Hi-tech drive needed to save musical heritage

TRADITIONAL music could become a thing of the past if pop, rock and rap continue to dominate the airwaves.

Over the past 20 years, teenagers have been increasingly exposed to restricted playlists on radio stations, TV channels and websites, according to Professor Sue Hallam and Andrea Creech of the Institute of Education at the University of London.

In a new book, they highlight the fact that media targeting young people are less varied at a time when technology such as iPods makes it possible to listen to a wider range of music. They said young people needed to be introduced to a "range of musical traditions early, when they are still open-eared".

Brass bands face the added problem of the decline of their traditional home in the mining industry, but Prof Hallam and Dr Creech called for more to be done by those at the top of music programmes and websites to broaden people's tastes. "Classical music that is used in sporting contexts, to introduce TV or radio programmes, or accompany adverts, becomes familiar and loses its stigma," they said.

The academics warned that some musical instruments such as the violin, clarinet and flute were becoming "endangered" because fewer children wanted to learn them. "The impact of technology on music education has been profound, with some instruments becoming 'endangered' in schools while requests to play others, such as the electric guitar, electronic keyboards and kit drums, have increased dramatically."