Compared to the relatively steady spread of vocal music instruction, instrumental music was slow to take its place in the school curriculum. Orchestras, based on community models, and bands, based on military band models, entered the schools in mass beginning in the first decades of the twentieth century. By the beginning of World War II, spurred on by instrument manufacturers, contests, and athletics, bands were found in most American high schools and orchestras were in many schools as well, mainly in larger cities.

Europeans took their musical traditions with them when they moved to North America. Eventually, however, the United States became so large and diverse, with such deep democratic roots, that different ethnic musical strands emerged and then combined to form important new forms of popular music. By then electronic playback technology had arisen and the United States had become the most influential country in the world, both of which helped propel one of these new popular musics, rock and roll, throughout much of the world, much like Europe and its music dominated and proliferated during what musicians call the common practice period. Today, music teachers in the United States continue to be trained in the European-based art music tradition, but most of their work consists of teaching an array of musical styles to students of every imaginable ethnicity and background. These music educators tend to have dual professional identities: as classical musicians and as teachers of multiple styles of music.

||При преместването си в Северна Америка европейците взели със себе си и музикалните си традиции. В крайна сметка, обаче, Съединените щати дотолкова се разраснали и били различни – с дълбоки демократични корени, - че се появили различни музикални течения, а впоследствие се съчетали така, че да образуват нови форми на популярна музика. Към него момент технологията за електронен плейбек вече била развита и САЩ стават най-влиятелната страна в света, като тези два фактора помогнали за напредъка на един от тези нови популярни музикални жанрове – рокендролът – из по-големия дял на музикалния свят, до голяма степен по начина, по който Европа и нейната музика доминира и процъфтява по време на т.нар. от музикантите период на общата практика (common practice period). Днес учителите по музика в САЩ продължават да бъдат обучавани според базираната в Европа традиция на художествената музика, но в по-голямата си част работата им се състои от преподаване на студентите на спектър от музикални стилове от всяка етничност и произход, които можем да си представим. Тези музикални педагози обикновено имат двойствена професионална идентичност: те са класически музиканти и учители по множество музикални стилове.

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.

||CHINESE ABSTRACT
中文摘要
流行音樂與民主的關係：對流行音樂教學法的啟示
Jere T. Humphreys
Arizona State University—Tempe, U.S.A.
現代流行音樂與生產消費流行音樂的民主社會之間有著緊密的聯繫。有些音樂可能聽起來具有革命性的特
點，事實上很多音樂確實對現實社會的變化與發展起到了推動作用。可以說大眾的音樂以及民主的音樂在
以下的幾個條件成熟之前是不可能存在的：1、民主社會的進步與變遷；2、大規模的資本運行模式所帶來
的基層人民的經濟水準的提高；3、電子科技的出現和發展。流行音樂被大眾創造並服務於大眾。音樂教育
工作者們應該在音樂所存在的社會背景中教音樂，這些音樂中有的是不能單單通過表演而獲得的。本文引
用了很多事例來闡釋流行音樂在民主制度下的社會意義以及政治意義。