About the Blog & Its Author

The traditional Tampa Convention Center bathroom selfie, FMEA 2020

The traditional Tampa Convention Center bathroom selfie, FMEA 2020

About Me

My name is Emily and I teach music. I am a 15 year veteran teacher. I spent 12 years in middle school band (six teaching band + chorus), spent the 20-21 school year teaching 100% remote/virtual, talking to high school general music students about MTV & Josquin des Prez (which I kind of loved), and now have returned for my second year of teaching elementary music. I am a career-long union teacher in Florida public schools. I believe that the analysis & practice of popular music in the secondary ensemble classroom & the K-12 general music classroom is important. I am a graduate of UCF & FSU and both institutions supported my musical & educational worldview. I am currently furthering that worldview as a doctoral student at the University of South Florida, because why not?!

Due to my lifelong obsession with popular music, charts, artist bios, rock journalism, and other facets of pop culture, along with a genuine appreciation for Western music theory, I am continuing to write about where popular music & what is traditionally studied in American music classrooms collide. Most teachers are still responsible for teaching specific standards and content. I want to provide ideas on new ways to do that. Sometimes, though, I still like teaching certain things just because they’re really cool.

I am proud to say that as of February 2018, I am a Little Kids Rock teacher. I believe this to be a life-changing organization and you should learn more about it. I am also a member of the outstanding Association of Popular Music Education, in addition to several other music education organizations.

We cannot talk about popular music or popular culture, particularly in the US, without recognizing that all of it derives from Black culture. For this reason and for the sake of my students, past and present, I take time to ensure I’m learning from and (financially) supporting Decolonizing the Music Room.

On a more local level, I am on the board of Orlando Girls Rock Camp. I often think about what 17 year old me would think of me now. Then I remember that I’m involved in his organization and that 17 year old starts crying. This organization is so aligned with my personal beliefs and provides space for young gender expansive folks and girls to create and collaborate. I could describe it all day long, but until you’ve had the GRC experience, it’s impossible to fully appreciate how life-changing it is.

About the Blog

My primary grad research project was all about teachable pop songs. Upon beginning this project, I was hard pressed to find any comprehensive lists of popular songs in 3/4 (or 6/8 or 7/4 or 13/8) or a list of Picardy Thirds or other deceptive cadences, etc. My end goal is that anyone who wants to can access lists of “teachable pop songs” and potentially teach them in their classroom, opening new pathways of learning to students.

I started thinking about this project over a decade ago, mostly because I was tired of being told by music educators that we shouldn’t teach “pop crap” in the classroom. No matter how much we want to talk about progress in our profession, I still hear directors talk like that. For as long as I have been teaching, I’ve wanted to make a resource to point teachers to popular music that could be used to reinforce concepts in the traditional music classroom.

Far beyond the lack of popular music in the classroom, what our students are interested in is not represented in our classrooms. And while it is really satisfying for my classically-trained self to recognize an awesome Picardy third in a song on the radio, the value of all music is inherent. I think it’s important to inquire about the music that kids like, to examine it, to investigate it, and most importantly, expose them to an incredible variety of music. We want them to be considerate & creative listeners & music makers.

My intended audience is music teachers, who I hope will be able to use the resources available here in their classrooms.  You might have also been directed here if you are a pop nerd wondering about meter and intervals in Rush songs. I hope you'll like the rest of this blog, too. 

“What songs do you write about? I like the song "Six Months in a Leaky Boat.” Can you write about that?”

I really like that song, too! The entries contained here are mostly about songs that can be used to teach specific musical concepts, primarily related to melodic, harmonic, or metrical concepts, and/or samples of jazz & classical music. The entries are focused on popular songs with tangible, teachable features — e.g. the epic key change in Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.” (Update: “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” made it in on that Handclaps vol. 1 list.)

In 2014, as I was starting to compile lists, I was mostly lurking on old, near-archived guitar message boards. You guitarists spend a lot of time thinking about modes & key changes, don’t you? Interspersed with blog entries about songs, you'll find longer pieces about the current state of teaching and/or popular music (or teaching popular music), and occasionally some slightly more traditional band & chorus teaching ideas & resources.

I'd love to publish a book one day, and I honestly can’t wait to travel for conferences again. If you'd like to support those endeavors, you can also buy me the digital equivalent of a cup of coffee

If you're just dying for it, you can read my CV here.

Welcome to my little corner of the world.

*When I say "popular music" I mean that which is generally released for commercial distribution in the 20th century popular music model.  All of which was essentially born of jazz and/or rock & roll, which means it is all music born of the African diaspora.

I don't necessarily mean music that is so popular that students will be familiar with it. The most popular entry on this blog — ever — is about The Stranglers' "Golden Brown", which was a British single from the early 1980s.  Kids will be weirded out by that, I promise, so you should play it in class as much as possible.

Additional Media

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You can find me on Twitter (too often), as well as Instagram & TikTok (much less often) @rebelmusicteach as well.