BA - The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Our Music Industry Programs will help you understand the practice of music as a profession while connecting you with prominent players within the vibrant Los Angeles music scene. Participate in student-run zines, concerts, and even a record label, and take part in events featuring prominent industry speakers. Take classes taught by top faculty and industry professionals and make use of our school’s professional-grade recording and music creation studios.

Options include:

Music Industry BA: Our new degree provides a leadership-focused path to creative, executive, and entrepreneurial careers in the music industry.
Music History and Industry BA: This hybrid degree program features a holistic approach to understanding music and the music industry. (Note: this degree is no longer accepting applications.)
Music Industry Minor: This popular program prepares you for employment in the music industry by highlighting key topics including marketing, sales, recording production and more. This program is open to all UCLA students.

Make your gift to Music Industry Student Scholarships to support future generations of music professionals who will lead the industry forward with creativity, innovation, and social responsibility. Your contribution will foster talent from diverse backgrounds and empower students to make a difference in the ever-evolving world of music, all at the nation’s #1 public university.

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Music Industry Faculty

Check out our diverse and well-connected faculty.

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Billboard Magazine Names The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music a Top Business School of 2024

From Billboard Magazine: The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music this summer announced the establishment of The UCLA Berry Gordy Music Industry Center as it continues its commitment to becoming

Assistant Professor of Musicology Wins Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award

Catherine Provenzano, assistant professor of musicology at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has just been named one of ten winners of the Mellon Foundation's Emerging Faculty Leaders Award.

Mixmaster Dean

Don Harrison at Style Magazine previewed Professor Robert Fink’s talk about playlists and DJs and musicologists for the University of Richmond’s 2024 Neumann Lecture.

Amelie McGrath Entrances Listeners with Vulnerable, Relatable Lyrics

From the Daily Bruin: Amelie McGrath – who performs as amelie kalia – released her first single June 28. Though the rising third-year music industry student has been writing songs

Music Industry Students Association Networks Behind the Scenes

UCLA is becoming the music industry’s new home, thanks to a new student organization. The Music Industry Students Association is dedicated to helping students navigate the broad scope of the

What is Music's Value? A Conversation with Tim Taylor

Tim Taylor, professor of ethnomusicology and musicology at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has always been curious about how we assess the value of music. The author of

For Media Inquiries

Robert Baker
robertbaker@schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

For General Inquiries

Chyna Ellis
cellis@schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

Conducting

Graduate study and training in choral, orchestral, or wind conducting

MM/DMA

Ethnomusicology

The study of global musical traditions through performance training, research, and field work

BA MA / PhD Minor Iranian Music Minor

Global Jazz Studies

Jazz performance and musicianship courses are paired with African American Studies

Music Composition

Mentorship in the creation and realization of music for concerts, opera, and visual media

BA MA / PhD

Music Education

Preparation for music educators leading to a BA and teaching credential in just four years

Music Industry

A leadership-focused professional degree which prepares students to transform the creative, entrepreneurial, and executive structures of the music industry

BA Minor

Musicology

The scholarly study of the histories, cultures, and critical interpretations of music and music-making

BA MA / PhD Minor

Music Performance

Study and training towards professional performance careers in Western classical music

BM MM/DMA

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Survey of music of Western classical tradition, with emphasis on historical context, musical meanings, and creation of tradition itself.

Analysis of forms, practices, and meanings of rock and roll music, broadly conceived, from its origin to present. Emphasis on how this music has reflected and influenced changes in sexual, racial, and class identities and attitudes.

Introduction to musicianship through in-depth exploration of basic common musical elements and training in aural recognition, sight singing, dictation, and keyboard skills. Focus on topics such as tonal and modal harmony, rhythm, improvisation, composition, notation, and ear training to prepare students for later theory courses, participation in music ensembles, advanced study in music, and professional careers.

History of music and cinema, particularly ways music is used to produce meanings in conjunction with visual image.

Survey of groove-based electrified dance music from its origins in 1960s pop and soul to present, covering disco, house, techno, ambient, rave, and jungle. Emphasis on interaction of technology, musical structures, psychoactive drugs, and club cultures to induce altered states of musical consciousness; promise (versus reality of) political and spiritual transformation; electronic dance music as new art music.

