atmos
• Live sound
• Music teacher/education

Upon successful completion, you will be able to:

• Individually and collaboratively conceive, develop, and execute innovative popular music projects that are tailored to diverse audiences and contexts, demonstrating critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and effective project management skills
• Justify and critically reflect upon your creative decisions, demonstrating a deep understanding of relevant theoretical frameworks and methodologies
• Interrogate new and existing approaches to popular music globally and employ the findings in your own creative practice
• Synthesize and critically evaluate a range of popular music practices and materials, demonstrating a deep understanding of their historical, cultural, and social significance
• Demonstrate competence in applying knowledge and skills to produce professional work in the field of popular music that assists you in entering your chosen area of professional practice
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of equity and inclusion principles and their application in diverse professional contexts
• Work creatively, sustainably, and ethically within a manifold of professional environments.