This GE is honestly the worst class I've taken at UCLA. I actually made an account on Bruinwalk just to warn people about this class. I thought this would be a good GE to broaden my interests and learn about something new, but Prof Schwartz has singlehandedly ruined the genre for me. The class went from learning about different scenes in Punk history to the professor literally spewing random words and talking about hip hop and rap. The professor completely changed the plan of the course during 6th week - she changed the midterm, final and said she was no longer going off the syllabus. It's almost completely pointless to go to lectures because Professor Schwartz doesn't give us any information about what we're talking about, she just goes deep into her theoretical analysis of songs and artists and makes references most of the class doesn't get. She says she doesn't want to just teach a "survey course", but doesn't give us enough background information to actually form our own ideas. To add onto that, she makes class into this really hostile environment by guilting students into answering questions when most people don't even know what's going on since she makes no sense. Even the TAs say they have no idea what's going on most of the time.

tldr; worst class at UCLA. avoid at all costs.

This class is very confusing, the students, T.A.'s & even the professor don't know whats going on most of the time. Basically, the professor throws out a bunch of information and you have to pick up on one thing. She plays more rap songs than punk, but I guess that makes this class more Punk. The professor doesn't like people using phones or laptops in class and she gets mad when people skip lecture.

This was the worst class i have ever taken at UCLA. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING. the class was so bad that the department of musicology emailed us apologizing for how it was taught. We all got automatic As. Maybe it will be better and she will think of a new teaching method, but arguing with students, not showing up to multiple lectures, and never giving clear instructions on the assignments to the students (or even the TAs!!) was just not doing it for me. Attending the class was not worth my time. Also, if you tried to leave early, she would call you out on it, which considering she sometimes didnt show up without giving warning, AND she often rambled on unrelated topics/wasted our time, i thought was pretty rude

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. This is the worst class I have EVER taken at UCLA. I sat in lecture for two hours twice weekly and learned absolutely nothing. Professor Schwartz is incredibly difficult to understand and gets angry when you don't answer her questions. She claims attendance is mandatory but there is no attendance sheet except for in discussion. However, she does get angry when people do not show up to class. You are not allowed to use electronics under any circumstances in this class and she even makes the TA's walk around the lecture and police everyone so that there are not phones out. Her lectures are rarely in order, they jump from subject to subject with no connection, and the slides are full of paragraphs of source text. The grading in this class completely changed Week 6 due to a ccle malfunction and we don't have anything in the grade book as of Thursday of Week 10. This class and Professor Schwartz completely ruined my love of punk music. This class claims to be about the study of punk music but rarely had anything to do with that. The only thing I learned in this class is how to suffer through a class taught by a professor that claims to hate the division between students and themselves and yet cannot take criticism about their confusing lectures. This is a terrible class. I wish I had listened to the bruinwalk reviews before enrolling. It is a waste of time and extremely frustrating. I've said this before, but DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

Halfway through the quarter, I really didn’t know what was going on in the course structurally. I felt like I was in this total limbo not knowing how well I was doing until after I got my final grade. I really appreciate punk music, but the class was super confusing. However, God bless the TA’s for being so chill and great despite the confusion. I had Wade, who was AWESOME, really laid things on the floor, and would challenge you to expand and refine your ideas during discussion section. He’d even talk to us about the concerns we had with the class. Thank you so much for doing all you can to make this a better experience, Wade!

I don't really recommend her class unless you enjoy being confused. She only puts up the powerpoints of the first four weeks without being asked after that you must ask her to put them up. She moves on too quickly for you to be able to write down the notes of the class. Her prompts for her modules were really confusing. The first part of the modules she recommends for you to take notes because she says it will be helpful for the second part which are paragraph answers to a prompt she gives. Honestly, the prompts are so confusing that it makes you think the notes you took were kind of useless. I even asked someone who helps me with my writing to help me decode the prompt and they were left confused by it. it honestly sometimes just seems she gets a thesaurus and uses that to translate every word.

Profesor Schwartz is the living embodiment of Punk Rock. She definitely knows her material. I am someone who came in listening to the more obscure genres of Punk and she was able to explain perfectly each subculture and teach me even more. The class was fairly straightforward and easy. Of course, you need to attend lecture in order to fully understand the material (I don't suggest skipping class just to read the notes online, it'll ruin your grade). There were 4 components of the grade: Midterm (essay), Final (paper), Modules (song analysis), and Creative Project (performance). The students in the class who weren't musically profound were able to achieve perfect marks on the performance portion.

The reading is definitely a lot but take away the important details (don't obsess over every little word). TAs help clarify on the week's topic and the readings too. Also, the language in class can be a bit too much, but I understand Professor Schwarz perfectly fine.

My tips to getting an A: 1) Attend every discussion and class, even if you are tired. Lecture material is very relevant. Missing information won't kill you but not having enough will. 2) Study the IMPORTANT of the bands and cultures, along with the historical significance of songs. 3) Have fun! Don't be negative. Absorb whatever you can.

I haven’t gotten my grade yet so this review is gonna be pretty genuine. Bruh.....WORST CLASS I’VE TAKEN AT UCLA. I’d rather sit through my psychological stats class that go through this again. I really have nothing nice to say about this professor except for the fact that she has excellent messy bun skills. First off, she gets pissed if people don’t show up to lecture, and is extremely rude if you email her. She won’t even answer your question, and will just tell you to talk to your TA. She also gets pissed if people have phones or laptops out, and have the poor TAs stand all class to make sure no one has them out. The only reason I made somewhat of an effort in this class is because of my TA, Monica. She’s a real sweetheart. But with that being said, even the TAs didn’t know what was going on half the time, because the professor would just spew out random information, and would play random music that wasn’t punk, AT ALL. One day she played Travis Scott, another day she played Justin Bieber....totally not part of the punk genre at all. The worst part was, if you asked a question, most of the time she would reply with, “well, I don’t know....” Like thanks. We spend thousands of dollars to take this class and you give an answer like that. Total waste of time and you don’t learn anything about punk. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

I was really excited about this class at first, because the subject matter is very interesting and Prof Schwartz is cool and knows a lot about Punk. However, as the quarter progressed, I felt like some of the content in her lectures was over her head and things started to feel disorganized. This made it hard to pay attention during lectures, which were very sparsely attended (I went to almost every one but didn't feel like I was getting much out of it towards the end). Discussions were cool, and so was my TA Kristie, although once she gave us a pop quiz on the reading and I literally did not know how to answer a single question (I never did the readings). The punk modules/final assignment took a good deal of time and I'm not sure how I feel about the format of them, but I think they were a better form of assessment than memorization/tests for this subject. One thing I will applaud Prof Schwartz on is bringing in AWESOME guest speakers -- anyone who didn't attend lectures on the days that they came really missed out. Overall, it was a good GE but not a great one. It was interesting but started to feel pretty repetitive towards the end. Not hard though. The extra credit is easy, so definitely do it if you can.

I thought I liked music, but apparently, I did not like it enough to really enjoy this class.
If you are not a true fan of punk or musical analysis, I would dissuade you from taking this class. Why? This class is mostly memory-based, so it will be a nightmare if you are not extremely interested in the class to begin with. I know that was the case for me.
As far as teaching goes, I don't think Professor Schwartz is a very good lecturer. Her powerpoints are filled with words(many copied directly from primary sources), and she does not speak very clearly. She has a way of making simple sentences very complicated.
All in all, though, I think Prof. Schwartz really do care about this class and her students. Her TAs tend to be very great too!