Contemporary popular music is a ubiquitous social, cultural, and pedagogical force.
Enabled by ever-evolving and -expanding technology, its songs and lyrics are transmitted
into our most public and private spaces. For this study, I present the Billboard music charts
as a functioning pedagogy and curriculum. Riffing on Richter’s denkbilder, Aoki’s curricular worlds of plan and lived experience, Giroux’s public pedagogy, and Giroux & Simon’s
theorizing on youth culture, I sound out messages and motives embedded within the hit
parade pedagogy. DJing a methodology of qualitative inquiry, autoethnography, and free
association, I listen closely to chart-topping songs by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and P!nk that
feature themes of marginalization, and consider the paradox presented by the juxtaposition of
their popularity and subject matter. I suggest that this playlist legitimizes and perpetuates its listeners’ marginalization, running counter to its supposed intent to galvanize and inspire.
Before signing off, I consider the implications for school-based educators and pedagogy in
regard to engaging marginalization, particularly the notion of implementing a curriculum
with which students may participate and sing along.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OOU.#10393/30559 |
| Date | 04 February 2014 |
| Creators | Kom, Brian S. R. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thèse / Thesis |
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