Why it's too soon to be brassed off about the future of our bands

Academics are warning that the Last Post could be looming for the country's brass bands.

In a book published today, experts say that playlists dictated by radio and television stations are increasingly influencing the musical tastes of young people – and amid this new media there is no place for more traditional sounds. In Music Education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom, Professor Sue Hallam and Andrea Creech of the Institute of Education at the University of London, argue that the brass band is an endangered species.

In the book they write: "Young people, unless they are introduced to a range of different musical traditions early, when they are still open-eared, can refuse to engage with any music other than their preferred genre." In the age of the iPod, young people are unlikely to venture into unknown waters. Ironically, while the amount of music available to us has massively increased, we create our own little personal genres and are less likely to travel to unfamiliar ground.

Brass bands face the added problem of the decline of their traditional home in the mining industry. However, all may not be lost. While certain music styles may be less popular among young people, Prof Hallam and Dr Creech are calling for more to be done by those in charge of music programmes and websites to broaden musical tastes.

"Classical music that is used in sporting contexts, to introduce TV or radio programmes, or accompany adverts, becomes familiar and loses its stigma," they say. "This approach could be adopted more widely."

The academics warn that some musical instruments, such as the violin, clarinet and flute, are becoming obsolete because fewer children want

to learn them.

"Cave paintings from 33,000 BC show flutes being played," they said. "But that is no reason to be complacent. The impact of technology on music education has been profound, with some instruments

becoming 'endangered' in schools while requests to play others, such as the electric guitar, electronic keyboards and kit drums, have increased dramatically."

John Anderson, associate head of performances at Leeds College of Music, thinks this note of gloom may be sounding prematurely. "It's a pretty sweeping statement to say that brass bands are on their way out," he says.

Mr Anderson was conductor of two world-famous brass bands – the Grimethorpe Colliery Band in 1989 and associate conductor of the Black Dyke Band from 1991 to 1995. He was also conductor of the band for the 1996 movie Brassed Off, which starred Ewan McGregor. Although no longer directly involved with a brass band today, he sees the future as no bleaker than it was in the past.

"We have eight new trumpet players on a course this year at the college and at other music conservatoires across the country there are young people learning to master brass instruments," he says.

"Grimethorpe continues to go from strength to strength and the Black Dyke Band is perhaps the most famous in the world.

"The sound of the brass band is something very special, it has the power of a choir. It has a real soul, a real singing quality."

He agrees that there are some instruments that ought to be classed as "endangered" – citing the French Horn as a particular example because of the difficulty of learning to play and the sheer expense of the instrument – but he sees plenty of trumpets and trombones being played by his students.

So while Professor Sue Hallam and Andrea Creech may worry that the iPod generation is the final nail in the coffin for traditional music, the "palpable pride" Mr Anderson found when conducting the Grimethorpe Colliery Band is still in evidence. For the time being at least, brass band music is alive and well.