Increasing Access Through Popular Music Education: A Case Study of the Pop/Rock Ensemble at Bergen Community College Andrew Krikun, Bergen Community College Bryan Powell, John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University
Music education in public schools struggles to include diverse populations and has often inadequately addressed issues of access, inclusion, and equity for traditionally marginalized groups. Often, the ensembles present in school music programs are limited to bands, choirs, and orchestras that focus on Western European art music traditions. Even in schools that include jazz and popular music repertoire, music making in these ensembles are often taught using traditional pedagogical approaches. Music education is at a critical moment in its evolution. If music educators seek to expand access to music participation for all students, then they need to diversify the types of musical experiences that are offered in schools. Recent scholarship indicates that the inclusion of popular music ensembles in schools can increase the diversity of students participating in school music while providing increased opportunities for participation for traditionally marginalized populations (Clauhs & Cremata, 2020). An examination of the practices and pedagogies used in these popular music ensembles can shed light on how music programs might integrate some of these approaches in an attempt to increase the diversity of their student participants. What follows highlights the popular music ensemble at Bergen Community College, tracing the history of the ensemble and suggesting ways in which other ensembles might increase the diversity of school music programs. Community Colleges and Contemporary Music Education Although two-year public community colleges have been in existence for over one hundred years and currently enroll almost half of the undergraduate student popuTEMPO
lation, very little research has been devoted to their role in the democratization of the music education curriculum in higher education. Historically, public community colleges in the United States have played an important role in the development of the college music curriculum, establishing the first post-secondary music programs in jazz and popular music, opera, music business, and music technology. Beginning with groundbreaking junior college music programs in Los Angeles during the 1930s that introduced popular music and opera into the curriculum, as well as Max Kaplan’s pedagogical innovations at Pueblo Junior College in Colorado in the early 1940s, these often-marginalized institutions have offered opportunities for students diversified by factors including race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and previous academic background to pursue music studies when traditional four-year colleges and universities had stringent barriers, including audition requirements and financial obligations (Krikun, 2017). Bergen Community College Bergen County Community College (BCC) is a twoyear college located in Paramus, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. Bergen County Community College currently offers three Associate degrees with a focus on music: an Associate of Fine Arts degree in Music with concentrations in Classical/Jazz Music Performance, Popular Music, and Music Production for students planning to transfer to a four-year college music program; and two Associate of Applied Arts vocational degrees in Music Business and Recording Arts. One of the musical ensembles that Bergen County Community College offers is the Pop/Rock Ensemble. The current director of the Pop/Rock Ensemble is Andy Krikun, who created 34
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