This was a great course to take my senior spring. It finished up my minor, I loved the content, and I had enough senioritis that I could get over the fact that Justin London was awful.

Essay assignments/exams - Writing about music history is fun, and connecting dots between artists, musical styles, and news of the time was a good thought experiment. It felt like an intro-level history course about music, and engaging with unique primary sources (songs) was a delight. Music listening assignments - recognizing artists, eras, and styles of blues. These feel like exercises with a huge barrier to entry, and you have to listen to a boatload of music to have a shot at it. It's fun homework! But testing on the content is stressful, and there is way more music than you will first anticipate. I definitely did not listen to all of it.

Justin struck me as scatterbrained in his explanations and unwilling to take students seriously. Many lectures felt like they just went in circles without making any clear points. He is clearly knowledgeable and gave some good advice on essays in office hours, but I would not want to take another course with him.