A very interesting yet easy class. Professor De Castro is a very chill but fun teacher. He makes class enjoyable, keeps students up-to-date with any changes to the coursework, and is patient and willing to help his students. The coursework was very interesting and not work heavy. The way this class works (at least, the way it worked during COVID-19 distance learning) was that you would read a chapter of the book and memorize a few songs each week. There was one paper and there were two exams, all of which were very easy as long as you did the coursework and kept up with the lectures. If you are interested in old-timey jazz music (pre-World War II) or are just looking for a fun and easy class, this one is for you!

Prof. De Castro was a very friendly and helpful instructor. He brought very good and interesting material to each discussion section, often using great videos and pictures to supplement his information. There was no music background required. If a student was curious and asked, he would go more in depth on any subject, and he seemed to be very knowledgeable on particular subjects, especially relating to Latin jazz and big band leaders. He shared with us the must-knows of early American Jazz history, was well as sharing lesser-known, but fascinating, stories of particular musicians and songs. Listening to all the music, and learning the backstories behind the composers and performers was fun, and I could tell Prof. De Castro was passionate about his subject. Overall, it was a fun and informative quarter!

Love this class, was so easy and interesting. Professor De Castro is nice and engaging. Highly recommend!

I highly recommend this class! I took this course as a G.E having no music background, yet the professor made me learn a lot about the music industry. The history of Jazz is quite interesting actually, and the professor knows A LOT about the artists, songs, and history! He cares about the students and gives various hints on what may come up on the midterm and final which are very easy if you listen to the songs daily and briefly review lecture slides. Overall, what makes this class interesting is not only the content itself but also since the professor truly enjoys teaching the material and sharing his knowledge of jazz.

EASIEST GE IVE EVER TAKEN IN MY LIFE. I took it fall 2020 online during covid. From what I remember, we had open note midterm and final. It was mostly the notes, which you had right there with a few questions from the textbook. It also had questions where you had to listen to a song and identify which song it was. But, as long as you listen to them a lot, they're pretty good, you'll do more than okay. He also gave us practice questions in class before each which were on the midterm and final. You have to buy the course textbook and materials as that is how you take required weekly quizzes. These quizzes were so so easy. He let you take it without a limit; so you could retake it over and over and get 100%. TAKE THIS CLASS FOR THE EASIEST GE EVER.

Slight work

Very boring class unless you are very interested in the material. Each 2 hour class featured documentary segments and slides that you would copy down. However, the class was fairly easy.

This has been and probably will be the easiest class I take at UCLA. Professor De Castro is a solid lecturer and is pretty witty so chances are you'll have a fun time in this class. He does not post presentation slides so attending lecture (though not mandatory) is kind of a must. If the musical aspect of this course is intimidating, just know that you truly don't need intense knowledge of music theory to succeed in this class. There is one midterm and one final which are stupid easy (no cap). All you have to do is memorize some songs and simple facts about musicians from lecture. It is possible to study for the exams a day before, but from personal experience I wholly do not recommend. A textbook is "required" but it's not necessary and I did not open it a single time this entire quarter. There is a 5-10 paper due towards the end of the quarter, which I also did the day before and did fine on (if you have an extensive musical background definitely use it but if your knowledge of music is basic like me then definitely go for a more historical/socio-political lens when addressing the prompts). Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this class, liked the professor and TA's, and actually learned quite a bit with the bonus of it being an easy GE.

This class is easy...but gosh is it boring material. I recommend listening to the songs consistently for a couple of weeks leading up to the midterm and continuing until the final because the songs WILL all sound the same at one point. To differentiate between the songs I recommend listening and distinguishing for certain instruments. Professor De Castro's lectures are boring but I did attend them all and take some notes because he covers material outside the book that can show up on a quiz or exam.