A companion to Music 140, Music 141, and Music 142, these notes recast popular music history by shifting attention away from the usual rock-centered storyline and toward the major traditions that are often treated as side chapters. The course follows country, jazz, gospel, reggae, progressive rock, singer-songwriters, and African popular music as central threads rather than supporting material.

These notes ask what happens when rock is no longer the default organizing spine of popular music history. Across the course, familiar narratives are widened to include parallel commercial worlds, spiritual traditions, regional scenes, and transnational exchanges that were always shaping popular music, even when textbooks pushed them to the margins.