Analysis of practical and popular music as contemporary music: Focusing on elementary school music textbooks

Objectives The need for an accurate understanding of the concepts of contemporary music, practical music, and popular music, and the recognition of the necessity for changes in music education based on individual music tastes and preferences, are affirmed. This aims to advocate for a reassessment of music textbooks, particularly in elementary music education, through a quantitative evaluation of practical and popular music content. Furthermore, the proposal emphasizes the necessity for changes in music textbooks through individual assessments of multi-frequent songs. Methods Analyze the popular music area included in elementary school music textbooks. We analyzed the songs included in 32 textbooks from 8 different publishers, established the multi-frequent songs, and looked into the characteristics and contents of each song. The need for changes to the songs included in textbooks is confirmed through individual evaluation of the distribution of songs included in music textbooks and the multi-frequent songs. Results First, animation music accounts for 26.4% and movie music 25.8%, which accounts for more than 50%. Second, there are 121 foreign songs and 61 domestic songs, with POP (13.2%) followed by K-POP (9.9%), and there are many POP in the singing field. Third, there are differences between textbooks, Fourth, the content related to the music industry is insufficient, and it is included in 5 textbooks (out of 32), and Fifth, there are problems with the content and release period of multi-frequent songs. Lastly, since multi-frequent songs are repeatedly included in middle and high school textbooks, a feasibility study on this aspect is also necessary. Conclusions There is a need to realistically reflect the songs included in textbooks, and for this, it is necessary to reexamine the songs included in textbooks. There is a need for a change in perception of popular music education due to scientific development, and a practical approach to the methods and content needed for future popular music education is needed.