This essay emphasizes ways to raise the student interests and help students develop skills for analyzing music and music performances through the television program "American Idol." As music classrooms experience an increase in the number of students from a variety of cultures, valuing the music of all cultures becomes increasingly important.…

The author contends that by reclaiming their own valuable connection to reflective artistic experience and reception, aesthetic theory and art education can contribute to a reconceptualization of autonomy and critique and, perhaps more importantly, to a reorientation of educational practice. Adorno's aesthetics is exceptionally relevant to this…

Draws guidelines from the promotional programs of popular performers and products to aid in the advancement of school publications. (MS)

Festivals of Song and Music in Finland became a significant factor in the development of Finnish cultural history and of nationalistic and patriotic feelings. (SK)

Far too many Americans and people in other societies face the pain of losing work, so that deprivation is not a rare event. But sometimes, and especially in a popular culture, it is not the job that is lost, but the promise that the job and the one who performed it would be valued. The calamity is to be good at one's trade and to find that it…

A symposium in the November 2006 issue of "College English" addresses the question, "What should college English be?" In this article, the author presents his answer to this question--it should be a functional approach to English studies. By English studies he means everything that is done in English departments. Most English departments teach…

The authors introduce manga to educators, inspired by the comics' explosive entry into U.S. popular culture. The word "manga" refers specifically to printed, Japanese-style comics found in graphic-novel format--not to be confused with "anime" (animated Japanese cartoons, including moving images on television, movies, video…

In this article, the author discusses how contemporary popular culture influences religious meaning of people in pluralistic society. One such powerful media that influences religious beliefs is the television. Meaning making about faith, how people make meaning, and the nature of those meanings are central concerns of religious education and…

Discusses the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and how it offers a way of seeing normally obscured relations of social power in the details of modern capitalist culture. Concentrates on claims about critical theory that have functioned as strategies of denial. (MS)

Assesses the fundamental features of the pop music industry in Hungary by exploring the ideas of P. Tagg, M. Dardai, and J. Marothy. (JD)

Surveys the evolution of American television criticism, suggesting that, with the current attention to textual and contextual criticism, it is now in an important stage of refinement. (MS)

Discusses the portrayal of Blacks in American Western films since the first Western was made in 1903. Also describes the changing social and historical context of the film industry as related to Blacks. (GC)

Discusses the importance of Hoggart's "The Uses of Literacy" in cultural studies. Notes the simplicity and grace in Hoggart's writing and his insistence on using plain and honest language. (PD)

Argues that, as an important part of popular culture, jazz and pop music can be the basis for a rigorous and serious program of musical education. (Author)

Five teachers respond to the title question, providing literary analysis of the cult film and explanations for its appeal. (RL)