CUMIN: Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Music
Abstract
Contemporary urban music (hip-hop, grime, contemporary R&B and more) is arguably the most listened to music in the world (The Independent), with an estimated global audience of 1.5 billion for dance/electronic music (IMS report 2019). Nonetheless, hip-hop is 'frequently excluded' from even popular music education (Journal of Popular Music Education, 2(1/2)), let alone the mainstream music curriculum. In the UK, the current National Curriculum for Music places emphasis on 'music from great composers and musicians'. Some rock and pop has found a place in schools over recent decades, but contemporary urban music (a far more ethnically/ racially diverse music, typically) remains marginalised, not only in schools but also in mainstream culture.
Given the wealth of compelling research evidence on the value of the arts and music in education and for our lives (APPGAHW 2017: Bruin and Burnard 2018; Biesta; Dewey; Vygotsky; Routledge Reader on the Sociology of Music 2015), we need to ask whether music and arts which are more relevant to contemporary urban communities might be more engaging to those communities. The contemporary urban environment is ethnically and racially diverse, yet schools and mainstream culture/society leave the most popular contemporary urban music at the margins: the choice of Grime artist Stormzy for Glastonbury headliner in 2019, for example, met outcry from some within the mainstream popular music establishment. Questions of cultural identity (Hall 1996) and around race and music (Gilroy 1993) remain of crucial importance to lived experience. Researchers have shown that a sense of cultural inclusion can impact on attendance, behaviour and attitude in schools and help to make individuals of all ages and ethnicities feel that they belong (Count Me In 2002; NESF 2007; Voices of Culture 2018). Can projects using contemporary urban music impact significantly on educational/social inclusion? If so, how can we best measure this impact?
Individuals and small organisations (e.g. Grime Pays, Noise Solution, In Place of War and others listed in the Case for Support), who will be key project partners in the planned Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network (CUMIN), have already begun to demonstrate that their use of contemporary urban music enables impact. This music has even been used for US cultural diplomacy (Katz 2019). However, a funded network would allow knowledge exchange between such practitioners, based on critical examination of practice and world-leading guidance on measurement of impact.
CUMIN will place knowledge exchange and rigorous measurement of impact at the heart of its innovative workshops and its large-scale conference at the end of the funded period. Each workshop will feature one or more practitioner from the contemporary urban music field, and will bring together the voices of music producers, consumers and social project organisers, as well as expert researchers. Regarding the measurement of impact, Prof Anna Vignoles and Dr Sonia Ilie (both Cambridge University) will play a key role in Workshop 1 by showing what existing measures are available and how best they could be applied/adapted by CUMIN-affiliated organisations.
To date, the role contemporary urban music plays in the recognised successes of the projects which are affiliated to CUMIN has been under-theorised: they have demonstrated impact in different ways (for example, improvements to health and well-being measured through WEMWBS), but there is limited knowledge exchange amongst practitioners in the field as to why they have this impact. There is a great need, therefore, for practitioners to meet, publicly share their experiences and co-create new knowledges around the value of contemporary urban music for social engagement: how is it that these projects achieve such positive levels of social engagement?
Given the wealth of compelling research evidence on the value of the arts and music in education and for our lives (APPGAHW 2017: Bruin and Burnard 2018; Biesta; Dewey; Vygotsky; Routledge Reader on the Sociology of Music 2015), we need to ask whether music and arts which are more relevant to contemporary urban communities might be more engaging to those communities. The contemporary urban environment is ethnically and racially diverse, yet schools and mainstream culture/society leave the most popular contemporary urban music at the margins: the choice of Grime artist Stormzy for Glastonbury headliner in 2019, for example, met outcry from some within the mainstream popular music establishment. Questions of cultural identity (Hall 1996) and around race and music (Gilroy 1993) remain of crucial importance to lived experience. Researchers have shown that a sense of cultural inclusion can impact on attendance, behaviour and attitude in schools and help to make individuals of all ages and ethnicities feel that they belong (Count Me In 2002; NESF 2007; Voices of Culture 2018). Can projects using contemporary urban music impact significantly on educational/social inclusion? If so, how can we best measure this impact?
Individuals and small organisations (e.g. Grime Pays, Noise Solution, In Place of War and others listed in the Case for Support), who will be key project partners in the planned Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network (CUMIN), have already begun to demonstrate that their use of contemporary urban music enables impact. This music has even been used for US cultural diplomacy (Katz 2019). However, a funded network would allow knowledge exchange between such practitioners, based on critical examination of practice and world-leading guidance on measurement of impact.
CUMIN will place knowledge exchange and rigorous measurement of impact at the heart of its innovative workshops and its large-scale conference at the end of the funded period. Each workshop will feature one or more practitioner from the contemporary urban music field, and will bring together the voices of music producers, consumers and social project organisers, as well as expert researchers. Regarding the measurement of impact, Prof Anna Vignoles and Dr Sonia Ilie (both Cambridge University) will play a key role in Workshop 1 by showing what existing measures are available and how best they could be applied/adapted by CUMIN-affiliated organisations.
