Excellent course that explores the history of Rock from the early 20th century to 1969. Alongside the various musical genres and currents that defined Rock, and the artists it involved. Though I wish some of the videos could be shorter or divided into 5 minutes format, allowing more relaxing time frame listening to them, the subjects are fascinating as we explore the important topics surrounding Rock (ex: The racism that black artists have experienced (and still face) over their artists' rights, the psychedelic era, the Payola scandals, the culture of UK Rock versus USA rock, etc.) In sum, a course that explores so many society issues that still affect us today. Since the teacher offers courses on the Rolling Stones and Beatles, it would be interesting to have courses dedicated to other artists as well (ex: Michael Jackson, Prince, James Brown, The Supremes, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, etc.). To conclude, an excellent course everybody should discover.

Fantastic!! Really enjoyed the course

Informative and enjoyable course which helped me understand the history of Rock/Popular music upto 1970. Prof Kovach's lectures helped me explore music and artists who I had long forgotten or did not even know of. This is a good course for both professionals like Dj's, student's as well as lay people like me who love both music as well as history.

The only problem I had is that one had to do a lot of hunting on the net and that took a lot of my time. But it was well worth it because of what I heard and saw.

The quizzes were sometimes too detailed and memory oriented. Maybe a more conceptual framework of questions can be considered in the future.

Will definitely do Part 2 shortly!

Thanks Prof Kovach and the Team. We are blessed by your effort and dedication

Hello. I really want to thank you to University of Rochester for this marvelous opportunity to learn without spending. I love music and rock over all that's why I decided to do this course first but I will keep on doing courses with you until I die.

I also want to thank Professor Covach. He's very clear and accurate on teaching and his comments are very objective. Thanks so much for making me feel very glad. I've been enjoying this time so much for giving me a very clear idea about rock. Please keep on. I deeply thank you. My best regards.

First of all the course was fantastic!

It helped learn to appreciate a lot of different styles of music I wasn't even aware of.

It exposed me to copious amounts of great music I was missing and taught me so much about the music and the development of rock and music in general. The professor was awesome, and I loved to see how enthusiastic he was to teach the subject matter, which kinda made the whole learning experience so awesome.

I am starting now the next course and I just can't wait to begin.

Thanks again for all the greatness,

In regards,

Shai

It has been a memorable experience! I thought that I knew all about Rock 'n' Roll until I was introduced to the course that was put together by University of Rochester! Well I was wrong! I got to know the historic essentials that helped me to build a competent and articulated opinion about the early Rock 'n' Roll era. I would gladly recommend this course to all people out there looking to dive into the Beautiful Madness of Rock 'n' Roll that will completely and totally take over their life and leave them sick and longing for more!

This nice course helped me to understand the rock music in more systematical, organized way. The lecturer was very good, the visual part of the videos helped a lot, and supplementary materials too. The only disappointment I had with sometimes too specific questions in the quizzes, which meant that I must stop the video all the time to make an enormously specific notes, and this kinda spoils the integrity here. Nevertheless it was a great experience, and I definitely plan to go to the part 2 in the next year.

You can clearly see that the professor is a passionate and has got a huge knowledge about the topic he is talking about. What he says is interesting and valuable, I also liked to learn facts about historical facts and anecdotes accompanying the lectures. I learnt a lot and listened to a lot new music.

It takes quite a lot of time to watch all the videos, take notes (the exams are not that easy :) ) and listen to all of the examples, but it was definitely worth it.

I am grateful for this class and I learned a lot about the History of Rock and Roll. I will definitely be taking Part 2 of this class.

My only suggestion would be to have music playing maybe even in the background or just some small clips to make it interesting. I understand that it would take more time and I know that this was discussed in the beginning but it would just be a nice addition. Otherwise, everything was great and I really enjoyed myself. Thank you!

A great course that tells not just about history of rock, but about history of american popular music and about interceptions between different styles and approaches and how they formed rock music. It also covers topics about influence of technologie, people attitude, economy and business on it`s evolution. Don`t miss it, if you want to know about history of music more, or, as me, just to broaden your horisons. Interesting and entertaining in the same time.

