Tobias, E. S. (2014).

From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis

through engaging popular music and culture. General Music Today, OnlineFirst, 1-5. doi:
10.1177/1048371314558293

Similarly to Bowmans article on Taking Popular Music Seriously, Tobias writes about
why including popular music (and culture) in the music education system would improve a
students aural and analysis skills. He believes that it would add variety to an otherwise Western
classical music based knowledge and diversity to a students learning.
I loved his example of the two similar sounding pop songs and whether one was stolen
or not. As someone who does this quite frequently, I instantly formed a connection with what he
was saying. Students are able to hear two songs on the radio and realize that they sound the
same. This is because they are able to hear similarities between the two songs. What they dont
realize is they are actually analyzing the two songs in order to identify what factors make them
similar. This is turn sharpens their aural skills, and ability to hear different components that make
up a song.
The same can be said for having students analyze the similarities and differences of
multiple versions of the same song. Students can be instructed to listen and identify components
such as artistic choices, skills, and stylistic differences. Then they could also be asked to reflect
on what each version does to the song, and how the changes impact the listener in a different
way. This differs from many classical pieces because there is a belief that there is a right way and
a wrong way to play something. Because of this, many people strive to be able to play a
Beethoven sonata exactly the way it was written. Popular music offers a bit more room for
freedom of expression, which is why including popular music in schools would make such a
difference.
Something that I would like to point out is that many students, especially teenagers,
already do this as part of their everyday lives. Many young musicians are constantly exploring
different covers of the same song, analyzing it, and then making their own version. A question I
have for Tobias is how would implementing this process in schools make a difference? Since
students are already taking the initiative to explore this realm on their own, what difference
would it make by putting it in the school curriculum where time could be spent teaching things
they couldnt learn without proper instruction?
Tobias provides excellent examples of how popular music would be beneficial to building
aural and analysis skills, but on top of that, he also shows us how it can affect so many areas. He
shows us that popular music can create music detectives, music critics, cover artists, arrangers,
stylistic transformers, music teachers, music cartographers, and more. This provides us with a
multitude of areas that can be strengthened with the use of popular music, and shows us that
popular music should be essential to well-rounded musical education.