Over the last several decades, music education researchers have identified that approximately 80% of students at the secondary level are not participating in school music programming in the U.S. (Elpus & Abril, 2019; Williams, 2011). To provide diverse opportunities and engage more students, teachers are offering courses like music technology, music production, and modern band. These courses, often grouped together as popular music education, have become increasingly more prevalent in K-12 schools across the U.S. over the last twenty years (Powell et al, 2015). Though the pervasiveness of these offerings has expanded in some regions, and more teacher education programs are offerings courses in popular music education (Prendergast & May, 2020), many teachers with an interest in providing popular music instruction are tasked with designing, proposing, budgeting, and implementing these new courses at their schools.While many novice and veteran teachers may possess the desire and expertise to offer popular music programs in their secondary schools, an examination of the challenges some teachers have encountered, and the strategies used to successfully bring these programs to fruition could provide a framework upon which others can build their own programs. The purpose of this study is to explore the journeys of veteran teachers, from proposal through implementation, as they launched popular music programs in their secondary schools. The research questions explored through this research are: 1) what processes did teachers use to establish their school’s popular music programs, 2) what challenges did the teachers have to overcome to successfully implement the popular music programs in their schools, and 3) how has the establishment of the popular music program impacted their music teacher identity?In this multiple case study, adapted from a small-scale pilot study, the researcher will interview secondary music teachers (N = ) who currently teach in the U.S. and have designed and incorporated popular music programs into their schools’ music education offerings. The researcher will conduct semi-structured individual interviews with each participant. Utilizing member checking, summaries and themes will be shared with participants to check for accuracy and validity at which time any necessary modifications will be made. The themes revealed through this multiple case study will be presented for each of the three research questions. The results of this study will provide music teachers with examples of others’ experiences which may help inform their own preparation when beginning the process of incorporating popular music programs into their school’s curriculum.