This module develops themes introduced in the preceding autumn semester module 'Songwriting Style and Context 1', where students explore songwriting, songwriters and song repertoires, and the creation of meaning and the construction of identity through songwriting and performance, in various cultural, economic, social, political and historical contexts. A defining feature of this module is the focus on exemplary songwriters, through the inclusion of student-led seminars with a number of songwriters and practitioners from the music industry.

The many processes involved in songwriting are examined across a range of genres, cultures and epochs, engaging with exemplary songwriters, repertoires and practices, within their cultural, economic, social, political and historical contexts.Students engage with the multiple ways in which song style and performance practice develop in response to shifting social, economic, political and artistic conditions. The module examines how these act as important identity markers for communities of practice, and how songwriters negotiate the representation and dissemination of image and songs as commercially mediated products or commodities. Students deepen their knowledge and experience from connected module 'Songwriting Style and Context 1'. Building on the skillsets and insights achieved in its pre-cursor module in Semester One, part of the assessment of this module includes seminars which will be convened and led by the students. The seminars can also function as public events for the wider student community in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance as well as the campus community more generally.

Knowledge and understanding of various songwriting genres and songwriting practices. Knowledge and understanding of specific songwriters craft. Knowledge and understanding of the processes and contexts which shape songwriting. An ability to analyse specific songs in their wider historical, social, cultural and production contexts.

Develop a deeper understanding of the songwriting process. Enhance student understandings of the affective dimensions of the creative process.

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The module is delivered through a series of weekly seminars. There is particular emphasis on including the first-hand experiences of leading song-writing practitioners as well as musicologists, sociologists, cultural historians and other academic disciplines in the delivery of the seminars. The case-study approach is utilized in order to give students a 360-degree perspective on the writing of individual songs. A range of teaching strategies are used ranging from public conversations/interviews with songwriters to the more traditional lecture format. Students develop their capacity for critical thinking and develop greater awareness of the wider historical, and cultural contexts of their own and others' artistic practices.