Commercial and Popular Music in Higher Education brings together working examples of pedagogy in emerging areas of popular and commercial music to offer practical insights and provide a theoretical framework for today’s music educators. Written by a diverse group of experts, the eight chapters address a range of contemporary contexts, including digital instrument ensembles, digital audio workstations, hip hop courses, pop vocal performance, rock bands, studio production, and more. Considering both the challenges and the benefits of integrating commercial and popular music into teaching, the contributors explore how doing so can enhance student learning. The authors show how a constructivist approach to music pedagogy enables student-led, real-world learning in higher education, and consider how diversity, equity, and inclusion intersect with teaching popular music performance. Compiling experiences and expert resources, this book provides a vital framework for all instructors teaching commercial and popular music.

As music educators continue to explore various ways of learning and teaching popular music, recognizing and understanding a blend of traditional and non-traditional pedagogies that engage teachers and learners in authentic practices is of vital importance. To meet this emerging need, Action-based Approaches in Popular Music Education delves into the practices and philosophies of 26 experienced music educators who understand both the how and the why of popular music education. This edited collection represents the variety, the diversity, and the multiplicity of ideas and approaches to the teaching and learning of popular music. It’s these actionable approaches, practices, applications, lessons, and ideas that will enable music educators to understand how to better incorporate popular music into their teaching. This book is not an antidote to the lack of uniformity in popular music education – it is a celebration of it.

This book includes a discussion of the many possible definitions of popular music, information on how popular musicians learn, and specific examples of educational programs that incorporate popular music with suggestions on how to choose high quality repertoire. --From publisher's description.

This text provides an overview of the four major areas of American contemporary music: jazz, rock, country, and musical theater. Each genre is approached chronologically with the emphasis on the socio-cultural aspects of the music. Readers will appreciate Joyner's engaging writing style and come away with the fundamental skills needed to listen critically to a variety of popular music styles.

Music education has historically had a tense relationship with social justice. One the one hand, educators concerned with music practices have long preoccupied themselves with ideas of open participation and the potentially transformative capacity that musical interaction fosters. On the other hand, they have often done so while promoting and privileging a particular set of musical practices, traditions, and forms of musical knowledge, which has in turn alienated and even excluded many children from music education opportunities. The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education provides a comprehensive overview and scholarly analyses of the major themes and issues relating to social justice in musical and educational practice worldwide. The first section of the handbook conceptualizes social justice while framing its pursuit within broader contexts and concerns. Authors in the succeeding sections of the handbook fill out what social justice entails for music teaching and learning in the home, school, university, and wider community as they grapple with cycles of injustice that might be perpetuated by music pedagogy. The concluding section of the handbook offers specific practical examples of social justice in action through a variety of educational and social projects and pedagogical practices that will inspire and guide those wishing to confront and attempt to ameliorate musical or other inequity and injustice. Consisting of 42 chapters by authors from across the globe, the handbook will be of interest to anyone who wishes to better understand what social justice is and why its pursuit in and through music education matters.

College Music Curricula for a New Century considers what a more inclusive and socially engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in universities. Its goal is to create dialogue about how to transition to new paradigms and how they might be implemented in practical terms, based on existing experiments taking place nationally and internationally.