Resources for Popular Music and Music Learning and Teaching

These popular music and music education resources can be useful for those engaged in the practice of facilitating engagement and learning with popular music and those engaged in researching aspects of popular music in relation to music learning and teaching.

This curated set of resources will always be incomplete, in-process, and ever-growing. Send a message with additional suggestions.

Connecting Research and Practice

Contemporary Musicianship Initiatives via the Consortium for Innovation and Transformation in Music Education (CITME)

Music Education Books

Approaches & Plans

Coaching a Popular Music Ensemble – Steve Holley
Action-based Approaches in Popular Music Education – ed. Steve Holley, Kat Reinhert, Zack Moir
Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom: Teaching Tools from American Idol to YouTube [situated mostly in the context of higher ed music theory and musicology courses] ed. Nicole Biamonte
Electronic Music School – Will Kuhn & Ethan Hein

Research & Contextual Information

How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education – Lucy Green
Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy – Lucy Green
Bridging the Gap: Popular Music and Music Education – ed. Carlos Xavier Rodriguez’s
Alternative approaches in Music Education: Case studies from the field – ed. Ann Clements
Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education – [pre-release] ed. Gareth Dylan Smith, Zack Moir, Matt Brennan, Shara Rambarran, Phil Kirkman

Web-based Resources

Musical Futures (curriculum & pedagogy resources)
HipHop Music Education Resources
Journal of Popular Music Studies Blog
WhoSampled

Dedicated Research Journals

Journal of Popular Music Education
Journal of Popular Music Studies
Journal on the Art of Record Production
DanceCult – Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture
PerfectBeat – the Asia-Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture
Popular Music
Popular Music History
Popular Music and Society

Communities of Practice & Organizations

Related Books to Inform Practice

Electronic Dance Music (EDM)

Dance Music Manual: Toys, Tools, and Techniques 3d ed. – Rick Snoman

This book gives concrete suggestions and process for creating electronic dance music.

Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music – Mark J. Butler
Playing with Something That Runs: Technology, Improvisation, and Composition in DJ and Laptop Performance – Mark J. Butler
These two books provide analyses of EDM music and processes that can lead to new ways of hearing and understanding the music. This can be helpful for music educators generating lessons, units, or projects that provide students with interesting ways of engaging with the music.

Hip Hop

How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC – Paul Edwards
How to Rap 2: Advanced Flow and Delivery Techniques – Paul Edwards

Both books include information on how MCs flow and could inform approaches to helping learners rap.

Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop – Adam Bradley

Addresses issues of flow and rapping but with a larger focus on the lyrics of rap music and their relation to poetry.

Take a look at other curated resources for music education.

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Popular Music and Music Education Resources

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