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Popular music education and American democracy: Why I coined the term ‘modern band’ and the road ahead
- Source: Journal of Popular Music Education, Volume 4, Issue 1, Mar 2020, p. 117 - 125
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- 10 Jan 2020
- 12 Jan 2020
- 01 Mar 2020
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Abstract
In this article, the author, the founder and CEO of Little Kids Rock, describes how his early work as an elementary school teacher providing an extracurricular guitar club, evolved into him founding a music education non-profit organization. By inventing the term ‘modern band’ and joining nationwide leading efforts for systemic change in US American music education, the author tries to place popular music conceptually and pedagogically at the core of school music programmes. The author briefly describes the causes of the exclusion of popular music from school music programmes before arguing that modern band can help to democratize school music education by making it culturally relevant, student-centred and inclusive. The article concludes with the author’s hopes for the future of music education in the United States.