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John Covach
Director, Institute for Popular Music; Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department; Professor of Theory, Eastman School of Music
Arts, Sciences, and Engineering
Department of Music
Areas of expertise: History of Rock and Roll, Analysis of Popular Music, The Beatles, Music Theory
Press contact:
Valerie Alhart
valerie.alhart@rochester.edu
585.276.3256
Related Links:
www.johncovach.com
What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History
In the News
Ft. Myers News-Press
Hip-hop concerts: Outrage over controversial music genres is nothing new
September 08, 2013
(585) Magazine
Rock scholar: Counterculture becomes canon at the University of Rochester's Institute for Popular Music
July 02, 2013
Takepart.com via Yahoo! News
Millennials Speak Out: We Don’t Need Classrooms to Learn
June 11, 2013
Yahoo! News
Will MOOCs Change Higher Education for the Better?
May 31, 2013
News Releases
University of Rochester Creates Institute for Popular Music
December 17, 2012
Rock, Pop Historian John Covach on the Death of Whitney Houston
February 13, 2012
Rock, Pop Historian John Covach Assesses Michael Jackson
June 25, 2009
Biography
John Covach (Professor of Music, University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music) is the director of the University's Institute for Popular Music and author of the leading textbook history of rock music, What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History (Second Edition, WW.Norton & Co., 2009).
He received his Bachelor of Music (1983), Master of Music (1985) and Ph.D. (1990) in music theory from the University of Michigan. He was also a Fulbright student in Vienna, Austria in 1987-88. The recipient of several teaching awards and citations, Professor Covach teaches theory and analysis as well as courses in popular music. Since 1993, he has taught large-lecture courses on rock at University of North Texas, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and University of Rochester and has lectured across North America and Europe. He is co-editor of Understanding Rock (Oxford 1997), American Rock and the Classical Music Tradition (Harwood 2000), and Institutions, Traditions, and American Popular Music (Harwood 2000). His extensive writings on twentieth-century music, popular music, and the philosophy of music have appeared in numerous books and journals. Professor Covach also maintains an active career as a performing and recording musician.