Music education has changed beyond recognition since I was at school — then it seemed to comprise of listening to classical records, counting the bars and getting a ruler across the knuckles if you didn't know where you were on the score. Needless to say, I hated music lessons — I didn't identify with the music, I wasn't particularly good at following scores and the finer nuances of symphonic construction went right over my head. I also ended up with very sore knuckles. The result was that I rebelled and bought a drum kit, learned to play it and joined a pop band. It was the complete antithesis of what they'd been teaching me at school and I loved it. After playing drums in local bands for several years, I decided to take up a musical instrument and bought myself an electric guitar!

The point of this abridged history is to illustrate that my entry into music was largely as a result of my rebellion against something I hated at school. And the fact that the parents of my generation shared a universal dislike of pop music as a whole just helped to fuel the mystique.

This is in complete contrast to what's happening now. Schools have integrated contemporary music into the curriculum; the wind-up gramophone has given way to the MIDI sequencer and the sadistic, ruler-wielding music teacher has been replaced by someone who probably plays in a rock band at weekends. This is good — this is wonderful — or is it? The musical styles of the younger generation have been based on rebellion for as long as anyone can remember, so what will be the long-term outcome of making it respectable by teaching it in schools? If there's nothing left to rebel against, why do it? And to make matters worse, more and more people are listening to at least some of the same music as their parents! Where will it all end?

Maybe in years to come we'll look back on the '80s and '90s and realise that we made a big mistake. Indeed, perhaps this legitimising of pop music is in some way responsible for the decline of British pop music and its place in the world market. Perhaps the knuckle-bashing old sadist had our best interests at heart after all! Contentious maybe, anarchic perhaps — designed to wind up the teaching fraternity and inspire a torrent of letters — most certainly.