This empirical study investigates Chinese students’ popular music preferences in daily life and to what extent and in what ways they prefer learning popular music in school in Shanghai, China. Data were drawn from questionnaires completed by 1,730 secondary students (aged 12–17) and interviews with 60 students from 10 secondary schools, between September and October, 2011. Findings from these efforts were supplemented by and triangulated with data from interviews with 18 music teachers and school leaders. Findings revealed the cultural diversification and rational consumption of popular music by Chinese students in and out of school, as well as the cultural dilemmas those students confront due to their preferences for popular (Chinese and non-Chinese) and classical music in the school music curriculum. These findings can be interpreted as indicating that music and music education in formal or informal settings are complex cultural constructs that can be reinvented through the intertwined interplay of different actors concerned with the selection of music elements in a multileveled, multicultural world.
BrownV. (2006). Guiding the influence of hip-hop music on middle-school students’ feelings, thinking, and behaving. The Negro Educational Review, 57(1–2), 49–68.
2.
ChenS.-W. (2005). The rise and generic features of Shanghai popular songs in the 1930s and 1940s. Popular Music, 24(1), 107–125.
3.
China Internet Network Information Center. (2012). Di 29 ci zhongguo hulian wangluo fazhan zhuangkuang tongji baogao [29th statistical report on Internet development in China]. Beijing: China Internet Network Information Center.
4.
CohenL.ManionL.MorrisonK. (2007). Research methods in education (6th ed.). London: RoutledgeFalmer.
5.
Communist Party of China Central Committee, & State Council. (2012, February16). Guojia shierwu shiqi wenhua gaige fazhan guihua gangyao [Outline of China’s cultural reform and development in the 12th five-year plan period (2011–15)]. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], p. 5.
6.
Dunbar-HallP. (2002). Book review: How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Research Studies in Music Education, 18, 79–82.
7.
Dunbar-HallP.WemyssK. (2000). The effects of the study of popular music on music education. International Journal of Music Education, 36, 23–34.
8.
FarrerJ. (2000). Dancing through the market transition: Disco and dance hall sociality in Shanghai. In DavisD. S. (Ed.), The consumer revolution in urban China (pp. 226–249). Berkeley: University of California Press.
9.
FungA. Y. H. (2009). Fandom, youth and consumption in China. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 12(3), 285–303.
10.
GreenL. (2001). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
11.
GreenL. (2002). From the Western classics to the world: Secondary music teachers’ changing attitudes in England, 1982 and 1998. British Journal of Music Education, 19(1), 5–30.
12.
GreenL. (2006). Popular music education in and for itself, and for “other” music: Current research in the classroom. International Journal of Music Education, 24(2), 101–118.
13.
HallamS.RogersL.CreechA. (2008). Gender differences in musical instrument choice. International Journal of Music Education, 26(1), 7–19.
14.
HayhoeR. (1988). Shanghai as a mediator of the educational open door. Pacific Affairs, 61(2), 253–284.
15.
HebertD. G.CampbellP. S. (2000). Rock music in American schools: Positions and practices since the 1960s. International Journal of Music Education, 36(1), 14–22.
16.
HoW.-C. (2002). Musical behavior of young Hong Kong Students. Educational Research Journal, 17(2), 197–217.
17.
HoW.-C. (2010). Moral education in China’s music education: Development and challenges. International Journal of Music Education, 28(1), 71–87.
18.
HuJ. T. (2012, 1January). Jianding buyi zou zhongguo tese shehui zhuyi wenhua fazhan daolu nuli jianshe shehui zhuyi wenhua qiangguo [To persist on the road to developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and work hard to build a strong nation of socialist culture]. Qiushi [Seeking Truth]. Retrieved from http://www.qstheory.cn/zxdk/2012/201201/201112/t20111228_132538.htm
KoizumiK. (2002). Popular music, gender and high school pupils in Japan: Personal music in school and leisure sites. Popular Music, 21(1), 107–125.
