Taylor is a really sweet, funny professor, and I liked having him for this class. He's clearly super passionate about the subject, and talks a lot about the research he's done on the topic. the information itself was pretty interesting for me, and I'm not a music major or anything. The biggest drawbacks for me were the assignments and the reading. There is SO MUCH reading for this class. Im talking easily a hundred pages a week, and most of it super academic in tone, so it's not exactly fun. There is not a ton of work asides from that, (two 5 page essays, a midterm and a final) but the grading is super hard to understand because he REFUSES to show you the rubric. My TA told us that we were docked points for not referencing specific readings, but couldn't tell us which reading ahead of time. Similarly, you could get ten points (!!) off of your essay if you didn't define all of the terms in the prompt, which was never mentioned beforehand. That definitely makes the class sound bad, but honestly I would take it again and just do more of the reading. All in all was very interesting and a good break if you're a STEM major.

Do not take this class. If you like to write 4 papers about literally nothing then I would recommend this class. He just lectures for 2 hours about seemingly nothing important. He has a midterm that is a paper, two prompts, and a final that has only essay questions. The slides in his lectures aren't helpful and I do not think I've met a single person who cares about the material in this class. He does not offer any rubrics for the papers/exams but gives them to the TAs when they are grading (basically you have to just take your best guess on everything you need to include in the paper). He seems like a sweet man outside of this class but he is sitting on a bit of a high horse in this class. He says every class that we will not have any MC or T/F on the exams because we are not in "high school." Do not take this class it is the most boring GE with way too much writing.

Professor Taylor was great. I don't know why everyone seems to not like him too much, however the only thing I can say might be because those were almost 6 years ago. But Music and Media was my favorite class so far at UCLA. I loved every single lecture, and barely had to study for the midterm and final because the material was so interesting that you just retain it as you go. The homework wasn't too bad at all. Only 1 or 2 readings a week that aren't very long and he even tells you to basically just skim them and get the main ideas out of them. I had the TA Deonte and he was SO great. I HIGHLY recommend this class. Also, there are two essays but you have plenty of time and the prompts are extremely easy and I hate writing essays but these were actually enjoyable because the material is great. And they help you indirectly study for the final. The class description is a little off though, Music and Media traces music starting at the record player all the way up to the ipod. While also looking at the advertising industry, radio, and TV (whole lecture on MTV). Basically just take this class. It's awesome.

btw Taylor does have a slightly annoying voice for the first day, but you get used to it. And I think he definitely seems passionate about the topic considering he's dedicated his entire life to it basically. Also not to brag for him but he taught this subject at Columbia and he went to Yale music school for grad school. Just sayin!