FEATURE:
Smells Like Pre-Teen Spirit
Teachers Putting Grunge and Contemporary Rap in the Spotlight
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AT a time…
IN THIS PHOTO: Soundgarden
when music is being faded off of the curriculum in schools and colleges, we need to take every opportunity we can to put it back in! It is vital that children get the chance to play an instrument and start a path that leads them into the music industry. The social impact of certain genres and albums is huge. Rather than see it as purely music, one could see these iconic and world-changing releases as part of history. Therefore, I think that there is so much to music that should be integrated throughout education. Not that it is only Grunge and Rap being brought into secondary schools. As The Guardian write in their feature, Oak National will introduce Grunge and Rap into new lesson aids:
“Any teacher who likes to sing along to Nirvana will soon be encouraged to get their pupils rocking to the Seattle grunge sound of the 1990s in lessons.
Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and other 90s bands could be included in the new lesson aids for teachers being issued by the Oak National Academy, the government-backed creator of curriculum resources for England’s schools.
The new English resources for secondary schools will also study a more diverse selection of works, including Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel Small Island, while the history curriculum includes units on “interpreting the British empire”.
Oak National grew out of online lessons developed for schools doing remote learning during the Covid pandemic, but has since bloomed, with the Department for Education (DfE) offering model teaching plans and other classroom resources such as slides, quizzes and worksheets, with the aim of reducing teacher workload.
In preparing its pop music resources to match the secondary school music curriculum, a spokesperson for Oak National said, “we decided to look in detail at some specific styles rather than take a generic approach, so we have looked at 80s pop and disco, 90s grunge and contemporary rap, for example”.
“Grunge was not only really popular in the 90s, it was influential both socially and musically,” the spokesperson added, with the impact of Nirvana and their lead singer, Kurt Cobain continuing to be felt in the following decades, despite his death in 1994.
The model curricula will also keep purists happy with detailed strands on the western classical tradition and music from other cultures, as well as music from influential video games, allowing teachers and schools to choose the repertoire they want to cover in class.
“We’ve tried to offer a diverse and balanced range of different styles covering different eras of music and show them an example of how we think they work together,” the spokesperson said.
The new English literature curriculum includes the work of Black British author Winsome Pinnock, whose play Leave Taking has this year been added to the GCSE syllabus, alongside more traditional choices such as Chaucer and Shakespeare, as part of an effort to ensure Oak’s English curricula represents the diversity of modern life.
In history, teachers will be able to access resources on controversial debates over decolonisation and perceptions of the British empire, with topics including “imperial decline” and “imperial anxiety and celebration of empire”, as well as commemoration and contestation of the British empire.
Matt Hood, the chief executive of Oak National, said: “We have selected topics that, when taken together, give pupils a rich understanding of the world and allow them to participate as educated citizens in modern society”.
Whilst there has been criticisms and doubts about these plans from Oak National and Department for Education (DfE), I do think it is especially important that any music is kept alive in schools. I hope that this plan rolls out to high schools. Many children in secondary schools might not know about genres like Grunge and why it is important. How bands like Nirvana were impactful when they were around. How they are still important now. If many people want a more traditional and classic lesson structure and way of education, times are changing. Things will be phased out whereas other things come through. I feel education needs to adapt and evolve through time. It is not going to be the case that teachers are playing Grunge and Rap tracks and using lessons to just play music and learn nothing from it. Artists like Pearl Jam will be used as aids. It is interesting that this has come in – and where it may well lead. I think that it is tragic that music as a standard lesson will be phased out! This comes at an interesting time. Since 2021, there has been a decline of students studying music at school. This article explains more:
“Although the numbers of students studying music at GCSE and A-Level in 2021 were pretty similar to 2020 – indeed, the number of students taking music GCSE went up slightly – figures for the last decade show a steady decline.
In its statement, UK Music compares 2021 figures to 2014. In that time there has been a 16.8% decline in the number of students taking music GCSE, despite an overall rise in the number of students taking GCSEs in general. In the same time period there was a 32.1% decline in students taking music A-Level.
In its review of the exam stats, ISM compares the 2021 figures with 2011, with declines over the full decade of 19% for GCSE and 44% for music A-Level.