American popular music before advent of rock and roll in 1950s, with special emphasis on song tradition of Tin Pan Alley.

Emphasis on learning specific skills, incorporating technical description, historical contextualization, subjective reaction, and certain stylistic conventions necessary in writing about music.

Developments in punk music in their historical and subcultural contexts. Survey of prepunk and musical antecedents in 1960s, rise of punk in 1970s, and tracing of its expressive trajectories to present day.

This course will provide an introduction to basic acoustic principles, practical techniques, and working procedures for equipment used in contemporary music production, including microphones, mixers, recorders, synthesizers, and sequencers. Basic sound processing operations (equalization, compression, distortion, reverberation). Operating principles of most popular systems of music production software and hardware (Ableton Live, Apple Logic, Avid ProTools, etc.). No prior musical training is required to enroll. Letter grading.

MSC IND 107A

Summer Session A
Meets June 26-August 4, 2023
Instructor: Lily Shabibi

Theory: species counterpoint through fifth species; description of triads and inversions.

Theory: diatonic harmony through secondary dominants and diminished sevenths; modulations to dominant and relative keys; writing of four-part chorales; style composition in baroque dance forms; introduction to figured bass notation.

Theory: chromatic harmony including development of tonality, 1800 to 1850; appropriate analysis and style composition.

Exploration of history of opera from its origins in Florentine Camerata in Italy in early 17th century, through ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism, and ending with modern era of early 20th century. History of opera, biography of composers and singers, operatic conventions, dramaturgy, plot, stagings, hermeneutics of opera, and musical style, with focus on learning appreciation of music of opera within rich context of its compelling history.

Survey of American musical in 20th century, beginning with its roots in operetta, vaudeville, and Gilbert and Sullivan, and focusing on its connections to politics, technology, film, opera, and variety of popular musical styles, including Tin Pan Alley, jazz, and rock.

Exploration of history of music in Los Angeles. From Spanish missions and history of Los Angeles to greater emphasis on music in 20th century, with special focus on European émigrés, internment and postwar history of Japanese American community, Chicano and Mexican American music to present, African American traditions including jazz on Central Avenue, 1960s Laurel Canyon and rock scene, and more recent history that includes developments in punk and hip-hop.

Life, works, and mythology of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in context of both his age and our own.

Life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Survey of developments in post-World War II African American popular music, with special attention to musical achievements of Motown Records, Stax, and other rhythm and blues, funk, and soul music centers of production. Relationships between musical forms and cultural issues of 1960s, including Civil Rights Movement, counterculture, black nationalism, capitalism, and separatism, and larger dimensions of African American experience as mediated through groove-based music.

History of blues, both as specific genre and as range of techniques and approaches that have been at center of American music and culture, from 19th-century roots to present. Exploration of commonly accepted blues mainstream exemplified by figures like Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, and B.B. King, but also central role blues has played in jazz, folk, country, gospel, rock, soul, and rap. While following evolution of music through 20th century, examination of how blues has served as metaphor for African American culture as it permeates American traditions

Exploration of idea of medievalism in music and culture from Wagner to video games. Music covered includes film scores, opera, Gregorian chant, early music revival, folk songs, progressive rock, and Goth.

Music of Jews is diverse. With history of several thousand years and series of developments in modernity, music in Jewish life covers variety of styles found in many contexts. Exploration of music of Jews within last 100 years, with focus on popular music of Jews in America and Israel. Examination of music in Israel, with focus on songs of land of Israel, Israeli rock, and Muzika Mizrachit (Middle Eastern popular music).

Examination of life and music of Beatles within social and historical context of 1960s.

Exploration and demonstration of various ways in which music is informed by and informs politics. From individual performances to mass demonstrations, music is recognizable as a political act and tool that is not simply representative, but also constitutive, meaning that music creates belief systems (politics). Examination of development and use of music by social movements, political parties, and nations, and critical listening practices to better hear world around us and sounds that compose its futures.

Life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven

Introduction to humanistic study of listening, as perceptual modality for engaging others and world, with focus on experience, history, politics, and ethics of listening. Hearing is shared perceptive faculty among able-bodied people, but listening practices are shaped by history, society, and culture. Hearing people listen differently depending on when, where, and how they live, as well as who they are as individuals.

