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In this Special Issue, the authors describe the popular music education landscape in and from which practice and theory of contemporary commercial music (CCM) voice studies have emerged. They contextualize the discipline within the history of conferences of the Association for Popular Music Education before outlining the article content from all contributing authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, the editorial team for the Journal of Popular Music Education (JPME) introduces the first issue of the journal's eighth volume (2024). The authors provide a summary of the JPME contents from the previous year (2023, volume 7) and highlight the two Special Issues from that volume. One Special Issue was a belated 25th anniversary response to Paul Théberge's landmark book, Any Sound You Can Imagine, and the other was dedicated to contemporary considerations around music technology pertaining to popular music education. The authors acknowledge the privilege of publishing and of engaging in scholarship amidst a world in turmoil. They then look forward to conferences taking place in 2024, including the first gathering of the Association for Popular Music Education outside of the United States, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the summer. The editorial closes by outlining the topic foci of two forthcoming JPME Special Issues in 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction, the journal editors, Gareth Dylan Smith and Bryan Powell, pay tribute to Jarritt Sheel, a colleague whose light shone brightly in the field of popular music education until he died suddenly in late 2022. Next, the editors reflect briefly on the previous, sixth volume of the Journal of Popular Music Education, which featured two guest-edited Special Issues – one on music and the family, and another on women and popular music – and a general issue. The editors then provide a summary overview of the articles in this issue of the journal, by Ethan Hein, Natasha Hendry, Esther Morgan-Ellis, Aidan Harvey, Bryan Powell, Jonathan Kladder and Ian Cummings, and a book review by Jonathan Dillon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many current popular music styles originating in the United States, there has typically been a lack of inclusion of popular music in school-based music education contexts in the United States. In recent years, however, the incorporation of popular musics has become more commonplace with the propagation of modern band programmes and initiatives designed to diversify the genres of music included in school music. With the increased presence of popular music education (PME) in US schools, it is timely to further examine the history of popular music in school music programmes as well as the social conditions and educational rationales that led to the emergence of PME in US school music programmes. This article combines existing research on the history of PME into one document while adding further research and descriptions of important events in the history of PME in the United States not yet in print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fields of community music and popular music education have expanded rapidly over the past few decades. While there are many similarities between these two fields, there are aspects that set these two areas of practice apart. This article seeks to explore the intersections of community music interventions and popular music education to explain how they are similar and in which ways they are unique. This discussion centres on examinations of facilitation, ownership of music, training and certification, inclusivity, life-long music making, amateur engagement, informal learning and non-formal education, and social concerns. The Greek philosophy of eudaimonism, understood as 'human flourishing' is then used to explore the opportunities for human fulfilment through popular music education and community music approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased presence of technology into music education classrooms has coincided to some extent with the increased presence of popular music into school music spaces, especially in the United States. This study examined the integration of music technologies into K-12 (ages 5–18) popular music programmes in New York City (NYC). One hundred sixty-eight music teachers responded to a survey, all of whom had previously participated in a modern band workshop as part of the Amp Up NYC initiative. Results of the study found that many of the challenges of incorporating music technology into modern bands, including lack of access to technology or faulty hardware, are not unique to popular music ensembles. Some of the successes mentioned by the teachers, including songwriting, beat-making and increased student agency, provide a glimpse into the benefits that integrating music technology into modern band classrooms can offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, four different media were investigated regarding learning to play keyboard instruments on beginning level musical selections. Among these were Synthesia, eMedia, YouTube piano tutorials and standard Paper Notation. A sample of 564 beginning keyboard instrument students in grades 6-12 was measured on timed learning tasks to determine speed to mastery, level of retention and perspectives. Results indicated that Synthesia was more effective than the other three learning approaches at enabling students to quickly master beginning level songs and retain that information on a post-test seven days later. These data are potentially transformative in providing open access, efficient, relevant, personalized and effective music education experiences to greater numbers of students who might be marginalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports published within the issue which include the investigation in working with telecommunications technologies, the booming phenomena of home studios, and the music-making and the learning practices of electronic musicians.