Skip to content

music education

From Conscious Hip Hop to Racism in the Jazz Age….

How has music education dealt with hip hop culture or rap music let alone issues of race and class when discussing listenership? Baakari Kitwana author of the recent book “Why White Kids Love Hip Hop”wrote a recent article in the Village Voice that looked at the fact that most “conscious” hip hop shows ( non-commercial and politically progressive) are attended predominantly by white youth. Some people might observe that more often than not, there tends to be a disassociation between… Read More »From Conscious Hip Hop to Racism in the Jazz Age….

The Mixtape in 2005….

Was John Cage really a DJ at heart? Whether or not Cage was making a very very old (school) mixtape, mixtape culture is ubiquitous. Though now in different forms , people still love sharing their own mixtapes. Do you know what your students would put on their own mixtapes or (CDs)/playlists/MP3blogs/Audioscrobblers? Why not find out? It might be interesting to collect all of our students lists and compile them to see if we can paint some kind of picture of… Read More »The Mixtape in 2005….

Breaking it down with the BBC….

Having trouble holding back the excitement of students wanting to remix their latest composition project with world news? Have no fear, the BBC is here to save the day! Even the UK Penguin book publising company is appropriating remix culture. The UK is not the only country holding remix contests. The CC Mixter based in the US is taking full advantage of creative commons licensing and has already held successful contests and continues to encourage people to remix the available… Read More »Breaking it down with the BBC….

X Boxes, And Playstations and gameboys oh my!

Forget students asking you to play the latest movie theme music, soon you are going to get requests to play video game theme songs at your next concert. How do you feel about that? You can get a taste of what it might be like when the Detroit symphony orchestra plays its “Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy” concerts this summer. Has anyone had their students create video game music? If so was it done with/for electronic instruments or computer?… Read More »X Boxes, And Playstations and gameboys oh my!