Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. Music Educators Journal, 99 (4), 29-36.
Nowadays, popular music tends to be what trends with society and it is the only type of music that kids in school listen too. This read brought up a lot of interesting ideas on how music educators can move forward and still make music appealing to younger students through popular music. This idea of converging participatory culture with musical practices is great and will help students connect music to their everyday lives. For example, in my first-year theory class my professor connected a concept to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off”, and it helped us understand musical analysis better. I would support this idea of teaching and encourage teachers to make more text-world connections, but I would do this for the whole course. There can be many boring parts when learning music, like theory, but there are many important parts when becoming a musician. I am aware that not every student will want to pursue music and take the course for an easy credit or because they have too, but music does not only benefit you as a musician but as a person.
Another main focus of this article was the use of technology. Technology keeps on getting more advanced and music is evolving because of it. I found this idea to be useful, but am strongly against the use of technology when it comes to music. As an instrumentalist, I find that the use of technology takes away from real live music that was intended to be performed. For example, in pit bands when a keyboard is used it takes away the jobs of brass players because of the option that allows it to sound like a trumpet. Also, this article talked about mash-ups and remixes through the use of technology and with editing now you can make anyone sound like a singer even if they don’t know what they are doing. Technology takes away from learning music and can be used as a cheat to become a “successful musician”.
Popular music is constantly changing and is being made from electronic sounds rather than real instruments. If there was a convergence between participatory culture and musical practices I fear that there would be no use for instruments anymore because everything will eventually be able to be done on a computer. Overall, I find the author of this article to have bright ideas and good structure, but it is unfortunate because if music educators give in I feel like we will lose instrumentalists and music will change for the better or worse.
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