Break on through to the other side: incorporating popular music into the classroom as a basis for musical understanding

Abstract

This paper focuses on issues raised when using contemporary music as a basis for developing student’s musical understanding in the context of classroom music. The school classroom is a notorious site for the entanglement of musical meanings, values and experiences. Perhaps this is particularly so in relation to pupils’ ‘own’ music – the popular field – as against what they often refer to as ‘old people’s music’ – the classical field (Green 2006).

Green’s observation is pertinent to some of the problems music educators face in using contemporary music as a point of engagement with students in the classroom. In spite of these difficulties, Green points out that: … popular music can be educationally valued, both for itself and in relation to its potential for leading pupils out into a wider sphere of musical appreciation (ibid).

The use of technology as a tool for appealing to students is also discussed as well as the issues of digital appropriation, intellectual property and the lack of boundaries the world-wide-web has created in cyberspace.