Swedish Hip hop Youth Association “The Movement” Goes Online

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-194
Author(s):  
Alexandra Söderman ◽  
Johan Söderman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Music Making ◽  
International Collaborations ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Local Municipality ◽  
Central Arena

This chapter highlights social media activities of the Swedish hip hop youth association The Movement, an association whose overall objectives include increasing democratic awareness among young people with immigrant backgrounds. The political dimension of hip hop has enabled youths in marginalized areas in Sweden to experience affinity with the global hip hop nation, which emerged from New York in the 1970s. Hip hop has also accompanied the development and early use of digital technologies for music making as well as early international collaborations facilitated by the internet. For The Movement, social media is a central arena, one that is connected to informal music education activities. The overall purpose of this chapter is to explore and discuss the function of social media within this hip hop youth association. Results are presented as three themes—branding, member recruitment, and accountability to funders—through which an inter-aesthetic approach connected to the elements of hip hop is apparent. Also, clear connections with the local municipality are seen as contributing to a wider audience for youths participating in the association.

Feminist Cyber-Artivism, Musicing, and Music Teaching and Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 291-312
Author(s):  
Marissa Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Philosophical Investigation ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The Voice

This chapter asks an important, yet seemingly illusive, question: In what ways does the internet provide (or not) activist—or, for present purposes “artivist”—opportunities and engagements for musicing, music sharing, and music teaching and learning? According to Asante (2008), an “artivist (artist + activist) uses her artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary. The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination. The artivist knows that to make an observation is to have an obligation” (p. 6). Given this view, can (and should) social media be a means to achieve artivism through online musicing and music sharing, and, therefore, music teaching and learning? Taking a feminist perspective, this chapter interrogates the nature of cyber musical artivism as a potential means to a necessary end: positive transformation. In what ways can social media be a conduit (or hindrance) for cyber musical artivism? What might musicing and music sharing gain (or lose) from engaging with online artivist practices? In addition to a philosophical investigation, this chapter will examine select case studies of online artivist music making and music sharing communities with the above concerns in mind, specifically as they relate to music education.

The ‘Social Justice Plot’ in learning, consuming, and (re)creating music on social media

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Michael Abramo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
White Male ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Participatory Politics ◽  
Online Music

In this article, I outline what I call the ‘Social Justice Plot’ in online music-making and consumption. I suggest that some popular music follows a particular plot where social justice discourses of fighting against and triumphing against inequalities based on identity is used to form narratives and tension and release in music and other arts. In the participatory culture and participatory politics of social media, consumers of media circulate and comment on these songs as a way to perform their own social justice identities. To explicate this process, I primarily draw upon Beyoncé Knowles’s song ‘Formation’, a cover of the song by a white male artist, and commenters’ reactions on social media to this cover. Through this example, I suggest that this Social Justice Plot is the commodification of anti-oppression discourses for material and moral gain. I conclude with implications for music education research and practice.

Listen to the tastemakers: Building an urban arts high school music curriculum

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Nathan Gage ◽  
Bronwen Low ◽  
Francisco Luis Reyes
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Musical Skills ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Urban Arts ◽  
Formal School

In partnership with academics from McGill University and community arts partners, a high school in Montreal faced with significant challenges became an “urban arts school,” offering music and visual art programs centered in youth culture, as well as integrating arts into several academic subjects. The initiative was inspired by the school’s popular extra-curricular activities, which included a Hip Hop literacy club that ran beat making and rap writing workshops. Considering the popularity of these activities, the school decided to offer a music education program focused on musical skills through real-life music making activities that resemble those employed by popular musicians. This article chronicles the development of this music education program from the perspective of the music teacher, including the experience of continual adaptation to the needs and interests of students. The program is one of the first to combine Musical Futures, an approach to music education that promotes the combination of non-formal music teaching, informal music learning, and students’ interest in a formal school setting, with Hip Hop Based Music Education, predominantly located in community settings. This case study showed that students benefited from having an open-minded and committed educator with experience in popular musics. The co-teaching by professional Hip Hop artists also supported student progress and engagement by adding authenticity to the music making process. Furthermore, the alignment of the music program with the general school ethos contributed to its success. The paper also highlights the need to balance the development of musical skills with student engagement, and the informal music learning philosophy of Musical Futures with direct instruction associated with formal school settings.

Playing (in) the Digital Studio

2017 ◽  
pp. 382-396
Author(s):  
Ethan Hein
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Dance Music ◽  
Electronic Dance Music ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Creative Music ◽  
Creative Music Making

When schools address music technology, they tend to focus on the nuts and bolts of the technology itself, rather than its creative applications. But to truly engage new digital tools for creative music making, we must address their most culturally significant context: electronic dance music and hip-hop. This music falls well outside the canon of what is widely considered suitable music for the classroom. Nevertheless, such music should be included, and not (only) because young people enjoy it. Rather than “dumbing down” music education, the inclusion of popular dance music would significantly enrich the curriculum, particularly in areas traditionally neglected: groove, timbre, and space.