To date, the role contemporary urban music plays in the recognised successes of the projects which are affiliated to CUMIN has been under-theorised: they have demonstrated impact in different ways (for example, improvements to health and well-being measured through WEMWBS), but there is limited knowledge exchange amongst practitioners in the field as to why they have this impact. There is a great need, therefore, for practitioners to meet, publicly share their experiences and co-create new knowledges around the value of contemporary urban music for social engagement: how is it that these projects achieve such positive levels of social engagement?
| Description | The CUMIN project has shown that there are many, many social/cultural/educational projects across the UK and beyond utilising Contemporary Urban Musics of various kinds (hop hop, grime, EDM, house, reggae, techno, etc.) to promote inclusion and wellness. More specifically, it has brought to light a burgeoning set of DJ education projects around the UK which have neither a collective representation body nor an interlinking model to support what they (collectively) offer. CUMIN has enabled interactions between numerous organisations (DJ School UK (Leeds), Future DJs/Virtuoso (Knutsford), DJ Methodz (Hull), Hello Hip Hop (Leeds), Grooveschool (Brixton) and more) and begun to work toward greater critical mass in the progression toward full acceptance of DJ decks as musical instruments in the full sense. |
| Exploitation Route | The CUMIN workshops in 2022 and conference in 2023 can be taken forward as indications that a large but disparate network of music-related organisations that primarily or exclusively use 'contemporary urban musics' as a core component of either educational or 'wellness'-based (i.e. healing-based) are currently working with a range of clients including many clients that would normally be at risk of social exclusion of one kind or another (for example, many people with BAME characteristics). CUMIN has begun to bring such organisations into interactions of various kinds. This has included organisations such as HipHopHEALS gaining support in its therapeutic work from sympathetic academics, as well as a range of DJ educators having their work considered by and discussed with peers in comparable organisations. Discussion have been underway between the DJ education organisations with a view to setting up some form of federation whilst organisations that are broadly therapeutic (i.e. 'wellness'-orientated) have taken forward methods learned from CUMIN-affiliated academics. These outcomes can be put to further use by those organisations but also by other organisations that can access the CUMIN-related book (Music for Inclusion and Healing in Schools and Beyond, Oxford University Press, 2023), the CUMIN website and the other CUMIN-related legacies in order to understand what impact has been achieved, how it has been measured, how the impact can be extended and why measuring and evaluating impact is essential for successful projects of such a kind. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Education Healthcare Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://cuminetwork.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | The concluding panel discussion at CUMIN's 2nd workshop (held at University of Leeds on Friday 28th October 2022) mixed teachers with DJ educators. The panel seemed to all conclude that a significant barrier to DJ decks being more commonly used for GCSE and A-level performance assessments in schools is teacher antipathy or fearfulness when confronted with music technology in general and DJ decks in particular. This finding has led to two of the panel (CUMIN's PI Pete Dale and CUMIN advisory board member Jim Reiss of DJ School UK) working together to seek a significant solution to this problem. This has been partly achieved through Dale inviting Reiss to talk to a group of around 50 school teachers, workshop leaders and others involved in music projects of different kinds at the Sage Gateshead in January 2023: Reiss demonstrated for those teachers/providers that DJ decks can involve high-level musical skills and that they have many immense benefits for education and/or engagement. Reiss and Dale are now working together to provide free-to-view/download materials (videos, lesson plans, etc.) to support teachers in feeling more confident to work with DJ decks in particular and music technology more generally: a new funding bid is being prepared in order to enable this, in conjunction with leading retailers of DJing equipment BopDJ and four secondary schools in and around Leeds. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
| Description | Mentoring a potential PhD student with BAME characteristics |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The post with UCL that was an indirect impact arising from this research project has huge significance for the quality of life of the impacted individual (Kiran Manley), with genuine improvements to her quality of life. There is a clear economic impact upon her in the sense that she is earning money from the project itself as well as the research assistant post she has now achieved. The project will improved her skill levels in terms of understanding how to create and deliver an effective research project including the use of rigorous research questions. |
| Description | Keynote presentation at the Sage Gateshead's 'MC² - Mini Conference: Exploring Inclusive Approaches to Music Technology with Children & Young People' |
| Organisation | The Sage Gateshead |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Having become aware of CUMIN through the network's various activities, a representative of the Sage Gateshead (a major music centre in the Tyne and Wear region) invited CUMIN's PI Pete Dale to give a keynote speech about using music technology and contemporary urban music to boost inclusion in schools and beyond. The talk was given on Thursday 26th January 2023 and was very well received by delegates at the conference, many of whom were school teachers or people running music-orientated youth projects. Core CUMIN participant Jim Reiss (a member of our Advisory Board) also gave a talk and demonstration of DJ skills. Pete Dale talked about technology in music education, including DJ decks and the 'launchpads' which are increasingly popular with young people but not so commonly found in school music classrooms. He argued that GCSE Music is in a critical condition due to dwindling class sizes and that music technology has a huge potential to reverse this misfortune. Jim Reiss mapped the National Curriculum to a range of specific DJ skills and showed that delivering the National Curriculum (as well as providing assessment for GCSE and A-level examinations) with this music-making equipment is perfectly viable. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sage Gateshead was the host organisation and made all arrengements for the event, as well as paying appearance fees to the two guest speakers from CUMIN (Pete Dale, as keynote, and Jim Reiss) |
