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Abstract
This project is an international collaboration between music industry educators at higher education institutions in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The main goal of the project was to provide a case study and guidelines for collaborative pedagogical practices in higher education music programs in order to promote intercultural understanding, creativity, and social entrepreneurship. After the educators completed their initial planning work, the project was conducted in three phases. During the first phase, groups of songwriting students collaboratively wrote a set of songs that commented on a range of contemporary social issues. The second phase addressed the challenges encountered in successfully realizing international collaborations. In the final phase of the project, entrepreneurship and music industry students evaluated the original songs and incorporated a selection of these songs into student-driven collaborative social entrepreneurship projects. Finally, music industry students came up with promotional strategies to move the final successful project forward. The following identifies and discusses the social, cultural, educational, and logistical issues we encountered during the project, and concludes with our recommendations on how to mitigate and avoid these difficulties in similar projects.
Keywords: social entrepreneurship, creative collaboration, collaborative pedagogy, songwriting, collaborative songwriting, music industry pedagogy, music entrepreneurship
Introduction
This case study chronicles an international collaboration between four higher education institutions in three different countries. Supported by a MEIEA (Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association) grant, the project brought together creative practice, music industry, and entrepreneurship students. As a faculty group we began with a broad set of overarching aims and principles which then informed the design of the project.
1. Promote music business and entrepreneurial skills across different territories
2. Encourage intercultural communication and creative collaboration
3. Explore the role of music to foster awareness of social and environmental issues
4. Facilitate global networks
5. Foster cultural sensitivity
Timeline
Conceptual Framework
According to Sik (2016) in contrast to other disciplines, artists prefer creating alone and are less interested in brainstorming sessions, managerial support, and financial gains. Contrary to these findings, collaboration between songwriters and musicians is the industry norm and has been common practice for centuries. Bennett (2011) found that the majority of songs in the Billboard charts are written by collaborative teams who interact through approving and adapting stimulus materials, hence...