In this seminar you will be introduced to the history of sociology of music, as well as to its key concepts and methodologies. The study of music as a social medium has had many ramifications throughout history: from critical (T. W. Adorno) to mediation theories of music (A. Hennion, G. Born), to the symbiotic relation between musical taste and social class (P. Bourdieu, N. Prior), or how music has the potential to act in the everyday life of people (T. DeNora). Such sociological approaches to music have been grounded on the widespread notion that music acts in different ways across society, shaping not only the perception of music but the performance of music itself. During the semester, we will survey the potential and limitations of such theories for the study and analysis of musical performance; we will also compare and combine these theories, as a way of better comprehending musical and performative phenomena. Considering sociology of music as a “self-critical musicology” (M. V. Carvalho), we will investigate not only music’s powers and effects but also how musicological discourse acts in mediating and shaping musical practices. We will combine class readings and discussions of key texts in the sociology of music and the sociology of music performance.