The music community has long blamed the declines in students taking music at GCSE and A-Level on funding cuts and curriculum priorities in the country’s schools. And, in England in particular, the EBacc scheme used to assess the academic performance of English schools, which completely ignores creative subjects like music”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels
Rather than this being a tangent, I feel that incorporating music and certain genres into lessons through secondary schools in England shines a light on the role of music in education. State schools will see music fade away and phased out. There is a goldmine in the classroom when it comes to the next generation of artists and producers. Recently, Tom Watson, the Labour peer and UK Music chair, wrote for Huffington Post as to why we need to reverse the decline in music education:
“The precipitous decline in music education is fast reaching the point where learning a music instrument or how to sing professionally could soon become the preserve of the rich and the privileged.
There are some success stories such as that of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the outstanding young cellist who played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He studied A-level music at a Nottingham comprehensive in a disadvantaged part of the city and defied the odds to become a BBC Young Musician of the Year and a global star.
The reality is very different for young people at most state schools. The uptake of A-level music has fallen by a catastrophic 45% in the UK since 2020 when the English Baccalaureate was introduced. It is a similarly worrying picture when it comes to those studying music for GCSE.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mikhail Nilov/Pexels
A big part of the problem is the big fall in the number of music teachers and funding cuts that have left many schools struggling to afford even the most basic of musical instruments.
There are now parts of the country where it is almost impossible for a budding musician to study A-level music.
According to a study by Birmingham City University, the rates of decline in entries are so severe that no one might be taking A-level music in just ten years.
That would be a tragedy for all the tens of thousands of children who will miss out on the joy music brings with all its benefits to health and wellbeing as well as the chance of a fulfilling career.
It would be a disaster for our cultural landscape if we are deprived of future stars that will never grace the stage at Glastonbury or join the orchestra at the Royal Opera House.
There is also the damage that it will cause to the talent pipeline of the UK music industry which has a reputation for producing performers, musicians and music professionals who contribute billions each year to our economy.
PHOTO CREDIT: Yan Krukau/Pexels
So many young people dream of singing or playing music for a career. They have the ambition, drive and talent. They just lack the opportunity.
As a first step, it is imperative we reverse the decline in music teaching in our state schools. Put simply, we need to train and recruit hundreds more music teachers with the passion and determination to make music lessons the best part of any child’s week.
Between 2010 and this year, the number of people starting initial teacher training for music has more than halved. The removal of the music teacher training bursary in 2020 means even fewer people can afford to train for the job.
As the chair of UK Music, the collective voice of the UK music industry, we are putting the need to train and hire more music teachers at the heart of UK Music’s ‘Music Manifesto’ which we will be delivering to the government tomorrow.
According to the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, more than one in five children in England are now frequently missing school - double pre-Covid levels. Over the last academic year, Department for Education figures show 22.3% of pupils in England were persistently absent.
That’s deeply worrying. Yet we have a chance through the power of music to play a part in helping get children back in the classroom”.
PHOTO CREDIT: PNW Production/Pexels
There is argument as to why Electronic music should be taught in schools. How Classical music should not be the preserve of the wealthy. A part of a rich and rounded education, the Department for Education set out plans as to how music education should look like in schools. It does seem there will be a decline in music education across all schools and colleges. The fact that we are talking about music being used in secondary schools in an interesting way should give hope. It provides diversity and a richness that was not there before. Same goes for the new literature they are bringing in and using as aids/for lessons. Talking about Rap and its artists past and present. Not only do children learn about the music and can connect with it. They can hear about a genre like that in a different context. The importance of learning about and celebrating Black artists. Learning about Grunge and how it was a cultural moment whose shockwaves are rippling today. Let’s hope that there is a concerted and joined-up effort to ensure music not only remains on the curriculum for students aged between, say, five and sixteen (and beyond). There needs to be assimilation of various periods of music to thew wider curriculum. Access to instruments and those resources. Using music more as a historical and social lesson. Hearing great music and making that direct connection with children. Forwarding and implementing new plans to bring Rap legends and Grunge bands like Nirvana into classes is really brilliant. I hope that it dopes happen and is not imposed. Ensuring children have this incredible resource without there being…
SOMETHING in the way.