ABSTRACT
The National Curriculum gave a crucial entitlement to practical/creative music-making in the classroom. The GCSE allowed students to compose relatively freely rather than simply to attempt to replicate the highly formal rules of counterpoint and SATB harmony; the listening paper could include popular and 'ethnic' music and was much less notation-focused. Hardcore Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is the least well-served area of contemporary music within the supposed broadening of the music curriculum which has been occurring for the last quarter of a century. Robert Walker has argued that 'pressure from parents, teachers or peers' and/or 'media pressure' can make 'teenage students rate popular music more highly than classical'. This chapter describes some observations in relation to the educational question of 'Students' Right to Their Own Language' (SRTOL) in particular, and sociolinguistic issues in education more generally: to what extent can music education 'map on' to the debates around SRTOL.
