Texas State University launches course on the work of Harry Styles

Texas State University has announced it will offer a course on the work of Harry Styles.

• READ MORE: Harry Styles live in London: a powerful, inclusive and celebratory pop carnival

The honours course, titled ‘Harry Styles And The Cult Of Celebrity: Identity, The Internet And European Pop Culture’, will start in Spring 2023.

Sharing the news on Twitter, course leader Dr. Louie Dean Valencia wrote: “It’s official, official. I’m teaching the world’s first ever university course on the work of Harry Styles,” before posting the acceptance email alongside a brief outline of what the course will entail.

“This course focuses on British musician Harry Styles and popular European culture to understand the cultural and 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.”

It's official, official. I'm teaching the world's first ever university course on the work of #HarryStyles is happening Spring 2023 at @TXST University (see description).

This is what tenure looks like. Let's gooooo! 😊 pic.twitter.com/1z3vMZoxRV

— Louie Dean Valencia (@BurntCitrus) July 16, 2022

“Historians have always used artists, musicians to understand a moment in history,” Valencia explained in an interview with KXAN before going on to say that the course in Harry Styles is really about the history of the past 12 years.

Earlier this year, it was announced that New York University’s Clive Davis Institute had launched a new course on Taylor Swift.

The programme, which ran from January through March, covered “Swift’s evolution as a creative music entrepreneur, the legacy of pop and country songwriters, discourses of youth and girlhood, and the politics of race in contemporary popular music”.

Elsewhere, it was confirmed earlier this week that Styles’ ‘As It Was‘ is the biggest single of the year, beating Ed Sheeran and Fireboy DML’s single ‘Peru’ into second place, according to the UK’s Official Charts Company.

The track, which has topped the charts for 10 weeks, racked up 95million streams and was also the most physically purchased (11,000 units) and digitally downloaded (33,000 units) song of the year so far in the UK.