Sara Gulgas

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Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Gulgas, S., & Hassan, N. (2019). “Inviting Vampires into the Home: MTV Aesthetics and the Portrayal of Youth and Heavy Metal Culture in the Lost Boys and Queen of the Damned”. In Heavy Metal at the Movies(p. 204). Abingdon, UK and New York, NY: Routledge.

Journals/Publications

• Gulgas, S. (2016). Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture. Popular Music and Society, 39(2), 271-273. doi:10.1080/03007766.2015.1065625

Presentations

• Gulgas, S. (2023, June).

  The Politics of a Countercultural Disordering of Time

  . International Association for the Study of Popular Music International ConferenceInternational Association for the Study of Popular Music.
• Gulgas, S. (2022, April). Postmodern Nostalgia and the Countercultural Disordering of Time. Nostalgia, Music and Music Studies ConferenceUCLA Center for Musical Humanities.
• Gulgas, S. (2022, January). Life after the Dissertation. PhDuh Informal Talk SeriesUniversity of Pittsburgh.
• Gulgas, S. (2022, March). The Harpsichord’s Role in Expressing Emerging Adulthood. Society for American Music Annual Conference.
• Gulgas, S. (2021, February). Resurgence of Disco in Contemporary Pop Music. University of Arizona High School Band Virtual Music Festival.
• Gulgas, S. (2021, June). “Discussion of Baroque Rock and the Politics of Memory”. Popular Music Books in Process Series. Virtual: Journal of Popular Music Studies, IASPM-US, and the Pop Conference.
• Gulgas, S. (2020, October). "The Expression and Reception of Emerging Adulthood in Rock". Department of Music Visiting Scholar Series. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.
  More info

  Since the 1960s, music critics have questioned artists’ incorporation of baroque musical elements into rock and have charged artists with either flaunting a newfound maturity in a self-serious manner or laying pretentious claims to cultural accreditation. Both interpretations are in direct contrast to rock music’s associations with adolescent entertainment. While artists sonically referenced baroque instrumentation and style in order to evoke associations with high society, respectability, the parental generation, and/or the all-encompassing past, they also used music from the distant past to accompany lyrical expressions of nostalgia for their relatively recent childhood. The anachronism created between the music and the lyrics can be interpreted as an ironic turn away from sentimentality for the past, but it can also be interpreted as an artist’s struggle to maintain an adolescent fanbase while transitioning into adulthood. I focus on these transitional moments in the careers of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Vampire Weekend, and Panic at the Disco as they relate to baroque rock’s inception in the 1960s and its revival in the early 2000s. I argue that baroque musical elements in rock should not be dismissed as posturing, but rather they should be heard as artistic expressions of emerging adulthood.
• Gulgas, S. (2019, August). "Baroque Rock and the Memory Politics of Representing the Distant Past". Representations of Early Music on Stage and Screen conference. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University.
  More info

  In the 1960s, many rock musicians incorporated the sonic signifiers of the distant past (harpsichords, string quarts, counterpoint, etc.) into the modern soundscapes of electronic psychedelia, creating the subgenre of baroque rock. By simulating the sound of the Baroque period, a style associated with aristocracy and the remote past, rock artists simultaneously subverted “high/low” distinctions of art and questioned nostalgic memory. For the purposes of this presentation, I analyze the promotional films for the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” and Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in order to highlight the social and political motivations inherent in musical and visual representations of the past. I argue that these artists evoke memory’s ability to reconstruct the past in order to offer alternative visions of social organization in the present.
• Gulgas, S. (2019, March). "How the Harpsichord Became Hip: Baroque Rock and the Mass Counterculture". Dana School of Music Lecture Series. Youngstown, Ohio: Youngstown State University.
• Gulgas, S. (2019, March). “Bach Transmogrified: The Cultural Accreditation of Baroque Rock”. Dana School of Music Lecture Series. Youngstown, Ohio: Youngstown State University.
• Gulgas, S. (2018, October). “Baroque Rock: An Embarrassing Stain on Rock’s Harder Image?”. American Musicological Society-Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Lecture Series. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives in Cleveland, Ohio: American Musicological Society and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
  More info

  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the American Musicological Society lecture series consists of two events each year that feature members of the Society presenting engaging lectures on topics relevant to the mission of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the holdings of its Library and Archives. The series brings scholarly work on rock and roll and popular music to a broader audience and showcases the musicological work of top scholars in the field.

Other Teaching Materials

• Gulgas, S. (2023.

  Course Content Design for MUS 231: What is Jazz? Online

  . University of Arizona.
  More info

  I designed a 7-week online version of MUS 231 which met the new Gen Ed Refresh requirements
• Gulgas, S. (2023. Best Practices for Completing the Readings and Listenings . University of Arizona.
  More info

  I created primers for my students that go over the best practices for completing both readings and listenings for all of my courses. These primers were designed to help students not only engage with readings and listenings, but also to help them take notes on these materials which will help them be successful in the course.
• Gulgas, S. (2023. Musical Elements Tutorials. University of Arizona.
  More info

  I created tutorials for my online courses to help students better understand the following musical elements: dynamics, tempo, timbre, and instrumentation.