Okay so I've been thinking about whether or not I'm going to teach pop music in my classroom. And today while I was looking through some notes and reading some posts on it, I came to a decision...
I believe that teaching pop music in the classroom is important. Kids listen to pop music because it's fun and they enjoy it. And I know that I want the kids that I'm teaching to have fun while we're making music. So why would I not allow them to learn and perform music that they find enjoyable? I guess that takes us back to the idea of "honoring their world". This is not to say that I'm not going to teach "the deep stuff" as well. I think it is important to teach all different types of music, so that students become open-minded. I want my students to know that it's okay to like Britney Spears, Eminem, Maroon 5, and whatever else they listen to. I want them to know that I'm not going to look down on them if they just don't like Beethoven or Bach, or a Moses Hogan arrangement. But I do hope that in time, they will begin to like them or at least have some kind of appreciation for them.
I'm planning on teaching high school, so I have a bigger selection of pop music that I can do with my kids. I mean, I'm still not going to go in and teach them "Toxic". Can you hear those phone calls? Dear God. But I see no reason why I would not be able to teach my students certain Maroon 5 songs, like Sunday. That's a great song and I'm pretty sure that there is nothing in the song that would be inapropriate for a public school. There are plenty of others but I just can't think of any right now.
But someone said in a post or a reply that there aren't enough pop songs to choose from because they are all about love and sex. I can completely understand that you would not want a 10 year old singing about sex, but I don't understand why you wouldn't want to teach them a song about love. Some of the most beautiful music in the world is about love. Chances are if you're doing a choral piece, it's either about God or love. So I was just wondering why you wouldn't use a pop song about love.
That's all for now I think. Speak please. :)
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3 comments:
I completely agree, pop music definately does have its place in high school choirs. I believe its a good way to relate to to kids. I mean if all your choir has been listening to is z100, then you are really coming from left field with that haydn piece.
That's a really interesting concept, Celeste, and I agree with almost all of what you're saying, but I also think you contradict yourself at one point. You say "I think it is important to teach all different types of music, so that students become open-minded" but then later say that choral music is all either about God or love - which I really disagree with. I think it's really easy to slip into a pattern of only singing songs about God or love which is kindof unfortunate, and will give people the impression that the only choral music out there is about God and love. But as you say, I think is our job as [future] music educators to expand horizons, and let kids [and parents, faculty, administrators, etc.] know that there is GREAT choral music out there that covers a huge variety of subjects. There's also a lot of pop culture that covers topics beyond love and sex.
Singing songs about love in general is a huge cliché in the music world, I think. Not necessarily one that should be avoided, but one that should be approached with caution. Especially with all sorts of high school angst floating around - my high school choir had a couple of interesting experiences with members having bad break-ups and then bursting into tears when forced to sing about everlasting love and 1,000 kisses, etc. Anyway, I digress - I agree that horizons should be broadened in many different directions, including pop, classical, world, funk, rock, folk, jazz, whatever - all of that stuff is great. :) Yay!
As the person who made the inital pop-music-is-mostly-about-sex-comment,I figured I should post.
I think it's great that you want to teach pop music to your choirs.
And I do agree that love is good concept to teach to one's students, but did anyone ever make you sing a love song in elementary school/have you ever tried to teach one to 10 year olds?
I'm not saying its a reason not to do it, but kids are often uncomfortable and giggly and uncooperative when you bring mushy things like love songs into the picture. At least, this is what I remember happening to me, and what I've seen since while trying to stage the obligatory love scenes between 6th graders in shows.
Maybe we should use music to make them more comfortable with love as a topic?
And maybe, as music teachers, we really shy away from any topic or sound that might be controversial.
Classical music and folk songs are very safe, aren't they?
So many questions...
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