Rock Music in American Schools: Positions and Practices Since the 1960s

The challenge that rock music has historically faced in achieving widespread acceptance within American music education can be attributed to six common arguments: 1) Rock music is aesthetically inferior; 2) Rock music is damaging to the health of youth; 3) School time cannot be spent on the vernacular; 4) Music teachers are not trained in rock; 5) Rock music encourages rebelliousness and anti-educational behavior; and 6) Rock music curriculum is difficult to acquire. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these six claims is herein analyzed, and the authors’ conclusions discuss the potential benefits of rock music studies.

Popular music as such need not, must not be taught in the public classrooms. This music will carry itself. The music educator's job is to perpetuate Western art music and to open doors to its perception in the minds of the children of the nation (Anderson 1968, p. 87).