Questions such as these have become all the more important in the face of new music technologies that have had a profound impact on the way records are made, the audio quality of the home studio, and even how music is marketed and distributed... leading some to question whether record labels are even necessary at all!
MTEC-335 is a history course. Part of the focus will be on learning facts, dates, and specific recordings. It is also a survey course, intended to broaden your knowledge of the wide variety of great popular music since 1955. But more importantly, the course attempts to provide you with a context: an understanding of past successes and failures, of musical terrain already charted, and of problems already solved. You will use this context to inform your own work as a record producer, audio engineer and/or songwriter.