Study of forms and liturgies of Western church music.

Survey of popular music in religious traditions since the 1970s. Growth of music in Jewish denominations, including Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative, and Christian contemporary music, from evangelical to cross-over artists performing in mainstream.

History and analysis of variety of jazz styles, from late 19th-century forerunners to present, with emphasis on social meanings of musical practices

Survey of histories of three closely connected music genres: Jamaican dancehall, U.S. rap, and Puerto Rican/Panamanian reggaeton. Introduction to major performers in each genre, comparison of stylistic traits associated with each music, and exploration of technologies associated with contemporary music production.

As music becomes increasingly pervasive—found everywhere, yet living nowhere special—what social, economic, political, and aesthetic forces are determining centers of attention? Examination of formative force of Internet on sounds themselves. What kinds of noises develop logically within digital context, where creative freedoms and public disinterest are equally apparent? What does Internet sound like?

Learn and employ the craft of songwriting in this course. Students will examine, analyze, and implement song structure, lyric and melody writing, arranging, orchestrating and recording techniques. Students will also learn about the evolution of songwriting in modern society, as well as how songs and society both affect and reflect one another. No prior musical training is necessary to take this class, but you will be required to make music and perform at your level of ability. Formerly MSC IND 112. Letter grading.

MSC IND 112A
Summer Session A
Meets June 26-August 4, 2023
Instructor: Kuney, A. K.

Workshop in contemporary songwriting practices for intermediate to advanced songwriter. Emphasis on collaboration, flexibility, and working within teams to master specific songwriting challenges. All genres and styles of music accommodated. Letter grading.

MSC IND 112B
Summer Session C
Meets August 7 - September 15, 2023
Instructor: Amy Kuney

Examination of history, present state, and future of audiovisual archives, with specific focus on ethics, copyright, contracts, fieldwork, preservation, and access and issues related to technology, space, budgets, and staffing.

Introduction to intellectual and theoretical frameworks that form Music Industry minor and that scholars of music and music industries have developed to analyze, understand, and perhaps judge what happens out there, including how music business works in financial, legal, global, and artistic terms, how music technologies of recording, reproduction, and consumption operate, and how basic music science from acoustics to brain biology to music perception affects how music is produced and heard.

Introduction to basic economics of creative industries, focusing on unique ways music works as industry in U.S. and abroad, how power has shifted but still is held in musical oligopolies, and where career opportunities for musicians and other industry professionals will be in next five to 10 years for students.

Multidisciplinary approach to understanding brain mechanisms mediating music perception, performance, and cognition. Students’ natural interest in music serves as springboard for learning basic concepts about how brain works. Focus on specific themes such as harmony perception, rhythm perception, emotion and meaning in music, and creativity. Designed to help students understand methodologies currently used to investigate brain-behavior correlates. Broad understanding of research topics in cognitive neuroscience, one of three main subdisciplines of neuroscience; introduction to fundamental principles in neurophysiology, psychophysiology, and neuroanatomy, whose basics form foundation for brain imaging, forensic practice, social psychology research, and marketing research; and specific knowledge about brain mechanisms mediating music-related cognitive and emotional functions.

Fundamentals of American law as it applies to entertainment business, with special attention to music and its use in film, television, and new media. Legal relationships in entertainment business and basic business practices. Exploration of legal aspects of process of producing works in entertainment field, from acquisition of rights and talent through production and distribution.

Exploration of legal and business aspects of production and distribution of sound recordings. More detailed practical focus on legal aspects of recording process itself, from initial assembly of material to final distribution and collection of royalties, with material covered also relevant to audio-visual recordings. Introductory presentation on contract, copyright, and trademark law as background to step-by-step process of securing agreements necessary for production and commercial distribution of recordings.

How music industry functions and how products are created, marketed, and consumed. Basic information on production of recordings and legal issues faced by musicians, students, and scholars who use music in their work.

With special focus on songwriting renaissance of rock era, examination of work of greatest songwriters of post-World War II generation (circa 1952 to 1994) and those they have influenced through creative as well as practical industry guidance from current and noteworthy practitioners. Coverage of songwriting, arrangement and record production, music publishing, and record business in 20th and 21st centuries. Guest music industry professionals to demonstrate individual creative processes and discuss their paths to songwriting and their place in world of music.

