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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Exploring the integration of student voice and co-construction in lower secondary music curricula, this research examines teacher and student perspectives to enhance engagement and inclusivity. Through qualitative action research, it highlights strategies for developing responsive curricula that foster collaboration, cultural relevance, and improved retention in music education.
The Rural Music Project will explore the development of music ecosystems away from major city centres, utilising art school pedagogies and the concept of scenius to generate community musicking and vibrant music hubs in lesser populated locales, enriching lives through encouraging cultural interaction, economic growth and an increased sense of place.
This session will detail the work being done at the SENSES Project, a music/podcast creation space at Syracuse University focused on increasing sense of belonging for first generation and other marginalized student groups. The space offers free access to equipment and education around music production, DJing, podcasting, and much more.
The Power of Student Voice: Define student voice and its significance in curriculum co-construction, drawing on research findings.
Insights from the Field: Share qualitative data from teacher interviews and student focus groups to illustrate the impact of integrating student perspectives.
Discussion Catalyst: Pose questions about the barriers and opportunities for amplifying student voice in music education to inspire further conversation.
Practical Strategies: Offer actionable recommendations for educators to create inclusive and collaborative music curricula.
This presentation explores "Illuminated Songs," a multimodal assignment in Taylor Swift-themed courses that engages general education majors in musical and lyrical analysis. By visually annotating songs, students explore themes, narrative structures, and musical elements. This accessible, interdisciplinary strategy fosters active listening, critical engagement, and highlights the cultural relevance of popular music in education.
Arranging and interpreting pop songs collaboratively, with groups of 10, 15 or 25 members, is a challenging and rewarding experience. I want to show how we can tackle these group processes by offering structure and cultivating openness. After a warm-up with participatory elements, we sing and play a pop song together. I give some input to get started, and then leave space for developing ideas. We will make the song our own by changing roles and taking artistic decisions together. Own instruments are welcome!
This panel explores how music education can better support students’ mental health by addressing industry-related challenges. Attendees will gain insights into current training gaps, discover successful wellbeing initiatives, and leave with practical tools to foster resilience, self-awareness, and sustainability in the next generation of musicians.
This presentation explores the integration of video game music (VGM) into higher education curricula as a tool for teaching popular music. I illustrate how VGM can serve as an effective pedagogical tool for engaging students in the study of popular music history, theory, composition, and performance at the tertiary level.
While popular genres are slowly being integrated into music theory curricula, many university music programs continue to struggle with how to accomplish this task while serving the needs of their entire student body. This session is meant to foster a discussion of solutions, both tried and untried, failed and succeeded.
This session explores how popular music set works are analyzed in GCSE and A Level curricula, questioning the authenticity of current methods. It highlights gaps in traditional frameworks, suggesting inclusive pedagogical approaches to better represent the cultural and stylistic dimensions of popular music for deeper student engagement and learning.
This paper will reflect on a survey conducted that studies developments in instrumental popular music grades for the guitar. Drawing on other scholarship and experiences, the paper observes how the establishment of these examinations in the 1990s and their subsequent developments have shaped the opinions and approaches of music students.
In teaching performance, we rely on conceptual analysis to assess and feedback on performance quality. But audiences experience performance as something far more immediate and visceral. In this talk, I discuss a method for measuring audience experience as a series of visceral responses. But is this valid or hopelessly flawed?
The promotion of technology often attempts to associate with prevailing trends: words such as 'crypto', 'metaverse' and 'A.I.' can be used almost to the point of meaninglessness. This paper discusses historical and current examples of algorithmic processing, machine learning and generative A.I. and their changing use in music production and pedagogy.
