Pop music, a unique cultural phenomenon that cannot be ignored, has become increasingly popular and loved by the public, especially young students, since the reform and opening up. Can popular music be introduced into high school music appreciation classes as educational resources? How to make it play an active role in teaching? This article combines teaching practice and attempts to conduct a preliminary discussion on the introduction of popular music into high school music classrooms from the aspects of teaching material content, student attitudes, reasons for formation, and introduction methods.

〈Keywords〉

New curriculum standards for high school music appreciation of pop music

Pop Music (Pop Music), that is, popular music, refers to those short-structured, The content is popular, the form is lively, and the emotion is sincere. It is loved by the masses and widely sung or appreciated. It is popular instrumental music and songs that even spread to later generations. Nowadays, they mostly refer to jazz music, rock music, popular songs, etc. Pop music has the characteristics of entertainment, life, popularity, etc., is close to life, and is easy to accept.

"Teacher, can you play some pop songs?" This is a sentence I, a high school music teacher, often hear in teaching. Today, when we advocate freedom and pursue individuality, when it comes to pop music, middle school students know everything about it. Jay Chou, Leehom Wang, Stefanie Sun... these names are so familiar to them. In addition to music, the hairstyles and clothes of pop singers are also They have become the objects that students strive to imitate. Faced with these phenomena, the author often thinks, why can pop music attract students so easily? Can popular music really enter the classroom and play a positive role? The following are some of the author’s thoughts and opinions on this issue.

1. The basic situation of popular music works in the current high school music textbooks

In the "People's Education Edition" high school music appreciation textbook and the new curriculum reform "Huacheng Edition" high school music appreciation textbook , all involving some popular music content. The "People's Education Edition" textbook only selects one or two popular music works in individual chapters, while the new curriculum reform "Huacheng Edition" textbook has made bolder developments in this regard than before, and specially designed a chapter to introduce it. Popular music such as pop and jazz also has some popular music content infiltrated into other topics.

It can be seen that the compilers of textbooks have realized the profound influence of popular music on today's high school students, as well as the appreciation needs of high school students, and strive to achieve certain teaching purposes.

2. High school students’ attitudes and opinions towards popular music works

The author used a questionnaire survey to investigate popular music and the selection of popular music in textbooks among high school students. There were four questions in the survey, and 372 people accepted the questionnaire.

The content and results are as follows:

1. Your favorite music type

Options Classical music Ethnic music Pop music Others

Number of people 39 4 277 52

Percentage 10.48% 1.08% 74.46% 13.98%

2. Should popular music content be included in high school music textbooks?

It doesn’t matter if the option should or not

Number of people 369 0 3

Percentage 99.19% 0% 0.81%

3. What do you think, the current What proportion of popular music content accounts for in music textbooks?

The options are too many and too few are appropriate

Number of people 0 307 65

Percentage 0% 82.53% 17.47%

4. What do you think? How should teachers treat popular music works in the classroom?

Options: listen, don’t speak, listen more, speak less, listen more, speak more

Number of people 44 105 223

Percentage 11.83% 28.23% 59.95%

< p> From the results of the questionnaire survey, it can be seen that today's high school students' acceptance and love for pop music have far exceeded other music types. They strongly hope to appreciate more pop music works in the classroom and express The desire to further explore relevant knowledge.

3. Reasons why high school students love pop music

Today, teenagers all over the world are keen on pop music. This is a common social problem involving the physical and psychological development and growth of teenagers. From the perspective of music aesthetic psychology, pop music may have powerful or beautiful lyrical melodies, lyrics that speak directly to the heart, and the impact of live performances on the senses, etc., which all coincide with the psychological and physiological expectations of teenagers at this period. combine. In his research, German educator Wien proposed the following four reasons for this phenomenon: (1) Because adolescence is a period of sudden changes in emotions and emotions, classical music is not "enjoyable" for them and cannot meet their requirements, so they They are more interested in pop songs that can express original feelings and have popular lyrics; (2) because they personally feel the syncopated melody changes and jazz rhythms in pop songs, which makes them feel happy; (3) Teenagers compare They are envious of the behaviors and hobbies of their older youth and imitate them, thus developing an interest in pop music; (4) Learning classical music is too difficult in terms of technique, while pop music is relatively difficult to sing or perform. Easy, so they love pop music more.

