Students' musical preferences: towards recognition of their cultural identities

Various traditions of critical music education sustain the need to recognize students' identities by incorporating their musical preferences, which belong mainly to popular music, in the curriculum. However, it is not yet widely used in educational systems and teachers, who consider it aesthetically inferior, commonly reject it. Nevertheless, an in-depth knowledge of the construction and psychosocial implications of these preferences could contribute to increase their inclusion in the educational field. In this sense, this article carries out a review of 105 works on the main theories, models and evolutionary studies that explain them, the relationship between preferences and musical identities, the concept of popular music as an object of study of musicology and the initiatives that have already incorporated it into the classroom. As it will be seen, students' musical preferences are not mere passing fads but complex constructs that help them build their personal identity and establish positive social relationships. Some initiatives such as Modern Band or Little Kids Rock have already incorporated it in the music classroom, while the legislation of the Nordic countries is the most advanced one in this regard, having established that the interests and preferences of students must be recognized and included as part of the curriculum.