Abstract
In North America, there has been a growing tendency in recent years to include pop-rock examples in undergraduate tonal-harmony classes. Yet by incorporating pop-rock music into the classical harmony classroom, teachers come face to face with some of the fundamental differences between the harmonic idioms of these two styles. Assuming we continue to incorporate pop-rock music in the classical harmony classroom and do not give it its own separate course, the question becomes whether we should use pop-rock excerpts only to the extent that they can serve as illustrations of classical idioms, or instead engage pop-rock music on its own terms. If we choose the latter option, and endeavor to move beyond a treatment of pop-rock music that is somewhat tokenistic (if well-intentioned), we must then also decide whether those pop-rock-music ‘terms’ be defined in ways classical musicians would define them (etic-ally), or in ways pop-rock musicians would define them (emic-ally).