| Impact | One of the delegates, a school teacher from Sunderland, talked to Pete Dale and agreed to participate in a research project in the future. Jim Reiss was able to use the money he earned to support his DJ School UK organisation. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | CUMIN Workshop #1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop was online and entirely virtual. The theme was 'Inclusivity and Measurement of Impact' in relation to Contemporary Urban Musics. 137 people signed up for the Zoom link through Eventbrite and there was a consistently sizeable online audience throughout (the event running 1pm til 6pm). Questions and discussions were mixed from Zoom chat plus questions asked through participants turning on their cameras and mics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://cuminetwork.wordpress.com/virtual/ |
| Description | CUMIN Workshop #2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CUMIN Workshop #2 was entitled 'Hip-Hop, Healing and Wellness' and took place on Friday 24th June at the University of York-affiliated StreetLife centre in the city centre as well as through an online option. In-person attendees were around 25 people and online attendees were similar. Speakers included Raphael Travis and Elliot Gann, experts on hip hop and healing who flew in from the States to appear at the event. Many crucial discussions were had and connections made, including with professional practitioners in DJ education who had never really interacted with academia before. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://cuminetwork.wordpress.com/visual-minutes-workshop-2/ |
| Description | CUMIN Workshop #3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | CUMIN Workshop #3, held at University of Leeds on Friday 28th October, was on the theme of 'DJ skills in schools and beyond'. It was blended between in-person and online attendance, with around 50 participants for the various presentations from researchers and professional practitioners but well over 100 participants for DJ Mr Switch's performance of DJ skills (performed alongside classically-trained University of Leeds-based students) toward the end of the event. As with the previous CUMIN workshops, many professional practitioners attended, resulting in further work with particular organisations to help them improve what they do. Such practitioners have repeatedly reported finding a sense that academia is more open to their forms of music-making (DJing, rapping, beat making, etc.) than they had realised. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://cuminetwork.wordpress.com/visual-minutes-workshop-3/ |
| Description | CUMIN conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The CUMIN conference was the culminatory event for the AHRC-funded Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network (CUMIN) and took place on Friday 30th June 2023 at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich, London. Speakers included numerous industry practitioners (DJ T.A.S.K., Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Paramdeep Sokhy, Vanessa M. Wilson and others), representatives from national organisations (Fran Hannan (Musical Futures), Bridget Whyte (Music Mark), Matt Griffiths (Youth Music)), representatives from UK exam boards (Sandra Allan (AQA); Derek Chivers (Edexcel); Lloyd Russell (Edexcel); Francesca Christmas (Trinity College)), academic researchers (Mark Katz (University of North Carolina), Edgar Ndazi (Goldsmiths, University of London); Ben Evans (Open University), Ashonshok Kachui (Indian Institute of Technology), Myrtle Millares (University of Toronto )), community practitioners (Jon Green (Manchester Hip Hop Archive); Conni Rosewarne (Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, Vocal Beats), Nathan Geering (Rationale Method)), DJ and rap educators (MC Breis (Student of Life), Jim Reiss (DJ School UK), Richie Littler (Grooveschool)) and more. As PI for CUMIN, and in conjunction with Co-I Professor Pamela Burnard, I took responsibility for introducing the event and many of the speakers as well as chairing panels and providing summary comments at the end of the conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://cuminetwork.wordpress.com/events/ |
| Description | Hip Hop HEALS podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The podcast is called Glowitheflow and is curated by the HipHopHEALS organisation. Season 3 of Glowitheflow is called 'Enter the 36 Chambers' and consists of 36 podcast episodes. The interview with me is just over 30 minutes in duration and constitutes episode (or 'chamber') 27 in the series. In the interview, I answered questions about educational and pedagogical philosophy and practice, gathering evidence to support funding applications and much more. An explicit ambition of the podcast is to support organisations that work with 'contemporary urban musics' such as Hip Hop to improve and develop their practice and it was to this end that I was invited onto the show. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GIWtEiciP4 |
| Description | Inclusivity in Contemporary Music Education podcast for BERA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This episode of the BERA Podcast explored the role of contemporary music style and practice in promoting inclusivity in music education. Adam Hart was joined by Pete Dale and Pam Burnard, convenors of the AHRC Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network (CUMIN), and Haleemah X, PhD student exploring identity as a Muslim female rap artist. The discussion included how contemporary music practices can lead to a more inclusive creative education, how the curriculum might accommodate this, and the influence of contemporary music on practice-based research in higher education. Haleemah X communicated with CUMIN's PI Pete Dale, after the podcast had been made, with a view to writing a chapter for the CUMIN-related edited book (to be published by Oxford University Press before the end of 2023): although this did not transpire in the end, there was a significant impact on Haleemah's sense of her potential to proceed dynamically onward from the PhD study in which she is currently engaged. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.bera.ac.uk/media/inclusivity-in-contemporary-music-education |