Music Education for Some: Music Standards at the Nexus of Neoliberal Reforms and Neoconservative Values

Educational standards movements have manifested in the widespread adoption of statewide educational standards in mathematics and literacy in the United States. Within this policy context, the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards published educational standards for four fine arts disciplines, including music. Drawing from critical theory, this essay understands the National Core Arts Standards in Music as a product of a hegemonic alliance between neoliberal and neoconservative interests that run counter to the National Association for Music Education’s mission of “promoting the understanding and making of music by all.” By linking music education to workplace skills, establishing uniform benchmarks to improve educational efficiency, and codifying long held Eurocentric epistemologies of musical value, the National Core Arts Standards in Music stand to exacerbate existing inequities in music classrooms. As an alternative to the contemporary common sense of schooling, the possibilities and challenges of a democratic music education for creating counterhegemonic spaces are explored.