At SMT a few weeks ago, I attended an excellent session on the pedagogy of popular music. One of the topics discussed was how to integrate popular music into the standard undergraduate harmony sequence.
Part of me thinks that this is a really good idea. Part of me is not so sure. The harmony sequence at most schools is set up to demonstrate the principles of common-practice writing, and for the most part, harmony in popular music does not abide by those principles (think of the widespread V-IV progressions; the prominence of lowered scale-degree 7; the parallel fifths of "power chords," etc.). Most of what is common in pop music flies in the face of everything I harp on my undergraduates about.
On the other hand, I don't deny that it's important for them to learn how popular music behaves. But should it be mixed in with THE RULES of 18th- and 19th-century harmony? Would it not be better for the students (and the teachers as well) if it were a separate class, thereby highlighting the fact that different musics behave differently?
Are there places where the theory of popular music profitably overlaps the more traditional music theory that most undergraduate curricula address?
Part of me thinks that this is a really good idea. Part of me is not so sure. The harmony sequence at most schools is set up to demonstrate the principles of common-practice writing, and for the most part, harmony in popular music does not abide by those principles (think of the widespread V-IV progressions; the prominence of lowered scale-degree 7; the parallel fifths of "power chords," etc.). Most of what is common in pop music flies in the face of everything I harp on my undergraduates about.
On the other hand, I don't deny that it's important for them to learn how popular music behaves. But should it be mixed in with THE RULES of 18th- and 19th-century harmony? Would it not be better for the students (and the teachers as well) if it were a separate class, thereby highlighting the fact that different musics behave differently?
Are there places where the theory of popular music profitably overlaps the more traditional music theory that most undergraduate curricula address?