<p>In a BA program, there is generally a set of core requirements that must be met. USC Thornton’s for the existing BA in music are shown at the bottom of the page at [USC</a> Catalogue: The Schools: USC Thornton School of Music: Undergraduate Degrees](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2008/schools/music/undergraduate.html#humanities]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2008/schools/music/undergraduate.html#humanities)</p>
<p>Basically, there are 64 units of core requirements in writing, foreign languages and several other categories that are explained further at [USC</a> Catalogue: The Schools: USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: General Education Program](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2008/schools/college/gen_ed.html]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2008/schools/college/gen_ed.html) and there are 64 units of music courses.</p>
<p>The Popular Music Performance program will almost certainly retain the same core requirements (although they may steer you toward certain classes that can be used to satisfy those requirements), and I expect there will be about 64 units of music courses that are somewhat different from the existing BA in music.</p>
<p>A BM degree in music is usually much heavier on the music classes, with generally 70% to 90% of the course work in music and the rest in a much reduced set of core courses. Many BA programs would have you take only 30% to 40% of the total course work in music, so the USC program gives you more music classes than usual for a BA, but not as many as a BM program would require.</p>
<p>As you have found out, there are not many BM programs in Popular Music Performance and none that I can think of are at a school with as strong an academic reputation as USC. I would imagine that this is not going to be an easy program to get into. Good luck.</p>