Welcome to RYME!
All of us at RYME believe that this is an exciting time for youth, music and education. Youth in the 21st century have undergone a transformation in their music participation. More young people than ever before are involved in learning opportunities that foster meaningful engagement in a wide variety of music activities.
Increased mobility, social networking, media, and globalization have increased young people’s exposure to diverse musical ideas and practices. Technology has created instantaneous access to varied music resources. Youth are actively engaged in creating their own musical worlds.
Today, youth have more music choices available to them and more autonomy over their music choices. They are achieving new heights in their music-related activities. They are also learning in and through music—about music making, artistic and emotional expression, culture, social justice, themselves, others, and the world around them.
But these are also challenging times for youth. Their lives are increasingly fast-paced and high-tech. Their everyday experiences are fragmented, diverted, fluid, diffuse, and noisy. There is a sense of uncertainty and unpredictability about the future. This fuels the pressure they already feel to achieve ‘high stakes’ performance outcomes and academic credentials in order to succeed. These factors influence how youth think and feel about themselves as music learners. It also influences their capacity and energy for music learning.
As communities become increasingly multicultural, youth are more likely to encounter contradictions over what constitutes valued and valuable forms of music making. These contradictions challenge youth in compelling as well as problematic ways. Our research indicates that the musical role models that youth value most are those in the media and entertainment industry. The musician role models who are valued most rarely play instruments or compose their own music. For young people, a sense of what it means to be a musician is often based on image or celebrity more than anything else.
Increasingly, youth involvement in informal music activities at home or in the community is at odds with formal or school music education agendas. In many different countries throughout the world, young people report that they value music less than other subjects at school; this is particularly the case following the transition to secondary school.
Young people’s music making aspirations may also be constrained or limited by different external factors such as a lack of support, economic hardship, stereotypes and prejudice. Physical, psychological, and emotional factors also contribute in complex ways to young people’s musical interests, knowledge, values, skills, learning opportunities and relationships. These complex interactions create possibilities for some youth and obstacles and barriers for others.
For music education to thrive in these challenging times, we at RYME believe that young people need to develop an impassioned spirit for music learning that promotes: (1) an active seeking of challenges found in varied music learning opportunities, (2) the development of positive and supportive learning relationships and the resiliency necessary to meet these challenges, (3) the promotion of youth leadership and advocacy efforts aimed at initiating and sustaining the positive music engagement of youth from diverse backgrounds.
Together, especially in partnership with young people, we are working to develop research initiatives that will help us achieve our goals. The research at RYME involves young people directly, as authors, researchers, critics, and subjective interpreters of youth music engagement. We aim to explore the varied facets of youth music involvement in order to create a composite picture of young people’s beliefs, values, and experiences. We also aim to create opportunities for dialogue between youth and adults that will address the gaps in our knowledge, and promote, build, and strengthen positive youth music engagement through innovative and creative research and music education initiatives.
We at RYME welcome the involvement of youth and adults interested in research focused on multiple aspects of youth, music and education. We invite you to browse our website and learn more about our projects. If you would like to join us or make a contribution to our research, I would be pleased to hear from you.
Susan O’Neill
Director of Research for Youth, Music and Education (RYME)