Help for students to determine what music career best serves their own lives and gives them tools that help them be successful in their lives and careers. Guest speakers, including top music agents, managers, publicists, and performers, to be featured.

Equally for singers using microphones or beat makers using samplers, electronic equipment and procedures permeate music making, and ability to understand their logic is key for any musician today. Practical technical aspects and procedures of equipment and software (sequencers, recorders, mixers, microphones, and so on) most commonly used in contemporary music making. Main sound processing types (equalizers, compressors, reverberation). Fundamental aspects of most widespread music production software and hardware.

As audio technology becomes more ingrained and pervasive in creative life of musicians, it is more important than ever to obtain deep understanding of technological music and audio tools, and concepts behind them, that are available. Examination of certain technological elements in greater depth than in Audio Technology for Musicians I, while applying established concepts to broad range of creative scenarios and applications. Basic familiarity with standard audio workstation software in use in music industry and introduction to foundational theoretical concepts in audio engineering, psychoacoustics, mixing, mastering, and sound recording. Development of critical listening skills through in-class and assigned listening.

Examination of process of founding performing arts organizations, beginning with inspiration to do so, clarifying organization mission, and mechanics of becoming nonprofit corporations; issues of funding, press relations, finding appropriate venues, developing audience; mechanics, legal and routine, of running arts businesses; establishing relationships with other organizations in field; issues of making and distributing recordings. Students create on paper one performing arts organization, including developing mission statement, preparing bylaws, and writing sample grant proposals.

Close look at various genres of rock documentaries and goals, methods, and challenges inherent in making them, with award-winning documentary writer/director. What makes for successful (or unsuccessful) music documentary? Viewed through very specific focus of story and storytelling.

Hands-on introduction to business of music, with emphasis on marketing and media.

Performance-based introduction to popular music styles, forms, and competencies through immersion in studio techniques.

Learning and employment of craft of songwriting. Examination, analysis, and implementation of song structure, lyric and melody writing, arranging, orchestrating, and modern (and primitive) recording techniques. How songwriting has evolved in modern society (since advent of phonograph player/radio), how songs and society affect and reflect one another, and how this informs songs and songwriters.

Introduction to role of music supervisor and creative, logistical, and budget considerations of music supervision. Development of theoretical and practical knowledge, interaction with professionals in field, and practice negotiating music requests and clearances.

Exploration of techniques, methods, and process of music production and larger issues in art of making music. Students learn how to foster and capture performance and emotion in music through variety of methods and tools, including artistic direction in studio and choices made in sound, arrangement, and application of technology.

The digital world for musicians has changed dramatically. Musicians not only have the ability to self-market and create communities directly with listeners, but also can thrive in online communities with influencers and other musicians around world. Digital has transformed not just the way musicians get the word out, but also how they create. Internet marketing has morphed into Internet community crowdsourcing—a very different world for musicians and musical organizations. Study driven by project-based work of current online environments for musicians, organizations, and venues. Students dive into best practices around the world, growing brand, finding target market online, and engaging with the right communities of practice to build their own connections and online portfolio of collaborators.

Introduction to history, culture, and structure of Western music, in era of church and court patronage, through selected topics, repertoires, and analytical techniques.

Introduction to history, culture, and structure of Western music, in era of empires and marketplaces, through selected topics, repertoires, and analytical techniques.

Introduction to history, culture, and structure of Western music, in modern and postmodern eras, through selected topics, repertoires, and analytical techniques.

Introduction to study of popular music through American history, with emphasis on music of Americas, Afro-diasporic music, and socioeconomic structure of music making in industrial society.

Analysis of gender ideologies in several musical cultures; representations of gender, body, and sexuality by both male and female musicians; contributions of women to Western art and popular musics; methods in feminist and gay/lesbian theory and criticism.

Survey of English-language popular music in 20th century, with focus on lesbians, gay men, and members of other sexual minorities as creators, performers, and audience members.

Consideration of impact of recording technologies (gramophone, tape recorder, Walkman, sampler), broadcast media (radio, television, MTV, Internet), and global capitalism (record labels, advertising, Muzak) on way we consume and are consumed by music. How music functions and malfunctions on records, under movies, behind ads, and in semiotic fabric of everyday life.