A Consumer Behavior-Influenced Multidisciplinary Transcendent Model of Motivation for Music Making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie L. Vaccaro
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Self Actualization ◽  
Psychic Energy ◽  
Self Transcendence

This chapter reviews multidisciplinary research from the fields of consumer behavior, humanistic and positive psychology, music education, and other areas to develop a new Transcendent Model of Motivation for Music Making. One’s “extended self” identity can be defined partly by possessions and mastery over objects, and objects can “complete” the self. Music making involves a person’s investment of “psychic energy,” including attention, time, learning, and efforts, and is a creative path which can lead to peak experiences and flow. Music making can help satisfy social needs, achieve self-actualization, experience self-transcendence, enhance well-being, strengthen spirituality, and improve the quality of life.

Could There Be Deleuzian Assessment in Music Education?

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Contemporary Education

Authors of contemporary education and arts education policies tend to emphasize the adoption of formal, summative assessment practices. Poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s emphasis on ongoing differing and imaginative possibilities may at first glance appear incompatible with these overarching, codified assessments. While Deleuze criticizes the increasing use of ongoing assessments as a form of control, he posits a more nuanced explanation of measurement. This philosophical inquiry examines four measurement-related themes from Deleuze’s writings and explores how they might inform concepts and practices of assessment in various music teaching and learning contexts. The first theme suggests that each group of connective relations, what Deleuze terms a “plane of immanence,” demands its own forms of measurement. Second, Deleuze emphasizes varieties of measurement. Third, those with power, what Deleuze terms the “majority,” always set the standard for measurement. Fourth, Deleuze derides continuous assessment. His writings suggest that music educators might consider that assessments created for one musical practice or style should not transcend their own “plane of immanence,” that a variety of nonstandardized assessments is desirable, that the effect of measurement on “minoritarian” musical practices must be examined carefully, and that it is essential to ponder the potentials of unmeasured music making.

Creating Multiple Sites of Engagement for Music Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Jonathan Savage
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
The Core ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Meaningful Relationships ◽  
Mindful Teaching ◽  
Specific Technology

Music education exists in multiple spaces. Within formal approaches to music education in academic institutions, there has been an acknowledgment that more informal pedagogical approaches can be useful (as evidenced in the work of movements such as Musical Futures). However, constructive links between formal and informal contexts for music education remain difficult to navigate for many teachers. Within the United Kingdom, the newly defined roles for music education hubs have made some headway in recasting these relationships in a more productive direction. Similarly, social media has an important role to play in developing new relationships between key agencies within music education. Like any specific technology, there are positive affordances and more negative limitations to such approaches. People have a complex relationship with technology, but they are not gadgets! Lanier’s (2010) thesis argues strongly that recent cultural developments can deaden personal interaction, stifle genuine inventiveness, and change people. Within an educational setting, careful consideration needs to be given to the affordances and limitations of social media. For teachers and designers of learning spaces and opportunities, pedagogy should be underpinned by careful, mindful choices—including wise choices about the tools that teachers and students are using. It is about a focus on the core, asking: What is the key learning that this music lesson is facilitating? Is this tool the best one for the job? Does this tool or approach allow one to teach music musically? Done skillfully and conscientiously, social media can help develop collaborative approaches to music education that provide teachers with pedagogical strength and security. They result in mindful teaching and mindful learning that will last a lifetime. They can also help teachers develop meaningful relationships with students that help them make sense of their musical experiences in whatever context they have emerged through: a truly, “joined-up” approach to music education with the student at the core.

New Materiality and Young People’s Connectedness Across Online and Offline Life Spaces

2020 ◽  
pp. 487-502
Author(s):  
Susan O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Educational Outcome ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Musical Resources ◽  
Meaningful Connections ◽  
Digital Cultures

This chapter examines new materiality perspectives to explore the influence of social media on young people’s music learning lives—their sense of identity, community and connection as they engage in and through music across online and offline life spaces. The aim is to provide an interface between activity, materiality, networks, human agency, and the construction of identities within the social media contexts that render young people’s music learning experiences meaningful. The chapter also emphasizes what nomadic pedagogy looks like at a time of transcultural cosmopolitanism and the positioning of youth-as-musical-resources who “make up” new musical opportunities collaboratively with people/materials/time/space. This involves moving beyond the notion of music learning as an educational outcome to embrace, instead, a nomadic pedagogical framework that values and supports the process of young people deciphering and making meaningful connections with the world around them. It is hoped that implications stemming from this discussion will provide insights for researchers, educators, and policymakers with interests in innovative pedagogical approaches and the creation of new learning and digital cultures in music education.

Reports From the Field: Confessions of a Facebook Punk, or How Not to Do Social Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 235-244
Author(s):  
Gareth Dylan Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Purpose In Life ◽  
Sociology Of Music ◽  
Working Through ◽  
The World

The author is rarely certain of his purpose in life—a condition that is heightened by a busy yet reluctant level of engagement with social media. The author utilizes Facebook and Twitter to promote activity around popular music education and sociology of music education. There is considerable overlap in the author’s life between professional and personal domains, which seems amplified by social media. Facebook and Twitter provide less formal, more direct means to engage with the world than traditional modes of peer-reviewed communication among academic colleagues. Social media provide a platform for working through ideas and for addressing problems with urgency and immediacy. As such, and despite some messiness and increased levels of vulnerability and risk, the author encourages peers to engage with social media’s immediate and powerful, punk pedagogical potential.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document