<p>My son is a freshman singer/songwriter in the Popular Music program and is very happy. I don’t remember the application that well, but I can tell you that the program is pretty diverse. A fair number of singer/songwriters but also a violinist and a saxophonist who are popular music majors (and amazingly talented according to my son). So, I think that the program appears to not define what it is looking for narrowly, but rather is looking for top talent. </p>
<p>Son had to audition, so I wonder if you wouldn’t need to at least play guitar for the audition and maybe look at also being a guitar major. For the audition you could bring someone else singing on cd and then play along. Son brought extra instrumental accompaniment on a cd to go along with him playing guitar and singing and was complimented on the arrangement so that is not viewed negatively.</p>
<p>The people running the popular music program are very friendly and want you to be comfortable during the audition etc. While I can give some experiences and perspective from an applicants family, you should probably e-mail them with specific questions to get precise answers. The gentleman who runs the program is Chris Sampson and his e-mail is “<a href=“mailto:sampson@usc.edu”>sampson@usc.edu</a>”</p>
<p>Good Luck</p>