Since 1960 British music has been a global success story but the UK’s traditional music education system was slow to understand and react to this. That left an opportunity to create an alternative music education in Britain which embraces Pop Music in all its forms and supports young people’s desires and ambitions to perform and write it, or work within its industries. This is the story of how and why that change happened, told by the people who founded its key organisations – from BIMM, ICMP and ACC to the BRIT School, LIPA and RSL Awards.