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The lessons found here are for integrating popular music study into general music curricula. The lessons are all standards-aligned and are almost entirely historical, cultural, sociological, and musicological in nature. The lessons can also be integrated into social studies curricula. There are many opportunities in all of these lessons for students to embark on music and cultural research to enhance and deepen their understanding of the music they are learning to play/sing/perform.

This website is a compilation of world music that is appropriate for children to learn about and perform. The library is vast, and is easily searchable by continent, country, and language. There are audio clips and linked videos, as well as several English translations. It's a great resource to explore world music and culture.

This site includes lessons and music from numerous countries.  This is a great resource for teaching multi-cultural music.

Great resource for music listening activities in class. Contains information about different cultures and traditions, audio files, videos, podcasts, lesson plans etc.

This site offers links to many music files. There are many folk and ethnic songs as well as traditional ensemble music. Everything on this site is free.

North Carolina Music Educators Association. MISSION:  To advance music education by promoting the understanding and making of music by all. VISION:  Leading North Carolina in music education, empowering generations to create, perform and respond to music. VALUES: INCLUSION and EQUITY - Building strength and promoting diversity in a profession representing a wide and changing spectrum of people and culture, abilities, economic backgrounds and gender identities while continuing to carry out the association's letter of intent. COMMUNITY - Collaborating with our members and partners to carry out our mission STEWARDSHIP - Empowering volunteerism and strategically developing leadership, fostering a spirit of accountability and a culture of giving of our time, talents, and resources COMPREHENSIVENESS - Uplifting the human spirit and providing opportunities for all students to create, perform, respond, and connect to all styles of music INNOVATION - Enhancing music teaching through combining effective and dynamic new practices with proven strategies in the context of a changing global community.

Evan Tobias is an assistant professor at ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts School of Music. His blog focuses on contemporary issues, technology and showcasing different perspectives. This is an excellent resource to stay current and informed with new information about music. Tobias is very philosophical, less practical for classroom application, but important for professional development purposes.

Evan Tobias writes stories about music and music education based around its uses in modern culture. He covers political, social and educational issues.

Evan Tobias writes stories about music and music education based around its uses in modern culture. He covers political, social and educational issues.

Introduce your students to the lively genre of Rock and Roll trough this Hall of Fame site! Students can learn important histroy facts, famous Rock and Roll Legends, and references to some of the greatest rock and roll hits of the American culture!

Canto Alegre is a cultural corporation in Colombia that promotes children music. Canto Alegre brings together children and young instrumentalist to sing and play music together. Since music is for everyone, you can download the songs for free. The songs are mostly in spanish. Teachers that work in a multicultural environment can learn and adapt the songs.

"What is Jazz?" is a four-part lecture about jazz by Dr. Billy Taylor presented at the John F. Kennedy Center. Dr. Bill Taylor is a noted jazz pianist, historian, and educator. His four-part lecture dives into the history of jazz and the most important moments of jazz history. The first lecture centers around the origins of jazz in the African-American experience of slavery to the civil rights movement. This lecture explores the development of repertoire and techniques used in jazz performance. The second lecture discusses the techniques and traditions of jazz improvisation. The third lecture discusses the evolution of swing and rhythm/harmony with the inclusion of examples by a piano. The fourth lecture discusses the role of jazz in American culture and history, as well as the impact it has had on the world. 

A website with ideas for general music educators to build and create homemade music instruments. Culturally relevant music education must pay special attention to the exploration of sound through the available resources.

This website has some fantastic options for teaching students about music from around the world.  It also gives them a chance to explore different cultures and different ways of life than they are used to.  I like to use these sort of lessons in conjunction with Google Maps Street View where you can go and explore the area you are learning about on the computer.

This was another great find from Dr. Bauer's resource list that provides an overview of Art History. This website is of interest to me for the natural connections of art and music to cultural heritage, and as an IB teacher, these connections are the basis for the media script internal assessment.

TheoryTab is an ideal resource for theory teachers who are teaching students familiar with guitar tab, but not yet ready for practical notation based music theory. The approach of this site is to integrate tablature with the functional approach to harmony, using songs from the popular music cultures of today.

May Day is a group of music educators and researchers that strive for changes in musical education paradigm towards cultural diversity and social justice.

World Music Composer provides listening samples of instruments from around the world. With those sounds, students can create a personal music composition. Works well when introducing instruments of the world & music from other cultures.

This 100 Years of Rock link contains a chronological display of how popular music has evolved.  It provides listening examples for dozens of American genres of music, from rock to country, blues, pop, and countless other sub-genres.  This link would make for interesting conversation with a History of Rock N' Roll class or classes about American music.  I especially enjoyed the listening examples because they give evidence to how much culture has influenced the different styles of American popular music.  I feel that students would very much enjoy this link because the listening examples cater to their interests, especially as the viewer scrolls toward the bottom of the page.

This website introduces us to the genre and insruments of Balanise Gamelan. The website contains information on the instruments, culture, and beliefs of the Gamelan tradition

This is a collection of authentic field recordings around the world. These recordings can be used to give teachers and students a deeper understanding of a folk song's musical and cultural context.

This is a great resource for teachers looking to incorporate folk songs from around the world.  The site provides audio files of the songs so that you can hear the proper pronunciation of the lyrics.  

This is a great elementary music resource for teachers looking to add folk music from around the world into their curriculum. Simple children's songs are sung in different languages

This website provides browsers with a database of songs for children from a wealth of different cultures and different languages. Recordings of songs are also provided.

This article is about works finally becoming public domain after 20 years