Popular music pedagogy — alternatively called popular music education, rock music pedagogy, or rock music education — is a development in

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

consisting of the systematic teaching and learning of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

both inside and outside formal classroom settings. Popular music pedagogy tends to emphasize group

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

and is more often associated with community music activities than fully institutionalized school music ensembles. The origins of popular music pedagogy may be traced to the gradual infusion of rock music into formal schooling since the 1960s (in the UK, the USA, and elsewhere), however it has expanded as a specialization to include the offering of degree programs — including

graduate degree Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and struc ...

s — in institutions of higher education. Some notable community institutions, such as Cleveland's

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

and Seattle's

Experience Music Project The Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP is a nonprofit museum in Seattle, Washington, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Since then MoPOP has organized ...

have also contributed to the development of popular music pedagogy through symposia and educational outreach programs. The UK has pioneered the teaching of popular music, the first degree programme beginning as early as 1994 at

Salford University , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

. Postgraduate programmes were later introduced, for example at the Institute of Popular Music at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. There are now more than 76 popular music studies degree programmes in the UK. These programs expanded when the UK government made popular music a core part of schools' music provision through the

Curriculum 2000 Curriculum 2000 was a reform of A Level examinations in the United Kingdom. It was introduced in September 2000 (with the first AS-Level examinations held in Summer 2001 and A2 examinations the following year). An A Level under this reform consist ...

developments. The effect rippled into other countries as well. Popular music is commonly taught in German speaking countries and in Ghana, for example.http://www.iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/article/view/563 It is also increasingly common in Australia. However, popular music courses tend to be based in newer institutions, rather than older more traditional ones, which often still focus principally on classical music.

Degree programs

Numerous institutions worldwide now offer popular music pedagogy as a component of their degree programs. The following is a partial list of institutions that offer advanced degree programs in popular music pedagogy and related fields:

Australia

Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian ...

(B. Popular Music)

Denmark

* Rhythmic Music Conservatory

Finland

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy ( fi, Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemia, sv, Sibelius-Akademin vid Konstuniversitetet) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It al ...

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Music Degree

Ireland

Cork School Of Music Cork Institute of Technology (CIT; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Chorcaí) was an institute of technology, located in Cork, Ireland. Upon its dissolution, the institute had 17,000 students studying in art, business, engineering, music, dra ...

The Netherlands

* Fontys Rockacademie,

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

* Academie voor Popcultuur (Academy for Pop Culture),

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

Norway

University of Agder The University of Agder ( no, Universitetet i Agder), formerly known as Agder College and Agder University College, is a public university with campuses in Kristiansand and Grimstad, Norway. The institution was established as a university co ...

. Department of Popular Music

United Kingdom

Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) is a performing arts higher education institution in Liverpool, founded by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty and opened in 1996. LIPA offers 11 full-time BA (Hons) degrees in a range ...

University of Huddersfield
*

University of the West of Scotland The University of the West of Scotland ( gd, Oilthigh na h-Alba an Iar), formerly the University of Paisley, is a public university with four campuses in south-western Scotland, in the towns of Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, Blantyre, South Lanar ...

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

United States

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

Shenandoah University Shenandoah University is a private university in Winchester, Virginia. It has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students across more than 200 areas of study in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences (including the Division of Education and Le ...

Westminster Choir College , mottoeng = Let us be judged by our deeds , established = 1926 , type = Private , president = Gregory G. Dell'Omo , dean = Marshall Onofrio , city = Dayton, OH (1926–1929), Ithaca, NY (1929–1932), Princeton, NJ (1932–2020), Lawrenc ...

Popular music festivals in the United States of America
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Austin City Limits Music Festival The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on two consecutive three-day weekends. Inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series of the same name, the festival is produced by Austin-base ...

- Austin, TX *

Beale Street Music Festival Memphis in May International Festival is a month-long festival held in Memphis, Tennessee. The festival, which is saluting Ghana in 2022, honors a specific foreign country every year and features many events. The ''Beale Street Music Festival'' ...

- Memphis, TN *

Bonnaroo Music Festival The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in ...

- Manchester, TN *

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

Music Marathon - New York, NY *

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

- Indio, CA *Counterpoint - Kingston Downs, GA * Electric Daisy Carnival - New York, NY *

The Fest The Fest is an annual music festival in Gainesville, Florida, United States, organized by Tony Weinbender, formerly of No Idea Records. It is a predominantly punk rock and pop-punk festival, though there are also a good number of indie rock, ...

