I don’t understand why piano lessons so often privilege classical music—the historical European formal musical canon—over other types of music. Sure, the piano in the 18th and 19th centuries was mainly used to play that type of music. But look at the trajectory of piano music in the 20th century, and new forms of music—particularly emanating from Black diasporic and queer communities and cultures around the world, and especially in the U.S.—revolutionized what keyboard music can sound like and how a piano can be played.
That’s why, as both a piano teacher and a music journalist, I take pop music very seriously. Because it IS serious music!
Lately I’ve been writing a lot about pop music. For local magazine The Roanoker, I recently wrote about Black Southern Soul music, line dancing, and the song “Boots on the Ground” in relation to Roanoke’s upcoming Juneteenth festival later this month.
And in my newsletter, 700/14, today I published a long-form essay about Charli xcx’s hyperpop feminist masterpiece, BRAT.
I hope you will give these links a read, and think more about the power of pop music! And, being Pride Month, let’s be clear:
*POP IS THE LANGUAGE OF QUEER FREEDOM*
Roanoke Piano Lessons 
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