Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qlrfm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T18:30:11.166Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

East meets West: Learning-practices and attitudes towards music-making of popular musicians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2014

Annie O. Mok
Annie O. Mok*
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Learning-practices of popular musicians are a prominent theme in Western music education literature; however, there appears to be a shortage of such literature in Asian countries. With the aim of comparing East and West, a qualitative study was conducted to investigate the learning-practices and involvement in music of Hong Kong popular musicians. Since Hong Kong is a former British colony, the study intended to investigate whether these practices resembled Western practices, or if they were derived from elements indigenous to Hong Kong. Interviews and observations of the informants’ performances and rehearsals were used to obtain data. It was found that all the informants learned mainly in an informal way and participated actively in music-making – similar to the Western popular music-making scenario – but the shadow of the mentor–apprentice learning relationship inherent in Chinese culture also appeared. Lastly, achievement-driven motivation in learning, which is prevalent in Chinese society, was also found among the informants in the present study. This may not be a significant finding in the context of popular music generally, but it is an issue in which Asian educators may be interested.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , July 2014 , pp. 179 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BENNETT, H. S. (1980) On Becoming a Rock Musician. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
BIGGS, J. B. (1987) Student Approaches to Learning and Studying. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar
BRAND, M. (2001) Chinese and American music majors: cross-cultural comparison in motivation and strategies for learning and studying. Psychology of Music, 29, 170–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COHEN, S. (1991) Rock Culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
FINNEGAN, R. (1989). The Hidden Musicians: Music-making in an English Town. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
FENG, Y. Q. (Ed.) (2009). Gechao, Xiyun: Xianggang Yueyu Liuxingqu de Fazhan 歌潮º汐韻: 香港粤語流行曲的發展 [The Tide: The Development of Hong Kong Cantopop]. Hong Kong: Ciwenhua Youxian Gongsi 次文化有限公司. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2002 a) Gender identity, musical experience and schooling. In Spruce, G. (Ed.), Aspects of Teaching Secondary Music: Perspectives on Practice. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2002 b) How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education. London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2004) What can music educators learn from popular musicians? In Rodriguez, C. X. (Ed.), Bridging the Gap: Popular Music and Music Education (pp. 225–241). Reston, VA: MENC.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2008) Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
HATCH, J. A. (2002) Doing Qualitative Research in Education Settings. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
HO, W-C. (2003) Between globalisation and localisation: a study of Hong Kong popular music. Popular Music, 22, 145–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HO, W-C. (2004) A cross-cultural study of preferences for popular music among Hong Kong and Thailand youths. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 7. Retrieved from www.immi.se/interculturalGoogle Scholar
HO, W-C. (2008) Popular music among Hong Kong youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 11, 123–139.Google Scholar
HO, W. C. (2011) Between globalization and localization: a case study of Hong Kong popular music. In Rojek, C. (Ed.), Popular Music: Sage Benchmarks in Culture and Society (Four-volume set) (pp. 235–252). London: Sage.Google Scholar
HUANG, Z. H. (1990) Yueyu Liuxingqu Sishinian 粤語流行曲四十年 [Forty Years of Cantonese Popular Music]. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Limited. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
HUANG, Z. H. (2000) Zaoqi Xianggang Yueyu Liuxingqu 1950–1974 早期香港粤語流行曲, 1950–1974 [Early Years of Cantonese Popular Music 1950–1974]. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Limited. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
HUANG, Z. H. & ZHU, Y. W. (2011) Xianggang Geci Bashitan 香港歌詞八十談 [Eighty Talks on Hong Kong Songs’ Lyric]. Hong Kong: Huizhi Chuban Youxian Gongsi 匯智出版有限公司. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
KING, N & HORROCKS, C. (2010) Interviews in Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
LEE, W. O. (1996) The cultural context for Chinese learners: conceptions of learning in the Confucian tradition. In Watson, D. A. & Biggs, J. B. (Eds.), The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychology and Contextual Influence. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre.Google Scholar
MCPHAIL, G. (2013) Informal and formal knowledge: the curriculum conception of two rock graduates. British Journal of Music Education, 30, 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PITTS, S. (2005) Valuing Musical Participation. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
ROBINSON, T. (2012) Popular musicians and instrumental teachers: the influence of informal learning on teaching strategies. British Journal of Music Education, 29, 359–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RODRIGUEZ, C. X. (2004). Popular music in music education: toward a new conception of musicality. In Rodriguez, C. X. (Ed.), Bridging the Gap: Popular Music and Music Education (pp. 13–27). Reston, VA: MENC.Google Scholar
SARRAZIN, N. (2006) India's music: popular film songs in the classroom. Music Educators Journal, 93, 26–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STOCK, J. P. J. (2004) Documenting the musical event: observation, participation, representation. In Clarke, E. & Cook, N. (Eds.), Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
WOODY, R. H. (2007) Popular music in school: remixing the issues. Music Educators Journal, March, 32–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WONG, C. C. (2007) Liusheng: Women de Shengyin 流聲: 我們的聲音 [Hong Kong's Pop Soundscapes]. Hong Kong: Home Affairs Bureau, The Government of the Hong Kong SAR. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
ZHU, Y. W. (2000) Guanghui Suiyue: Xianggang Liuxing Yuedui Zuhe Yanjiu (1984–1990) 光輝歲月: 香港流行樂隊組合硏究, 1984–1990 [Glorious Times: A Study of Hong Kong Popular Band Formation from 1984–1990]. Hong Kong: Infolink Publishing Ltd. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
ZHU, Y. W. (2011) Hou Jiuqi Xianggang Yueyu li xing Geci Yanjiu 後九七香港粤語流行歌詞研究 [Post-1997 Hong Kong Canotpop Lyric Analysis]. Hong Kong: Liangguang Wenhua Youxian Gongsi亮光文化有限公司. [In Chinese]Google Scholar