When it comes to our high school students’ love for pop music, in addition to the above reasons, the author believes that there are other factors:

1. Herd mentality: middle school students are in a state of emotional In this stage of psychological development where emotions are becoming increasingly rich and the sense of community and friendship is gradually strengthening, they are afraid of being isolated and long to be fully integrated into the group. So when something is accepted by most people, others will follow suit. The same is true for popular music. Some students’ initial motivation is the herd mentality of “everyone listens to it, it must sound good”.

2. Fixed mentality: The author found in daily teaching that most students think that classical music is too profound and difficult to understand; ethnic music is too rustic and difficult to listen to; and pop music is novel, lively, easy to understand, and pleasant to listen to. . In fact, students do not know much about these three types of music, and their mastery of relevant knowledge is also very limited. They only make conclusions about these music based on a small number of previous experiences and preconceived ideas.

3. Rebellious psychology: Middle school students are in adolescence, have serious rebellious psychology, and have a strong curiosity for novel and taboo things. In our country, pop music was initially regarded as "extreme music". Later, the criticism decreased, but it was still regarded as vulgar, superficial and alien. In terms of school music teaching, before the introduction of the "new curriculum standards", popular music was excluded, and there was almost no trace of popular music in high school music textbooks.

Although it can now enter the classroom, the popular music that has been "carefully selected" by teachers after many considerations has long been "outdated" in the eyes of students. Therefore, in a sense, pop music is still a "forbidden zone" in school education. Driven by rebellious psychology and curiosity, high school students are even more enthusiastic about the "rare thing" in music class-pop music.

4. How to introduce pop music into high school music classes

High school students’ enthusiasm for pop music is an unavoidable objective reality, and we must face this phenomenon squarely. Einstein said: Love is the best teacher. The new "High School Music Curriculum Standards" points out: "Paying attention to and attaching importance to students' music interests and developing students' interests and hobbies are not only an important foundation and basic motivation for music learning, but also the basis for students to continue to develop in music and love music throughout their lives. "Basic guarantee." The "Curriculum Standards" also states: "We should experience, learn, understand and respect other music cultures in the world with a broad vision, and enable students to establish equal multicultural values ??through music teaching, so as to benefit our *** Enjoy all the outstanding achievements of human civilization. "Faced with such scientific and inclusive guiding ideology, what music teachers have to do is to use their brains to select healthy, excellent, popular music works that students love and organically combine them with classroom teaching, so as to benefit students. Provide useful guidance to achieve the teaching purpose of improving aesthetics.

1. Special Topic Appreciation

As mentioned earlier, popular music and popular music have been set up as an independent chapter in the new curriculum reform "Flower City Edition" textbook. In this way, in high school music appreciation classes, teachers can design three to four classes to guide students in special appreciation. For high school students who have a wide range of interests, keep up with popular trends, and have a strong thirst for knowledge, simply listening to a few songs or pieces of music is obviously not enough to satisfy their appreciation needs. The author believes that it is completely possible to combine reality and students' points of interest to select excellent musical works to guide students to learn and appreciate in depth. For example, the following is one of my teaching examples.

This class is arranged after jazz music appreciation. Students already have an understanding of this popular music type created by African Americans and characterized by unique melodies and rhythms. Therefore, the author decided to "strike while the iron is hot" so that students can continue to experience other styles of pop music that also originated from the United States.

At the beginning of the course, the author played a piece of Jay Chou's song, which immediately ignited the students' excitement, and many people started singing along. After the song ended, the author asked: "What style does Jay Chou's song belong to?" "R&B", "Hip-Hop", "Rap", the students said these words immediately. The author then asked: "Everyone is familiar with these words, so what do they mean?" This question made the students suddenly stuck. So I explained these musical terms one by one and showed their melodic and rhythmic characteristics. Then when listening to the song, the students summarized the R&B style characteristics of Jay Chou's music. Then, I played another song by the American group "Backstreet Boys" and asked the students to compare and appreciate it and find out the similarities and differences between the two kinds of R&B songs in China and the United States. Through discussion and analysis, the students concluded that because R&B music originated from the United States, its song style is more intense and distinct, while Chinese pop songs by Jay Chou and others borrowed from the American R&B style, but did not copy them all, but incorporated them into it. It incorporates some elements of Chinese music, such as melody, accompaniment, lyrics, etc., and is more suitable for Chinese people's appreciation taste. Therefore, songs by Jay Chou and others can be called R&B style songs with "Chinese characteristics".

