Welcome to the APME Memphis 2025 conference. Here, you’ll be able to register for the conference and update your Sched profile. The conference schedule will be available in late spring 2025. At that time, you can view the schedule and select the presentations you’d like to attend. If you have any questions, please visit our conference website or contact us at conference@popularmusiceducation.org We look forward to coming together as a community June 4–7, 2025.
Since the early 1980s, popular music has been integrated into music curricula around the world, yet it remains vastly underrepresented in the United States' music education systems. This study examines the potential barriers that prevent widespread adoption of popular music education in American schools and explores its global development. To gain more insight into current perspectives, I surveyed 120 music educators from various 10-year age brackets, ranging from 21-30 to 71-80, to assess their views on the value of teaching popular music. The survey investigates to what extent educators agree about the relevance of popular music in shaping music education, as well as the challenges and opportunities they perceive. By analyzing the responses from different age groups, my research aims to understand the generational trends in attitudes toward popular music pedagogy and to identify the barriers preventing it from widespread use and strategies for advancing its inclusion in U.S. music education programs.
