Nicole Biamonte, ed., Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom

Leaving aside the question of pop music’s place in the college music curricula, this volume of sixteen essays offers practical suggestions for integrating the skills, technologies, and repertories of popular music into the classroom. Several essays focus on aural skills seldom taught in college, such as analyzing a recorded mix, following formal concepts without notation, and beat and pitch matching using turntables. More applicable to music history are essays on teaching critical listening via American Idol, a methodology to help students critically compare cover versions of popular songs, and the culture of Crunk, the Southern rap genre.