- Gainesville, FL *

Firefly Music Festival Firefly Music Festival is a music festival produced by AEG Presents that was first held on July 20–22, 2012, in Dover, Delaware. Firefly takes place in The Woodlands of Dover Motor Speedway, a festival ground, over the span of three days. Ma ...

- Dover, DE *

Fun Fun Fun Fest Fun Fun Fun Fest (often abbreviated as "FFF" or "F3F") was an annual music and comedy festival held in Austin, Texas, United States. The festival was the only genre based festival in the United States, featuring stages that focused specifically ...

- Austin, TX * Governors Ball Music Festival - New York, NY and Las Vegas, NV *

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

- Chicago, IL *

Riot Fest Riot Fest is an annual three-day punk rock music festival based in Chicago, Illinois, at Douglass Park. It is known for booking reunions, guest performances, and full album performances. Riot Fest remains one of the largest independently owned m ...

- Chicago, IL *

Rock the Bells Rock the Bells was an annual hip-hop festival that originally took place in Southern California only, but has since toured throughout the world. The concert featured a line-up of high-profile alternative hip-hop artists, often headlined by a mor ...

- TBA *

Sasquatch! Music Festival Sasquatch! Music Festival was an annual music festival held at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, United States. It took place on Memorial Day weekend, running for three to four days. In 2018, it was announced that the festival was ...

- Gorge, WA *

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

- Austin, TX *

TomorrowWorld TomorrowWorld was an electronic music festival, held in the Atlanta metropolitan area within the town of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. Held from 2013 to 2015, the festival was a spinoff of the Belgian festival Tomorrowland. The festival was ...

- Chattahoochee Hills, GA *

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, bu ...

- Miami, FL *

Voodoo Experience The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience (formerly The Voodoo Music Experience), commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, is a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Voodoo Experience has hosted more ...

- New Orleans, LA *

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

- Various locations

References

Bibliography

Around the Sound: Popular Music in Performance, Education, and Scholarship
- symposium proceedings (2001, Seattle: University of Washington Publications, for the Experience Music Project), *Cooper, B. Lee & Condon, Rebecca A. ''The Popular Music Teaching Handbook: An Educator’s Guide to Music-Related Print Resources'' (Libraries Unlimited, 2004). *Davis, Sharon G
"That Thing you Do!: Compositional Processes of a Rock Band"
''International Journal of Education and the Arts'' 6 no. 16 (2005). *Green, Lucy. (2002). ''How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education''. Aldershot: Ashgate (2002). *Hebert, David G.
Originality and Institutionalization: Factors Engendering Resistance to Popular Music Pedagogy in the U.S.A.
" ''Music Education Research International'' 5, pp. 12–21 (2011). *Hebert, D. G
Jazz and Rock Music
In W. M. Anderson & P. S. Campbell (Eds.), ''Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education'', Vol.1 (third edition) (pp. 112–127). Lanham, MD: Rowman-Littlefield Publishers (2011). *Hebert, David G. & Campbell, Patricia Shehan
Rock Music in American Schools: Positions and Practices Since the 1960s
" ''International Journal of Music Education'' 36 no. 1, pp. 14–22 (2000). *Lebler, Don "Popular Music Pedagogy: Peer Learning in Practice." ''Music Education Research'' 10 no. 2, pp. 93–213 (2008). *Oehler, Susan & Hanley, Jaso
"Perspectives of Popular Music Pedagogy in Practice: An Introduction." ''Journal of Popular Music Studies'' 21 no. 1, pp.2-19 (2009).
*Powell, B; Krikun, A; & Pignato, J. M. “Something’s happening here!”: Popular music education in the United States
IASPM Journal
5(1), 4-22 (2015). *Rodriguez, Carlos Xavier (Ed.). ''Bridging the Gap: Popular Music and Music Education'' (2003, MENC). *Smith, G.D. (2014). Popular music in higher education. In G. Welch & I. Papageorgi (Eds.)
Advanced Musical Performance: Investigations in Higher Education Learning
(pp. 33–48). Farnham: Ashgate. *Stimeling, T. & Katz, M.
Songwriting as Musicological Inquiry: Examples from the Popular Music Classroom
" ''Journal of Music History Pedagogy'' 2 (2011). *Tønsberg, Knut. Value changes in Norwegian music education. From increased acceptance of rock to a reduced status for classical music? ''Nordic research in music education.'' Yearbook Vol, 14. 145-166. (2013).

External links

International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM)Association for Popular Music Education (APME)International Society for Music EducationMayDay GroupExperience Music ProjectRock and Roll Hall of Fame and MuseumDr Fung's International Music Education LinksVisions of Research in Music Education
{{education * Occupations in music Rock music