In this course we will listen to and think critically about a range of Sub-Saharan African popular music genres including Congolese rumba, Cameroonian makossa, South African bubblegum, and Nigerian afrobeats to become familiar with compositional elements and techniques as well as social and historical issues such as music during struggles against European colonialism; the influence of industries and technologies; the politics of marketing African music to foreign audiences; and music’s role in the construction of national, ethnic, and other identities.