Global Music Perspectives: Music Outside the Western Canon in Local Schools

As a class, we are designing a research project for investigating how music teachers from counties in South-Central Pennsylvania use music from outside the Western canon (i.e. world music ). We are performing a qualitative study by interviewing k-12 music teachers from school districts in South-Central Pennsylvania. Teachers may choose to participate in a focus group interview with other teachers or in one-on-one interviews. The focus group interview will not exceed two hours and the one-on-one interviews will not exceed an hour. The interviews will be guided using a questionnaire (see attached), but the conversation may deviate from these questions at the discretion of the interviewer(s). We will transcribe these interviews to extract common thematic materials and relevant information. We will also compile a literature review of relevant peer-reviewed articles and use the data from said articles to expand upon our gathered information

‘Hey! Hey! I've seen this one, I've seen this one. It's a classic’: Nostalgia, repeat viewing and cult performance in Back to the Future

This article examines the enduring popularity of Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) and its status as an emergent cult blockbuster for a new generation of fans. It draws on the findings of a small-scale audience survey conducted at a one-off screening of the film at Aberystwyth Arts Centre in early February 2012, where it was part of the University’s cult film club programme. The responses to the survey are contextualised by examples of fan practices found online; these indicate some of the additional ways in which a continued affection for Back to the Future is expressed by its followers. From these sources, two audience-led approaches are developed as a means to investigate on-going fandom of Back to the Future. The first of these is an exploration of the nature and value of fan nostalgia expressed towards Back to the Future and other “classic” popular culture texts of the eighties.2 This includes an examination of the kinds of nostalgia that are articulated by fans towards films that were released before they were born, and takes Barbara Klinger’s work on the practice of re-watching films as a starting point (2006). The second approach considers the popular acting partnership of Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, and draws on the emergent academic study of cult stardom and performance (Mathijs and Sexton 2011; Egan and Thomas 2013). Through an exploration of these two audience-led approaches, I consider whether it is possible to observe an on-going process of cultification in relation to the Back to the Future franchise in a number of significant ways

Stop Piracy with Edification: Intellectual Property Education in School

From introduction: The global population is showing substantial disregard for intellectual property. As children, they practice the production of illegal music copies for friends and family and engage in plagiarism. Adults commit in addition software piracy, the purchasing of pirated video, and various other copyright violations. The utter disregard of such works and creativity is stumping innovation and stems from the lack of adequate intellectual property education. As an academic course counselor, I propose that elementary, middle, and high schools introduce Intellectual Property Education in to their current curriculum. This would effectively and noticeably decrease copyright infringement and would promote a sense of appreciation for creation. Yet, copyright laws and trusted systems should still be in position to prevent further encroachment

Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) art in care of ageing society: focus on dementia

open access articleBackground: Art enhances both physical and mental health wellbeing. The health benefits include reduction in blood pressure, heart rate, pain perception and briefer inpatient stays, as well as improvement of communication skills and self-esteem. In addition to these, people living with dementia benefit from reduction of their noncognitive, behavioural changes, enhancement of their cognitive capacities and being socially active. Methods: The current study represents a narrative general literature review on available studies and knowledge about contribution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in creative arts. Results: We review AI visual arts technologies, and their potential for use among people with dementia and care, drawing on similar experiences to date from traditional art in dementia care. Conclusion: The virtual reality, installations and the psychedelic properties of the AI created art provide a new venue for more detailed research about its therapeutic use in dementia

Cultivating the Next Generation of Art Lovers: How Boston Lyric Opera Sought to Create Greater Opportunities for Families to Attend Opera

Examines the evolution, outcomes, and factors shaping BLO's efforts to expand its audience through high-quality productions of abridged operas for families, supplemented by free previews and workshops at community venues. Outlines lessons learned

From the western classics to the world: secondary music teachers' changing attitudes in England 1982 and 1998

Two parallel samples of secondary music teachers in England, taken from 1982 and 1998, reveal similarities and differences in their evaluations and uses of twentieth and pre-twentieth century Western classical music, folk music, popular music, jazz and ‘world’ music. Least change occurs with relation to folk and pre-twentieth century classical music; most with relation to popular and world musics. The status of classical music is high in each of the two time periods, but in different ways. By the end of the century, teachers’ views of musical value have overall, shifted radically towards more global perspectives, and their classroom approaches include far more integrated practical work involving performing, composing and listening, with an emphasis on cross-stylistic comparisons and musical universals

East Coast/West Coast: The Long Tradition of Italian Immigrant Performers

This article discusses the role of the immigrant stage in representing, imagining, exporting and importing, the Italian identity. In particular the essay examines the differences between the Italian Diasporic communities on the  east Coast and in California and the diverse culture dello spettacolo they proposed to both American and Italian audiences

The Conflicts Between Two Generations Reflected in Thank You Music Video

A song by MKTO which entitled “Thank You” is used by the writer to analyze its music video. The purpose of this study is to do a research about the conflicts between the old and young generation, which is related with social and symbolic power. Theories that are used are textual and contextual theories. The textual theory is used to analyze the verbal aspects (lyrics), aural aspects (music), and visual aspects (clips). Meanwhile the contextual theory is used to analyze the social issues which become the source of the conflict