Prepare to major in all things Harry Styles! This upcoming spring, the pop star will be the subject of his very first college course at Texas Tech University.
Titled “Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet and European Pop Culture,” the class will be taught by Louie Dean Valencia, associate dean of digital history, and will focus on “the political development of the modern celebrity as related to questions of gender and sexuality, race, class, nation and globalism, media, fashion, fan culture, internet culture and consumerism.”
With the course, Styles becomes the latest whose music and celebrity has warranted a dive into academia, following in the footsteps of Beyoncé (Arizona State University’s “Lemonade: Beyoncé and Black Feminism” among many others) and Dr. Taylor Alison Swift (who got her own class at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music earlier this year, months before receiving her honorary doctorate in fine artist from the university and delivering a commencement speech to the Class of 2022).
Of course, this begs the question of which other pop artist’s career deserves to be seriously studied in the halls of higher education. Mariah Carey launched a Masterclass on her legendary voice back in April, but surely the Elusive Chanteuse’s oft-overlooked skills as a songwriter could provide more than enough material for any studious Lamb’s master’s thesis. Or maybe Swift’s pal Ed Sheeran — who inspired her to aspire for an honorary doctorate in the first place — should be studied for his use of mathematical symbols as album titles.
Should a history department somewhere delve into modern pop history for a class on the Spice Girls‘ impact on third- and fourth-wave feminism or the exploitation of Britney Spears under her 13-year legal conservatorship?
Head to class and vote in Billboard‘s latest poll below!