This course is just packed with so much information. I mean that in a good way too. John pieces the whole history of rock in a way the is digestible, engaging and interesting. I primarily watch the videos. I'm a music fan and just love learning more about rock's trajectory. Didn't know that there was so much history to it. And in case this wasn't enough, be sure to check out part 2. Thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the history of rock and music.

I am of a certain age in which I know and remember much of the material covered in the course. However, Professor Covach does a superb job of weaving the disparate threads of mainstream pop, R & B, and country and western together to form rock. He does a great job of covering the various threads of rock as it begins to split into the various sub-genres that will be covered in part two of the course. Great job.

Professor Covach makes the journey interesting as we go along the history of rock, showing not only the musical aspects of its evolution but the cultural ones, so we the students can have a broader perspective of what was going on during the different periods studied. His approach to the subject and his eloquent, fluid narrative of events makes it delightful and exciting. Congratulations for this course.

Awesome instructor with a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm. He addresses controversial moments in music history with taste. Hearing about the contexts that gave rise to some of the most influential musicians of the mid 20th century made songs more meaningful and interesting. I've discovered many new songs and artists that I absolutely love and I have this course to thank. Thank you!

As a 6-8 music teacher teaching music appreciation to 7th and 8th grade students, this class helps fill in some of the gaps music educators face when it comes to the history of popular music - or supplement it. I was fortunate to have such a course available at my university, but only in the summer. I would encourage all secondary music teachers to take both of these courses.

This is a very informative and well outlined course highlighting the US music industry's history from the 1900s to end of 1960s. I also really liked the way in which John Covach narrated the whole course - you can really glimpse the fondness which he has for the music of the 60s! Thanks a lot to Coursera and John Covach for such a brilliant course.

Excellent course, I highly reccomend it! Passionate John Covach makes it very thrilling and you really learn a lot. Do not expect an easy course, in the way that you have to take notes during the lessons - and even better, you have to take the aid of Youtube and/or Spotify or similars to really take advantage of the course. It takes time.

All of Dr. John Covach's courses are exceedingly clearly presented and History of Rock, Part One is no exception. This course requires no musical skill, just a cusriosity to learn about the development of rock music from an American perspective yet including British developments from 1900 until 1969.

One of the most comprehensive, and most fun, classes on contemporary music EVER!! I took John's Beatles class and he broke down the music theory as well as the social effects of music on our culture. It was very stimulating and challenging! I enjoyed it so much I registered for Part II!!

Thanks a lot for my best experience so far with a MOOC course. I'm taking the course from Germany and got a lot of information on the cultural background, which help me enjoying my music collection even more. A must do course for anyone interested in music and/or 20th century culture.

My first Coursera class and it was so good! The class was interesting and enjoyable. The information was presented in a logical progression that made it easy to understand. The instructor is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the material. making the lectures even better.

Definitely, the widest and the most exciting course I've ever seen. It's so impressive how friendly and thoughtful John is, clearly understandable and accurate in details (especially for me as non-native speaker), which make this course above any ratings. Thank you a lot, John!

If you always have been insterested in rock music you must do this course. In Mr.Covach lectures, you can find out in a dinamic fun way artirts that you never have noticed before and also see what´s behind of big hits. So, I encourage you to do both parts of History of Rock!

Awesome lecturer, very knowledgeable! Bargain-priced experience to receive such massive, interesting information concisely and well threaded! I am not done since the allowance to pace myself truly has allowed me to even do this with my busy career. Ongoing thanks! Jorge

I really liked how in depth the speaker got. He knew what he was talking about and could clearly express that. One problem I had is I take notes during lectures and he spoke so fast I had a hard taking any. Besides this it was an awesome class that I totally enjoyed.

I enjoyed the whole course, from start to finish. As a life-long fan of music, I already had most of the pieces of the puzzle, but this course helped but it all together and illuminate a few areas I had not explored before. I can't wait to delve into Part II!