Relationships Between Popular Music and Democracy: Implications for Popular Music Pedagogy

Strong relationships exist between modern popular music and the democratic societies that produce and consume it. Some of the music may sound revolutionary, and much of it does advocate changes in the status quo. Nevertheless, it is the music of the masses, the music of democracy, music that could not and did not exist in anything like its modern forms prior to:

1. The evolution of democratic societies.
2. Massive capitalism-driven economic improvements for the proletariat.
3. The invention and evolution of electronic technology.

It is the music of, by, and for the great masses of us. Music educators should persist in teaching this music in all its contexts, some of which are not easily accessible through performance alone. This article cites numerous examples of social and political meanings of popular music in democracies.