Celebrities Support Music Education

DMC (Darryl Mack), Run DMC
I guess the bottom line is this—music brings everybody together. You can listen to music over and over and over. You can use it to inspire, to motivate and teach. So it's very, very, very important to keep music in schools for the kids. They're not going to listen to the teacher. They're not going to listen to their parents. They're not going to listen police and the lawmakers. But they listen to music. We're missing the point. You've got to use music for its purpose. Music can change the world. And kids know it. We can stop wars, we could end poverty, everybody could be together living in harmony because of music. Music could bring everybody back into universal harmony.

JC Chasez, *NSYNC
Music is my entire life, so I think it's obviously important because some people out there have a future in it and they need to know about it. They need to be educated and this gives them the opportunity to make the choice whether they want to do it or not. I always participated in the music programs, whether it be chorus or whatever, but I always wanted to try and play something or participate in something because that's what I was interested in. Unfortunately they're not going to cut athletic programs because sports are so big, and yet music is just as big as any sport that I know of—I know that everybody who watches sports listens to music, and it would be a shame to alienate something like that and take that away from somebody—the choice, the opportunity.

Sean Paul
I've always been told that music develops your brain, and that's an important thing. It helps you to remember a lot faster. I think it's good for kids to experiment with their emotions that way through music and get their feelings out because that's what it's supposed to be—kids are supposed to talk it through.

Samaire Armstrong, The OC
Music education is so important. It's not necessarily just the music or history itself, but it's having that time in the day to actually focus on something that's a little more spiritual than most everything else that you're involved with in your life—it's really important. It's not just teaching you the note and the key, but it's teaching you to believe in those voices that you hear come out of you.

Adam Brody, The OC
Me and my friends are in a band, and it's fun. It's amazing. It's a great way to get out some aggression and it's just something that's really good and fun to put your energy into. I'm not saying it's productive in the sense that you're going to make money or to make people smile, you might, but I think it's a productive thing to do with a few hours. It's a good social thing, you normally don't do it alone, you normally get together, and it's a good skill that, you know, if you can pick up an instrument when you're young, that will come back to you later in life and—I can't tell you how many people wish they could play the guitar or wish they learned this or wish I'd learned the that. I took guitar in eighth grade. You need to do everything you can to keep kids really excited about school, and even though English might be the most important class in school, you need to hook them with some stuff, and you need to keep some things that are educational and interesting to a sixth grader, not just a college student. I think that's a great way to keep people invested in school.

Nick Cannon, Drumline
I always had a lot of energy when I was in school, and it was hard for me to focus until I picked up an instrument. And I was able to focus on that and show my love for drums and keyboard, and once I did that I was able to excel more in school, so I think it's definitely important for you to keep your musical instruments and stuff in school. It helps you with your other work—you can have something to help you focus. It's definitely important to me.

Amber Tamblyn, Joan of Arcadia
I think music is one of the best forms of expression for young people. I think it's extremely important that they not only listen to it and listen to quality music, but engage in it as well. So I think that music programs and probably relationship and conversation programs in school are the most important things in school. Those are the keys to a healthy human being, a healthy child—expression and learning how to be able to talk and communicate.

Ashlee Simpson, 7th Heaven
Music has been, in my family, a huge, huge thing, and I think that it's sort of helped me evolve as who I am as a person. I think it's important to pick up instruments and learn things because for me it's changed my life. I can write about whatever I'm feeling because I can play guitar. I can just sit down if I'm having a problem, if I'm feeling happy, whatever, and write a song about it and it's such a wonderful release. I think music just makes people feel all kinds of emotion. Music is a huge part of education.

Emily VanCamp, Everwood
It's important to inspire children creatively in schools—those are the crucial years of growing. It's insane not to have music for children in school. I really don't understand that. I'm from Canada. I did have music education, and I adored it. It's so important to inspire kids creatively.

3LW
Getting teens into making music is a great idea. When I was in school, my music program really affected us, although at the time we didn't really realize it. We just thought it was a fun thing to do, like gym, but it actually teaches you a lot about music history and that's a great foundation to start music making on.

Rachel Miner, Bully
Music helps get kids passionate about something. I think music is one of those tools that helps people to free themselves. I think there's no better thing than being able to create something, to really come alive and explore what you can make.