8th Grade Popular Music with Matt Warren

I know my goal is to speak about music education in early childhood programs; however, for the Music in Our Schools Month, I'll be writing about music education programs at all programs from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Matt Warren is a music teacher I recently started following on twitter. He teaches exclusively popular music at a middle school in New York. He reports that his middle school, Spry Middle School in Webster, NY, composed of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade requires students at each level to take some kind of music class.

He is also a prolific reviewer of music, advocate for the importance of music education, and an emphasizer of the importance of using current music in his classes. In his video below, he tells his audience that "anything before Eminem is old" to his students.

Check out his recent presentation at The Institute for Popular Music recorded in 2014. What are your thoughts? Is modern music better than classical music, or music before Eminem? Is it possible to integrate classical music within modern music?

You can find Matt Warren on Facebook, Twitter, and his blog.