Welcome to the APME Liverpool 2025 conference. Here, you’ll be able to register for the conference and update your Sched profile. We encourage you to browse the various presentations and to create a custom schedule. If you have any questions, please visit our conference website or contact us at conference@popularmusiceducation.org We look forward to coming together as a community July 22–24, 2025!
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Utilizing Critical Race Theory to conceptualize this study, rhythm and pitch—two key elements of music— are used to explore literature around the interconnectedness of capitalism and racism. A greater understanding within this study may lead to more socioacademically equitable music learning and teaching in K-12 and higher education.
Despite Afrobeats’ global popularity and growing scholarly attention, it remains largely absent from higher education curricula. With King’s College London as a rare exception, this paper proposes a framework for teaching Afrobeats in global academia, identifying key sources and discourses to support its transition from pop culture to the classroom.
How can studying the popular music tradition and encouraging students’ innovations be balanced most fruitfully? This session shows how they can feed off each other. A music tradition is like a language – our students must learn to speak it in order to join a conversation and say something innovative.
This research examines STEM skils, craft skills, and aesthetics in the translation of aspiring musikarbeiter (“music workers”) into networks of music technological employment and artistic practice. It discovers common experiences of aesthetic recruitment, technical interessement and acquisition of agency, and frames a suggestion for curriculum intent in terms of “skills/creativity/autonomy”.
This presentation explores the impact of DAWs (digital audio workstations) on contemporary music production, particularly in rap and electro. Through the study of the different types of pedagogies and practices of Ableton Live, it examines its role in creation, shared knowledge (prescribed, acquired, know-how), and its social and technical influence in modern home studios.
This session examines essential skills for success in the modern music industry, including digital literacy, entrepreneurship, networking, and resilience. Attendees will gain practical insights into aligning with industry demands, navigating emerging trends, and preparing for diverse career pathways in an increasingly competitive and dynamic global music ecosystem.
“The jam session is…the…true academy ” according to Ralph Ellison. Jam sessions continue to exist and have branched out into other styles, like blues, rock, and funk, better known as “open jams.” Where do open jams and PME align and conflict? How do we better create “the true academy”?
The presenter describes his work as a professor and provocateur at a US university. The presenter gives drum kit performances in a university art gallery, modeling noisy, relational resistance in co-musicking as fundamental to a necessary paradigm shift to counter perpetuation of racist, regressive social policy in the United States.
This paper outlines the interdisciplinary approach taken in an undergraduate module in which music students to analyse visual aspects of their promotional materials and performances. Theories from disciplines including persona studies, visual studies, image studies, performance studies, audio-visual studies and fashion studies are synthesised to inform constructively critical analysis.
How do collegiate R&B ensemble directors gain and develop their knowledge for teaching R&B music? How do these ensemble directors employ their expertise in their instructional contexts? This session will present the findings of a dissertation study that focused on the pedagogical content knowledge of three collegiate R&B music instructors.
This project centres around music literacy education practices and teaching 'active consumption', a phrase and method for combining various states of critical thinking about popular music. It also focuses on determining teaching methods that prioritise students' own interpretations and independence over binary correctness and incorrectness.
Terminology in vocal studies often varies, causing confusion for vocalists trying to develop their skills. This presentation highlights research on vocal pedagogy in HPME, addresses the disparities in terminology used for vocal studies and introduces the creation of a unified framework that integrates language and terminology from various existing vocal pedagogies.
This doctoral research explored the development of a framework aimed at transforming UK music education to be more inclusive, diverse, and equitable, particularly for Black pupils. This research aims to offer concrete recommendations for educators and policymakers to foster a more culturally responsive and equitable music education system that resonates with and benefits all students.
This paper considers the implications and impact of social media algorithm biases which – rather than serving to diversify the types of musicians represented in the mainstream – may actually serve to reinforce status quo societal and cultural norms, biases and stereotypes against female musicians, musicians outside the gender binary, fat musicians, musicians of colour, and disabled musicians.
his presentation introduces a four-step framework for hybridising metal and Iranian classical music as a model for inclusive, student-centred music education. It explores the facilitator’s role in guiding students through cross-genre composition, fostering cultural diversity and creativity. The session invites feedback on implementing this approach in diverse educational contexts.
Songwriting camps, structured for intensive collaboration, have influenced higher education by highlighting essential creative skills. This paper, based on the Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century (SC21) project, examines how these camps teach interpersonal dynamics, adaptability, and teamwork, preparing students for professional songwriting through immersive, industry-aligned educational experiences.
This presentation explores how strategic collaboration can sustain Lancashire’s grassroots music ecosystem. Through practice-based research, we identify key challenges, propose solutions, and highlight efforts to build a talent pipeline with local education services—ensuring industry growth, stronger networks, and long-term sustainability for the region’s music sector.
