Popular music programs continue to expand into higher education in the United States. By examining the who, what, when, where, how, and why of existing higher education popular music programs, information for future development and assessment can be provided. This qualitative multiple case study explored the creation, implementation and operation…

The popular music performance undergraduate degree is a growing area within UK higher education. These courses carry a vocational emphasis and are popular with students looking to establish professional performing careers. As such, they are often marketed as an intermediary step towards this aspiration but, despite their popularity, there has been…

Community music is a successful concept in the world of music and music education. Based on ethnomusicological research, community music tries to implement the notion of music for all that transforms societies and people. While celebrating informal learning and the musical amateur, community music has never really been philosophically challenged…

Social activism and education have been associated with hip-hop since it emerged in New York City 38 years ago. Therefore, it might not be surprising that universities have become interested in hip-hop. This article aims to highlight this "hip-hop academisation" and analyse the discursive mechanisms that manifest in these academisation…

Suggests the "illusion of life" rhetorical perspective increases understanding about how discursive linguistic symbols and non-discursive aesthetic symbols function together to communicate and persuade in didactic music. Argues that lyrics and music work together to offer messages comprised of both conceptual and emotional content…

Discusses the role of popular music choirs in secondary schools and colleges. Their extensive repertoires, including folk music, jazz and show-tune medleys, and variety music, make pop choirs an excellent method for teaching singing skills and music theory. Information on starting a pop choir is included. (AM)

The job of college music programs is not only to teach the classics but also to teach and encourage appreciation of the relative merits of all forms and periods of music, and to teach methods of evaluating musical quality. (MSE)

Criticizes the curricula of most university music schools and conservatories in the United States for their lack of a global approach and for their focus on Western classical music. Encourages the development of a new curriculum that includes the study of folk, popular, and non-Western musics. (LS)

Believes that learning must have meaning for students and some promise of application to the real world. Maintains that music teachers cannot educate their students successfully through the traditional methods of instrumental instruction, but must teach by improvisation in order to appeal to each individual student and assist in the…

Addresses tendencies to force popular music into existing school music program formats, rather than include it as a form with its own musical integrity and authenticity. Urges music teachers not to dismiss popular music or turn it into elevator music. (CH)

Outlines a writing assignment for first-year composition students in which they choose a popular song and explicate its meaning both through prose and in a classroom presentation. Explains how to prepare students for public speaking regarding their essays. Discusses problems and argues for the assignment's usefulness. (HB)

In recent times, it has become difficult for even the best conservatorium graduates to achieve the traditional goals of concert performance or secure orchestral positions and this has profound effects on the work practices of musicians. There are important implications for teaching in a conservatorium, in terms of providing a learning experience…

Addresses the common confusion about the nature and use of intellect in the arts. Attempts to demonstrate the forces that promote and reinforce this confusion in relation to the nature and use of intellect in the arts. (CMK)

Examines how popular music preference in listening exercises influences apparent time passage in a study involving 80 University of Texas, Austin, music and nonmusic major undergraduate students. Shows no significant relationship between music preference and apparent time passage. Finds no significant differences attributable to level of music…

Popular Music Studies (PMS) is now taught in over 20 higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK and numerous others across the world. This article outlines the constituent parts of PMS in the UK and questions its status as a discipline in its own right. It concludes by arguing that, having established itself, PMS will need to deal with two key…