ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two linked areas: ideologies, particularly those relating to processes of canonization and the split between classical and popular musics; and social groups, specifically those defined by class, gender, and ethnicity. It considers changes in ideologies of musical value and competence, and their part in the production and reproduction of social groups through formal music education in schools over the last forty years of the twentieth century. Many of the illustrations relate specifically to Britain, while also refer to research in variety of other countries, and raise issues affecting formal music education globally. The chapter considers some of the changing processes through which music education and some of its associated ideologies have contributed to the reproduction of three kinds of groups: social class, gender, and ethnicity. This reproduction occurs both at the broad societal level in terms of cultural and economic relations between social groups, and at the level of the individual in terms of personal identity.
