UC Berkeley offering new Taylor Swift course on her “enduring value”

nme.com:

Taylor Swift course next year.From 2024, students attending the California college will have the option to enlist in a Taylor Swift-centred course, which explores the business success of the pop star and her ability to create an enterprise out of her music.Set to be called Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version, the course will be offered by the Berkeley Haas School of Business, and was developed by an economics graduate named Crystal Haryanto.It will be available from next Spring and will look at how the singer crafted her music and brand to resonate with listeners. “Swift’s ability to connect with listeners is unparalleled,” reads the syllabus (via The Guardian). “Through lyricism, branding, and craft, we’ll explore how art and authenticity create enduring value and a viable enterprise.”As well as designing the course, Haryanto will also co-teach alongside a current student.

Those who take the course can expect it to expand across 13 weeks and consist of interactive lectures, readings and listening assignments.“It will be a cross-section of literature, economics, business and sociology and I think that we’re studying her impact as an artist, as a whole,” Haryanto revealed when talking with NBC. “I want to study her literary devices.

But also how those literary devices create meaning.”It comes as little surprise that Taylor Swift will be at the centre of a college course, given the number of accolades that the singer has accumulated this year alone.