This lesson uses Jay Chou’s songs that are popular among students today as an entry point to enable students to understand and feel the R&B music style originating from the United States. At the same time, we hope to guide students to understand what they like and make objective evaluations of music based on their understanding.

From a practical point of view, such classes are very popular among high school students. Just like some students said after class: "I finally understand what I like. Before, I just liked it blindly, but couldn't say anything. Now that I understand the relevant knowledge, I feel that I am no longer so blind."

"It can be seen that thematic appreciation of popular music is very necessary. This type of class not only allows students to appreciate favorite works and imparts relevant music knowledge, but more importantly, guides students to conduct useful appreciation and cultivates their healthy and positive attitude. Aesthetic taste, in the face of the complicated world of pop music, can make one's own objective and rational evaluation

The author believes that in the entire high school music appreciation study, the thematic appreciation of pop music can be combined with classical music and ethnic music. The parallel setting of music and other music genre appreciation learning accounts for about 1/4. Some subject contents can be adjusted and updated at any time according to the actual popularity, which not only conforms to the characteristics of popular music of the times, but also can meet the needs of students in different periods. Interests and concerns.

2. Auxiliary appreciation

In addition to thematic appreciation, in other music appreciation teaching, you can also choose popular music works that are consistent with the class theme and excellent classics. As a supplement, on the one hand, it deepens students' impression of the teaching content, on the other hand, it also broadens their appreciation horizons, allowing them to appreciate the content from different angles, while mediating the classroom atmosphere.

For example, in In the lesson "Song of Life" in the "Flower City Edition" textbook, in addition to the appreciation of classical music and ethnic music in class, students can also play Michael Jackson's "Song of the Earth" MV in line with the theme. The content is profound and contagious. The powerful singing and thought-provoking pictures will give students another kind of shock, and further deepen the moral education goal of protecting life and cherishing life. Another example is Liszt's piano piece "The Bell" in the textbook, which is a classical music work. In order to strengthen students' impression of music, after a series of listening and analysis, students can play a piece of "I Can't Sing" by Hong Kong singer Hacken Lee, because the accompaniment of this popular song is adapted from "The Bell". While enjoying it, I not only strengthened my memory of the theme of classical piano music, but also learned that music has no boundaries. Popular music and classical music can also learn from each other and integrate with each other. Similarly, in the teaching of appreciation of Chinese opera music. , interspersed with "One Night in Beijing" by Xin Ensemble or "Hu Xueyan's Theme Song" sung by Liu Huan, will have a good teaching effect and role.

Such popular music can assist appreciation in many appreciation themes. All can be used. It should be noted that the popular music works here appear as supplementary and additional content. The purpose is to present the teaching theme in another way and enrich the teaching content. The author believes that it must be selected and presented in a targeted manner. The works that have the closest connection with teaching should be selected from the best, rather than missing, so as to achieve the icing on the cake and sublimate the theme.

Whether it is theme appreciation or auxiliary appreciation, teachers should use the teaching materials as the basis and the "New Works". Curriculum Standards" is used as the criterion, and pop music works that perfectly integrate ideological and artistic qualities are carefully selected to enrich teaching, guiding students to correctly understand, accurately identify, and treat pop music rationally, treat various music types with an open and inclusive attitude, and feel in music. Truth, goodness and beauty.

Art needs a hundred schools of thought to bloom and a hundred flowers to bloom. Pop music should be introduced into classroom teaching in an eclectic way, broaden teaching resources, re-integrate teaching content, and cultivate students' understanding of Interest in music classes and artistic aesthetic ability are inevitable trends in high school music teaching. The new curriculum standards have made a lot of suggestions for teachers to adapt to the development of quality education in terms of music education concepts, content, methods, means and evaluation systems. Guided by the new curriculum standards and combined with reality, they can improve students' aesthetic taste and cultivate good humanistic qualities. Literacy truly enables students to: learn music, love music, choose music, and enjoy music.