The conditions of musical socialization and subjectivication (Gebhard, 2023) have shifted dramatically in the digital age. According to recent JIM-Study in Germany (“Youth, Information, Media”; MPFS, 2025), listening to music plays a central role for 93% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19. Especially popular music genres are favored by this age group (MIZ, 2025). Furthermore, students are constantly exposed to commercial mechanisms, influencers, and algorithmic curation through streaming platforms and social media (Hornberger, 2017), popular music and its cultural environments serve as crucial resources for identity formation and social cohesion (Schneider-Binkl, 2025).

However, the educational response to these changing conditions remains inadequate. While popular music in schools is mostly taught in the context of practical musicking, the theoretical and sociological dimensions of everyday environments explored in interdisciplinary Popular Music Studies rarely find their way into the classroom (Buchborn et al., 2021; Terhag, 2010). At the same time, the European Art Music remains the hegemonial basis of the German music education system (Buchborn et al., 2021). Consequently, a gap persists: expansive academic knowledge about popular music cultures (‘knowing’) exists but is seldom translated into lesson content that fosters critical reflection in students (‘acting’). Hence, this study aims to develop didacticdesign principles for popular music lessons in German secondary schools, to promote a reflexive approach to popular music cultures through the integration of interdisciplinary popular music discourses.

This dissertational research project is thus grounded in the intersection of interdisciplinary Popular Music Studies and Popular Music Education. It posits that (popular) musical practice should be complemented by a reflexive engagement and analysis of its influences on societal developments to foster critical agency. The theoretical framework draws on concepts of cultural capital and identity formation, aiming for an understanding of the mechanisms of the music industry and media representation as a prerequisite for democratic participation in a mediatized society.

To navigate the tension between theory and practice, the project utilizes a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach (Bakker, 2019; McKenney & Reeves, 2019) wherein the "Pop Theory-Lab" functions as an intervention space where teachable units are developed, tested and optimized by music teachers across Germany. This study is structured in two iterative DBR-cycles of design, implementation, analysis, and optimization, ensuring that the resulting design principles are both theoretically sound and applicable to music classrooms (Euler, 2017). In the first cycle of the PopTheory-Lab, five German lower secondary school music teachers were tasked with developing instructional units based on academic texts from interdisciplinary Popular Music discourses. The teaching materials covered the representation of gender stereotypes in German Rap Music as well as the analysis of students’ favorite music combined with the exploration of short video formats. The materials were tested in four classrooms across Germany and reflected in depth by the teachers. The data collection strategy is multi-perspectival, designed to capture the complexity of the translation and implementation processes and the effectiveness of the intervention. To analyze the teacher perspective, the study utilizes semi-structured pre- and post-interviews alongside a quantitative analysis of initial assessments of available teaching resources. This combination allows for a reconstruction of how teachers select, reduce, and adapt the teaching materials for this study and identifies the institutional and pedagogical barriers they encounter. Simultaneously, the student perspective is captured through post-questionnaires and randomized follow-up interviews. These instruments measure students’ assessment of music classes, their interest in socio-cultural topics, and the degree of reflexive engagement triggered by the intervention. In line with the objectives of DBR, findings from this first cycle are currently being used in the second cycle to optimize the lesson materials. In this phase, a new cohort of teachers revises and adapts the materials based on the initial empirical feedback. The Interviews are analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2024) to identify patterns and challenges in didactic translation processes as well as reviews on student reflections. Quantitative survey data is analyzed descriptively to assess feedback on available teaching resources and teachers’ needs for the implementation of socio-cultural aspects of popular music, as well as students’ motivation and lesson reviews. This process allows for the development of design principles that help teachers guide students from passive consumption toward a critical understanding of the socio-economic structures influencing their music preferences.

The preliminary results from the first research cycle reveal a distinct tension between theoretical aspirations and practical implementation. Initial data analysis indicates that while teachers successfully identify relevant academic knowledge, they face significant challenges in the transformation process without oversimplifying the content or losing student engagement. Teachers report hurdles regarding time resources and the lack of existing didactic models for such theoretical approaches. However, on the student side, emerging patterns suggest a high potential for this approach. Contrary to the common belief that students prefer only practical music-making, the preliminary survey data shows a strong interest in understanding the influences and implicit as well as explicit messages of their favorite music. Teachers reported situations that indicated how the interventions prompted students to question their own consumption habits. These early findings suggest that the intervention successfully initiates processes of self-reflection and supports the development of critical agency. The expected outcome of this ongoing research is a catalogue of empirically grounded didactic design principles. These principles will indicate implications for popular music education that primarily focus on the translation processes for socio-cultural popular music education as well as the fostering of students’ (self-) reflection and reflexivity. Ultimately, the project aims to demonstrate that the critical interaction with popular music in schools can be a vital tool for democracy education, enabling teachers to act confidently in a changing cultural landscape and empowering students to become conscious participants in their musical culture.

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