Composing, songwriting, and producing: Informing popular music pedagogy

Abstract

In forwarding comprehensive popular music pedagogies, music educators might acknowledge and address expanded notions of composition in popular music that include processes of recording, engineering, mixing, and producing along with the technologies, techniques, and ways of being musical that encompass these processes. This article advances a perspective of popular music pedagogy that is situated in the role production plays in contemporary music-making. Drawing upon a single intrinsic case study focusing on secondary students’ creation and production of popular music, as well as theoretical frameworks that highlight recording, mixing, and production processes, this article provides an expanded perspective of composition and songwriting within a popular music context and proposes related pedagogical considerations. Themes addressed include: developing a theoretical framework within music education that addresses the role of production in contemporary music-making, expanding notions of aural skills and music literacy appropriate for producing popular music, and incorporating production processes in music classrooms.