The hip new thing on college campuses the last few years have been courses dealing with certain celebrities and their impacts on culture as a whole. The Kanye Wests and Lady Gagas of the world. The University of Stanford is looking to one-up the rest however, by having musicians themselves instruct courses.
The university is teaming with Warner Music to have some of the latter's signees participate in class. The good news: It will be free and available to every student on campus. The bad news: It's an online course. And it's not exactly a music theory class either. It will be dealing primarily with "creative problem solving."
According to the university's website, "Creativity: Music to My Ears" will focus on music as a tool for unlocking creative potential. The course will feature appearances from Josh Groban, Jason Mraz, Tegan and Sara, Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) and Nate Ruess (fun.) over a six-week period.
"All of the projects in this experiential course will deal with some aspect of music, including listening, creating and sharing," the course description reads. "No musical talent is required -- just an interest in exploring the role that music plays in our lives."
The course will be instructed by engineering professor Tina Seelig, although there's no word as of yet whether the Stanford employee actually got to hang out with the various celebrity guest stars during production.
Featuring hit musicians in video classes is a great idea, regardless of subject. Certainly ensures the students are more likely to pay attention.
