The long and winding road: the story of rock music in Scottish schools

What drives young people to become involved in music making in the secondary school? Changes to the curriculum in Scottish schools over the last three decades have resulted in a marked upturn in the numbers of pupils studying music. The inclusion of a wider range of acceptable instruments for examination purposes has resulted in rock music being accepted as a valid form of music within the curriculum. The paper discusses the growth and development of this phenomenon and the philosophical and practical issues arising from what, in some ways, has been a quiet and gentle revolution. The conditions required to allow this new musical democracy to flourish are examined and Csikszentmihalyi's 'flow' model (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992) is suggested as a possible reflective tool that educators can use to monitor, regulate and assess learning in music.