Problems of a Sociological Approach to Pop Music in Schools.

In this paper I shall deal with some issues raised by a sociologist interested in music education, Graham Vulliamy I shall draw on four of his papers. There will be certain areas of agreement between us recognition of the importance of Afro-American music in our century and its dominance in the popular tradition, that forms of analysis through notation are particularly inappropriate to an oral-aural tradition, that all music is bounded by particular styles and traditions and occurs within a socio-cultural context. I shall briefly examine two minor points of difficulty--that Vulliamy, overstates the 'freedom' of improvised music and the rigidity of notated music and that he confuses discussion by conflating the views of Meyer and Langer. There are three major issues to which we need to address ourselves The first of these is the assumption that pop music can be legitimised in school merely by establishing that different criteria are necessary The second arises in the attempt to provide appropriate tools of analysis by arguing, with Shepherd, that music has a kind of social referent This proposition is stated in several ways In some forms the proposition is acceptable but in others it is problematic. The third issue involves problems concerning the expressive and formal elements of music and the uses to which music is put, which ma, range from a signal for action (or reaction) to a meaningful symbol (a much more complex and rich form of response) Using the terms 'intensional' and 'engendered feeling' as though they were synonymous and the terms 'extensional' and 'embodied meaning' as though they were the same, some confusion is created, yet there are implications for music education which are not only theoretically important but vital in practical terms of teaching and learning in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]