Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. Music Educators Journal, 99 (4), 29-36.
This reading discussed a lot about how music is pursued in our society. I thought it was interesting to read about participatory culture as whole. It was interesting to see how people engage with music , whether it is covering a song, rearranging an existing work, or parodying a song. There are so many different ways to make music, it really shows how music affects people's lives and how we share music with each other. I also thought it was interesting how they addressed that music education evolves with society, because as someone who is in the music program I do not really see this. I guess I can say I was surprised to see this connection be made. This article illustrates how technology and digital media play an important roles in how people network, which can be seen as true in many ways, but I do not believe this is true in the music industry. Technology has made music more accessible, blurring the lines of what makes music special. Something that frustrated me in this article is how it discusses how educators might first act as ethnographers, as if the students' interest in music should be something we treat as a lab experiment. Although it is true, this would make designing projects and opportunities for student in music class more engaging, it prevents understanding what music is. Students do not truly understand what music is, what kids listen to is usually based on what their siblings listen to or some other influence, so in order to truly inspire our students we need to be able to inspire them with what we ourselves believe in what music is. Something I would like to discuss with the author is their thinking and opinion on other ways we can engage students.
Comments