21.
LandsbegerS. R. (2009). Harmony, Olympic manners and morals—Chinese television and the “new propaganda” of public service advertising. European Journal of East Asian Studies, 8(2), 331–355.
22.
LawW.-W. (2011). Citizenship and citizenship education in a global age: Politics, policies, and practices in China. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
23.
MarkM. L.MaduraP. (2010). Music education in your hands: An introduction for future teachers. New York: Routledge.
24.
MeizelK. (2006). A singing citizenry: Popular music and civil religion in America. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(4), 497–503.
25.
MerriamS. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
26.
MillsS. W. (2000). Recognizing middle school students’ taste for popular music. General Music Today, 13(3), 3–6.
27.
Ministry of Education. (2001). Yinyue kecheng biaozhun [Curriculum standards for primary education and junior secondary education: Music]. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press.
28.
Ministry of Education. (2011). Yiwu jiaoyu yinyue kecheng biaozhun [Curriculum standards for primary education and junior secondary education: Music]. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press.
29.
PattonM. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
30.
PeaseR. (2006). Internet, fadom, and K-wave in China. In HowardK. (Ed.), Korean pop music (pp. 176–189). Folkstone, Kent: Global Oriental.
31.
SeifriedS. (2006). Exploring the outcomes of rock and popular music instruction in high school guitar class: A case study. International Society for Music Education, 24(2), 168–177.
32.
ShahS. M. (2006). Popular music in Malaysia: Education from the outside. International Journal of Music Education, 24(2), 132–139.
33.
Shanghai Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House. (2004). Yinyue [Music for Grade 7, first term] (4th ed.). Shanghai: Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House.
34.
Shanghai Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House. (2009). Yinyue [Music for Grade 7, second term] (3rd ed.). Shanghai: Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House.
35.
Shanghai Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House. (2011). Yinyue [Music for Grade 6, first term] (6th ed.). Shanghai: Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House.
36.
Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. (2004). Shanghai shi zhongxiaoxue yinyue kecheng biaozhun [Curriculum standard for music in primary and secondary schools]. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press.
37.
Shanghai Municipal Statistical Bureau. (2010). Shanghai tongji nianjian 2010 [Shanghai statistical yearbook 2010]. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
38.
Shanghai Music Publisher. (2005). Yishu [Arts for Grade 12, second term]. Shanghai: Shanghai Music Publisher.
39.
ShinH. (2009). Have You ever seen the rain? And who’ll stop the rain? The globalizing project of Korean pop (K-pop). Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 10(4), 507–523.
40.
SnellK. (2005). Music education through popular music festivals: A study of the OM Music Festival in Ontario, Canada. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 4(2), 1–35.
41.
StuessyJ. (1994). When the music teacher meets Metallica. Music Educators Journal, 79(4), 28–32.
42.
SwanwickK. (1968). Popular music and the teacher. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
43.
TaggP. (1966). Pop music as a possible medium in secondary education. University of Manchester, Manchester.
44.
ThompsonJ. D. (2007). American Idol and the music classroom: A means of critiquing music. Music Educators Journal, 94(1), 36–40.
45.
VulliamyG.LeeE. (Eds.). (1980). Pop music in school (rev. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
46.
WalkerR. (2001). The rise and fall of philosophies of music education: Looking backwards in order to see ahead. Research Studies in Music Education, 17, 3–18.
47.
WhiteC.McCormackS. (2006). The message in the music: Popular culture and teaching in social studies. The Social Studies, May/June, 122–127.
48.
WiersmaW.JursS. G. (2004). Research methods in education: An introduction (8th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
49.
WinterN. (2004). The learning of popular music: A pedagogical model for music educators. International Journal of Music Education, 22(3), 237–247.
50.
WoodyR. H. (2007). Popular music in school: Remixing the issues. Music Educators Journal, 93(4), 32–37.
