ABSTRACT

After the practical innovations of the 1960s and early 1970s, the decade that followed can be seen as a time of reflection and of the promotion of new and often conflicting ideas. As the scope for school music expanded, so did the awareness of popular and world musics, putting teachers under pressure to accommodate a broader musical curriculum. Just as a mechanical change – the advent of radio and gramophone – had made music of all kinds available to listeners in the 1930s, so the expansion of pirate radio broadcasts and the increasing availability of pop music records brought the music of the new generation to a wider audience. For a picture of classroom thought and practice at the time, it is helpful to turn to the work of the Schools Council project, Music in the Secondary School Curriculum which, running from 1973 to 1980, offers an interesting perspective upon the developments of the time.