Recent years have seen an increased focus on the subject of songwriting within the domain of music education (Devaney et al., 2024; Randles & Burnard, 2023). However, the majority of these approaches appear to be more aligned with art music and established music teaching traditions than with the realm of extra-institutional popular music songwriting. Pedagogical models for song creation frequently neglect to consider the cultural-specific heterogeneity of musical learning, including the distinctions between art and popular music traditions, informal or non-/formal educational settings in schools, art schools and higher education, as well as between amateur and professional practices in private, leisure, or professional contexts (Godau et al., 2025, pp. 176-178). A similar oversight is evident in the examination of contemporary realities and future projections in the era of platformization and artificial intelligence. From a cultural studies perspective, it is evident that creative musical learning and educational processes encompass more than a mere examination of compositional procedures and rules. Instead, a comprehensive understanding equally necessitates an consideration of interconnections with social and economic networks (Tolstad, 2023), genre-specific challenges (Kattenbeck & Kautny, 2024), software/hardware (Wernicke & Ahlers, 2022), and platforms (Haenisch et al., 2023).

In this context, the objective of the Special Issue is to convene a diverse array of interdisciplinary perspectives on prevailing trends and forecasts concerning songwriting, creative learning, and educational cultures in the post-digital era. Contributions in the form of qualitative, quantitative, theoretical and speculative studies are invited on the following topics, as well as on any associated or complementary subjects

• The impact of current technological, social and cultural conditions on the process of song creation
• The impact of (post-)digital technologies on creative processes and their educational contexts
• Findings of the integration of songwriting into institutional educational contexts
• Songwriting and geopolitical challenges such as sustainability, diversity and/or power structures
• Possible futures of songwriting cultures and practices
• …

Literature

Devaney, K., Fautley, M., Grow, J., & Ziegenmeyer, A. (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Teaching Music Composition in Schools. Routledge.

Godau, M., Weidner, V., & Hermann, K. (2025). (Post-)Digitale Songwritingpraktiken im Musikunterricht Einblicke in die Gestaltung eines Unterrichtsdesigns im Forschungsprojekt Musical Communities in the (Post)Digital Age (MusCoDA) In G. Brunner, D. Fiedler, & S. Schmid (Eds.), Welchen Musikunterricht braucht die Sekundarstufe 1? Konzeptionelle und unterrichtsspezifische Beiträge zu einem zukunftsfähigen Musikunterricht (S. 172–187). OPUS-PHFR. https://doi.org/10.60530/OPUS-3398

Haenisch, M., Godau, M., Barreiro, J., Maxelon, D., & Neuhausen, T. (2023). Die Plattformisierung des Songwritings. Musik erfinden unter Bedingungen des short video turn am Beispiel von TikTok. In M. Göllner, J. Honnens, V. Krupp, L. Oravec, & S. Schmid (Eds.), 44. Jahresband des Arbeitskreises Musikpädagogische Forschung (S. 305–321). Waxmann. https://doi.org/10.31244/9783830997641.18

Herbst, J.-P., Ahlers, M., & Barber, S. (2024). ‘The song factories have closed!’: Songwriting camps as spaces of collaborative creativity in the post-industrial age. Creative Industries Journal, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17510694.2024.2366163

Kattenbeck, C., & Kautny, O. (2024). Hip-Hop and Music Education Challenges and Current Issues. In L. Eusterbrock, C. Kattenbeck, & O. Kautny (Eds.), It’s How You Flip It: Multiple Perspectives on Hip-Hop and Music Education (1. Aufl.). transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839466674

Randles, C., & Burnard, P. (Hrsg.). (2023) The Routledge companion to creativities in music education. Routledge

Tolstad, I. M. (2023). “Bring Your A-game and Leave your Ego at the Door!”: Songwriting Camps as Sites for the (Re-)production of Practice-based Knowledge. IASPM Journal, 13(1), 7–25. https://doi.org/10.5429/2079-3871(2023)v13i1.2en

Wernicke, C., & Ahlers, M. (2022). Rekonstruktionen konvergenter und divergenter Problemlösetypen und -modi in musikalisch-kreativen Prozessen und der Aneignung von MusikmachDingen. In M. Ahlers, B. Jörissen, M. Donner, & C. Wernicke (Eds.), MusikmachDinge im Kontext. Aktuelle Forschung zur Soziomaterialität von Musiktechnologien (S. 265–292). Olms. https://doi.org/10.18442/mmd-6