Popular Music

Popular music is at the centre of contemporary culture, both as an art form with a rich and contested history and as a vast global industry that shapes how music is made, distributed and consumed. Training as a professional popular musician at degree level means developing the technical proficiency to perform and record to a high standard, the creative vision to develop an original artistic identity, and the entrepreneurial awareness to build a sustainable career in an industry that has been fundamentally transformed by digital technology.

At the Royal Northern College of Music, this four-year Bachelor of Music programme is the UK's only undergraduate degree specifically dedicated to popular music, and it is designed to continually reinvent itself in response to the evolving music industry. The RNCM is one of the country's leading conservatoires, and studying popular music within this environment means accessing professional-grade training and facilities alongside students developing careers in classical and jazz music, which broadens your musical range and perspective. The programme creates exceptional musicians, original artists and entrepreneurs, reflecting a conviction that sustainable careers in popular music require all three.

You will develop your performance skills across a range of popular music styles, engage with music production, songwriting and the digital tools that define contemporary music-making, and develop the business and professional knowledge that a career in music demands. The four-year structure gives you the time to develop to a genuinely high professional standard.

Graduates pursue careers as performing artists, session musicians, songwriters, music producers, music educators and entrepreneurs within the popular music industry and the broader creative economy. Some graduates also move into music management, music publishing, journalism and broadcasting.