How can music educators explore the intersections of spirituality, relationships, and music education? The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Pixar film, "Soul," models the transformation that can occur when a music teacher embraces spirituality and the preciousness of everyday life both in and out of the classroom through…

This article explores the ways in which popular musicians in Malaysia learn the craft of Western popular music-making in comparison to those in the United Kingdom. Literature that studied popular musicians and their practices had largely focused on communities within Anglosphere regions, and there are insufficient understandings of the journeys of…

As popular music education programs become more common, it is essential to determine what kinds of professional development experiences that are designed to help teachers include popular music into their music education classrooms are effective--keeping in mind that the inclusion of popular music in K-12 classrooms requires a change not only in…

In recent years, a strong focus on popular music has increased in South Korean music education. Although this shift in the curricular content has led to studies on the formation of popular music repertories in the curriculum, few studies have attended to teachers' attitudes and learning practices to popular music as related factors. To understand…

The purpose of this article is to utilize new conceptions of music literacy to support and encourage popular music experiences in music education. A new definition of music literacy is presented and authentic popular music resources that function as (newly defined) texts to develop music literacy are identified and discussed. Finally,…

In Western countries, music educators have made efforts to revitalise enthusiasm for music education by integrating more mainstream and culturally-relevant genres into their curriculum. Conversely, current research indicates that popular music pedagogy in mainland China is not encouraged and faces many obstacles, as school music education is used…

The increased attention to the use of popular music within the classroom is not new. In fact, music educators in many countries have discussed the incorporation of popular music into mainstream music education for decades. South Korea is no exception, and the younger generation has a genuine interest in and sensitivity toward popular music. Yet,…

Music education scholarship in the areas of popular, vernacular, and participatory musicianship has grown in the past decades; however, music education research concerned specifically with hip-hop has been relatively scarce. Because hip-hop music can differ tremendously from the traditional western genres with which many music educators are most…

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…

In this article, I share findings from a research study about a high school Hip-Hop course in the United States and offer considerations toward informing culturally responsive teaching and decentering Whiteness in music education. I explored the experiences and perceptions of majority students of color in a Hip-Hop course taught by a White music…

This case study employed multimodal methods and visual analysis to explore how a young multilingual student used music improvisation to form a speech rap. This student, recently arrived in Australia from Ethiopia, created piano music that was central to his music identity and that simultaneously, through dialogue with his mother, enhanced his…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of songs in different languages on English language learners' (ELLs) music preferences. The participants (N = 62) were Chinese graduate students from a state university in the Midwestern United States. The survey contained nine excerpts from popular songs in three languages: Chinese (the…

Despite many music classrooms welcoming popular musics in striving towards an inclusive and democratic education, there has been relatively little research into teachers' decisions regarding which popular musics are included and which are excluded from classroom activities. This is of particular interest taking into account arguments that the…

There has been little published pedagogical research on popular music group rehearsing. This study explores the perceptions of tutors and student pop/rock bands about the rehearsals in which they were involved as a part of their university music course. The participants were 10 tutors and 16 bands from eight British tertiary institutions. Analysis…

Ensemble work is a key part of any performance-based popular music course and involves students replicating existing music or playing "covers". The creative process in popular music is a collaborative one and the ensemble workshop can be utilised to facilitate active learning and develop musical creativity within a group setting. This is…