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Inspiration or appropriation? Impetus for analysis

NPR’s weekend edition recently featured the story Inspiration Or Appropriation? Behind Music Copyright Lawsuits. The story leads with the question: “Where do you draw the line between inspiration and appropriation when it comes to musical compositions?” This is a fabulous generative, essential, or driving question that could lead to variegated investigations, projects, and student problem solving. As with similar reportage, this story features the perspectives of musicologists, in this case Judith Finell. This and similar generative questions can provide an impetus for… Read More »Inspiration or appropriation? Impetus for analysis

Hip Hop and Improvisation

The way hip hop is portrayed in the media plays a great role in the way our students and society in general perceive it. There has been an entire world of hip hop that has been left out of the mainstream media and that may soon change. The way rap is discussed in music classrooms can be greatly broadened if consciousness in hip hop becomes a part of the mainstream coverage of it and the conversations in our classrooms. Speaking… Read More »Hip Hop and Improvisation