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.
This presentation builds on Hertzog and Hunter’s (2024) study of jazz programs in higher education to answer questions about how popular music units are organized in the collegiate environment. Organizational structure and administrative units have played a large part in the history, mission, and success of popular music programs. As the field continues to grow and evolve and become present in more colleges, universities, and conservatories, this presentation seeks to provide organizational and administrative best practices for degree granting programs, building faculty, non-degree granting programs, and cross disciplinary collaborations. Through an in-depth look at schools of music, departments of music, and other common structures, this presentation provides groundwork for how to start popular music programs in traditional collegiate music spaces, and how to unite existing and emerging popular music disciplines to create coherent curriculum. Furthermore, this presentation presents methods for organizing popular music units to both complement existing programs, and maintain the flexibility needed to adapt to a dynamic music industry. Common challenges facing popular music program directors and administrators will be discussed, especially as these programs face unique obstacles when they are set inside larger institutions. Popular music, especially in new programs, can vibrantly fulfill institutional missions well also seeking to advance the music discipline in higher education. Building and organizing popular music in collegiate spaces is essential in these efforts.
