High School Block:

Popular Music 120

Popular Music 120 is designed for learners who have successfully completed Social Studies 9 and have skills for a specific instrument (including voice, Digital Audio Workspace (DAW), various instruments, etc.). Successful completion of Social Studies 9 will provide learners with the background in historical thinking concepts required to explore and gain understanding of the music industry, its evolution, its impact on society, and its response to events/movements.

People, regardless of race, gender, or geography, have always written music about their social and cultural surroundings as well as historical events that influence their lives. Popular Music 120 allows learners the opportunity to investigate the ways global events shape popular music and how popular music has, in turn, influenced culture and society. Through their investigations, learners develop a deeper understanding of musical genres and the development of social and cultural trends.

In Popular Music 120, learners examine culture through the elements of music, instrumentation, the role of industry and promoters, artists, and writers. Additionally, learners are expected to create and/or recreate music to demonstrate their understanding of specific characteristics of a particular genre. Differing from other music electives, performances for Popular Music 120 should focus on process rather than product.

CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS

Create

Interpret and Curate

  • Demonstrating understanding through performance

Literacy

  • Developing skill in reading notation

Critical Listening

  • Identifying elements of music
Connect

Historical Thinking Concepts

  • Changes over time:
    • Musical Change
    • Societal Change
    • Technological Change

Career connections

  • Career pathways within the music industry
Communicate

Artistic Intent

  • Self-Reflection
  • Peer feedback
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GRADE 12

Strand: Create

Big Idea: Interpret and Curate

Skill Descriptor: Create/recreate musical examples that are representative of various popular music genres.

Global Competencies: CTPS, ICE, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Present a collection of created/recreated examples to highlight the evolution of a specific genre.
  • Explain how characteristics of one genre are found in other genres or can be used to create a new genre.
  • Justify artistic choices when creating a “mashup” of two or more existing genres.

Big Idea: Literacy

Skill Descriptor: Explore music notation styles associated with popular music.

Global Competencies: CTPS, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Demonstrate improvement in reading various forms of popular notation. (Tab, lead sheets, gamified notation, etc.)

Big Idea: Critical Listening

Skill Descriptor: Develop critical listening skills using a variety of popular genres.

Global Competencies: CTPS, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Map musical contour, form, and arrangement.
  • Interpret the elements of music in a variety of listening examples.

Strand: Connect

Big Idea: Musical Change

Skill Descriptor: Examine the continuity and changes to the purpose of music over time.

Global Competencies: CTPS, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Investigate changes to a specific genre and illustrate those changes over time.
  • Discuss the reasons why music has been used for entertainment and for messaging.
  • Examine ways in which elements of music have changed and/or remained the same.

Big Idea: Societal Change

Skill Descriptor: Investigate the ways our consumption of music has evolved.

Global Competencies: CTPS, ICE, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Distinguish between appropriation and appreciation.
  • Discuss ‘identity’ and how it relates to world view and musical preference.
  • Select and discuss song lyrics to infer meaning related to specific events or trends.
  • Investigate how a particular event in history impacted popular music making (i.e., The Great Depression and swing bands of the 1930s, 9/11 and the rise of patriotic music)

Big Idea: Technological Change

Skill Descriptor: Elaborate on the ways technology has impacted how we create, disseminate, and consume music.

Global Competencies: CTPS, ICE, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Discuss how elements of music are changed when amplifying/electrifying instruments.
  • Discuss the advantages/disadvantages of evolving industry standards and technology.
  • Investigate the ways social media has influenced the dissemination of music.

Big Idea: Career connections

Skill Descriptor: Investigate potential career pathways connected to popular music industry

Global Competencies: CTPS, ICE, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Research ways to self-publish.
  • Discuss the challenges of being an independent artist.
  • Research sound studios and other music organizations based in New Brunswick.

Strand: Communicate

Big Idea: Artistic Intent

Skill Descriptor: Self-Reflection

Global Competencies: CTPS, ICE, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Articulate personal artistic intent and justify creative choices in music-making.
  • Document musical growth through a portfolio of examples created/recreated

Skill Descriptor: Peer Feedback

Global Competencies: CTPS, ICE, SASM, CL, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Use knowledge of elements of music to infer artistic intent of others.
  • Using the elements of music, offer genre-specific feedback to peers
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