Exploration of connections and disconnects between American musical on stage and American film musicals.

Intensive discussion of selected pieces by Mozart and of certain topics important to fuller understanding of his contributions to musical culture of Enlightenment, as well as to contemporary culture.

Examination of Bach’s music in greater depth.

Intensive discussion of developments in post-World War II African American popular music, with special attention to musical achievements of Motown Records, Stax, and other rhythm and blues, funk, and soul music centers of production. Relationships between musical forms and cultural issues of 1960s, including Civil Rights Movement, counterculture, black nationalism, capitalism, and separatism, and larger dimensions of African American experience as mediated through groove-based music.

In-depth look at specific blues artists, with special attention to issues of authenticity, biography, personal and group identity, commercialism, musical style, and evolving history of American music and culture in 20th century.

Exploration of ways in which specific approaches and attitudes to past shape music history, composition, and performance, with special focus on folk music and early music revivals.

Intensive discussion in seminar setting of selected topics associated with The Beatles.

Designed to meet needs of students who read music and wish to examine Beethoven’s music in greater depth.

Introduction to some ways that music has been held to embody, support, and enact sacredness, including experience of god(s), sense of transcendental, work of liturgy, and intersections of music, politics, and religion.

Exploration of connections of music, religion, and popular culture among American Jews and Christians.

Exercises in electroacoustic orchestration, meta-pitch composition, notation software (Sibelius), sequencing and film scoring software (Logic), text collages (ProTools), and final project.

In-depth exploration of issues in analysis and criticism of music in film.

Examination of influence of music industry on way music is created, performed, listened to, evaluated, and used today. Historical approach taken, beginning with music published in 18th century and continuing through development of audio recordings to MTV and popular music today.

How music industry functions and how products are created, marketed, and consumed. Techniques of pure research, basic and theoretical in nature, contrasted with those of applied research, practical and policy-oriented in approach.

Intensive discussion in seminar setting of selected topics in rock and roll.

Preparation, creation, and presentation of senior capstone project. I. Developing the Project. Taken in Fall Quarter of senior year. II. Creating the Project. Taken in Winter Quarter of senior year. III. Presenting the Project. Taken in Spring Quarter of senior year.

Internship in supervised setting in community agency or private business. Students meet on regular basis with instructor and provide periodic reports of their experience.

Musicology majors participate in performance ensembles in the Musicology, Music, or Ethnomusicology Departments for at least 3 quarters. Learn more about the performance ensembles.

This course will provide you with a performance-based introduction to popular music styles, forms, and competencies through immersion in studio performance techniques. Students will play in groups to develop ensemble, create material and produce recordings. P/NP or letter grading. Course Flyer

MSC IND 111A
Summer Session C
Meets August 7 - September 15, 2023
Instructor: Lee John

In this course, we will cover songwriting, arrangement and record production, music publishing, and the recording business in the 20th and 21st centuries. The class experience features in-depth interviews with music industry songwriting professionals who will demonstrate individual creative processes, discuss their paths to songwriting and their place in the world of music. Note: this course is not a workshop or tutorial on how to write songs. If that’s your goal, please check out Music Industry 112A.

MSC IND 55
Summer Session A
Meets June 26-August 4, 2023
Instructor: D. Leaf

MSC IND 101
Summer Session A
Meets from June 26 – August 4, 2023
Instructor: Thomas Hanslowe

Summer Session C
Meets from August 7 – September 15, 2023
Instructor: Ciera Ott

Explore techniques, methods, and processes of music production and larger issues in the art of making music. You will learn how to foster and capture performance and emotion in music using a variety of methods and tools, including artistic direction in studio and choices made in sound, arrangement, and application of technology. Letter grading.

MSC IND 115A
Summer Session A
Meets June 26-August 4, 2023
Instructor: A. Moseley

Music Industry

Bachelor of Arts

Your Pathway to
the Music Industry

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Music Industry

Bachelor of Arts

Your Pathway to the Music Industry

Options include:

Resources

Related News

Contact Us

Explore Other Degrees

Courses

Your Pathway to
the Music Industry