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

It's a great course and so is the book that accompanies it. However the Course and Book titles are not entirely accurate. It should be called 'An American History of Rock'. There is relatively little discussion outside of America and this is only to serve the discussion of American rock.

The book in particular would benefit from a section at the end of each chapter or sidebars 'Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic'. As music becomes more fragmented in the 70s I imagine this criticism will become more important.

Another thought would be if the Course put a play list together in 'Deezer' and 'Spotify'. That would definitely 5-star the course

Still it's a great course and I really enjoyed it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class! I would do 5 stars but sometimes the professor begins to talk about a topic you think you need to take notes on but then goes "but we'll talk about that in another week" or he jumps around a lot. Sometimes it is hard to follow. But other than that I enjoy the class a lot! Music is a passion of mine so being able to take course to dive deeper and to discover new music is amazing.

A compact course pulling together a vast amount of information. The quizzes could be designed to provide better help in storing the newly acquired knowledge in long term memory. Currently they seem to be designed to support the memorization of inessential knowledge.

Everything perfect, but quizzes sometimes dig really deep in dates

As a standard overview, the course is fine. However, the lecturer skirts around or hand waves away controversial or difficult subjects, and he's apparently afraid of offending anyone by getting too close to saying "fuck" or "sex" even in an academic setting. Additionally, this course won't introduce anyone to forgotten and erased artists of the past - women are largely absent from his history of rock, even though Janis Joplin and The Supremes didn't come out of nowhere. The quizzes are also too heavy on the trivia - "who published what when" questions rather than critical thinking questions about why or how.

Sorry but although I found the topic of interest I found the delivery very dull. Yes, Prof Covach knows his stuff but basically what we got here was little more than a reading of text from his book. I know he explained why the actual music was not included but think he could have done more to provide links and stimulate listening. I eventually just started reading the transcribed text of the lectures as I did not find looking at Prof Covach's talking head at all stimulating. Prof Covach did nothing to stimulate discussion in the forums and although I posted a few things there was very little going on in the forums. I bought the book on the basis of being interested in the topic but it is not at all necessary for the course.

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.

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!

Amazing course!!! Was quite informative. The instructor explains things very well, He seems like one of those instructors who would love to share everything they know if time was not a constraint for them and I think that that's fantastic. Even though I wasn't planning to take the second part initially, I now most certainly will because I am so interested to know what happened later.

I THINK THIS IS A BRILLIANT COURSE. HOWEVER I DO THINK THE TIME ALLOCATED TO COMPLETING THIS IS NOT QUITE RIGHT. IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THE COURSE PROPERLY, YOU NEED NOT ONLY TO LISTEN TO THE VIDEOS. ARGUABLY YOU ALSO NEED TO READ THE TRANSCRIPTS. AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. THAT WILL TAKE A LOT MORE THAN THE TIME SUGGESTED IN THE COURSE OUTLINE.

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.