History & Social Sciences
Featured Lesson: Stevie Wonder & Martin Luther King Jr.
"The popularity of the song substantially increased awareness of the campaign, resulting in increased public support of enacting the new law. By the end of 1982, the King Center had gathered six million signatures on their petition in support of federal legislation to establish a Dr. King federal holiday. Mrs. King and Mr. Wonder presented the signed petition to Massachusetts Congressman Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the House of Representatives."
The Harlem Renaissance
"From writing to art, blues to jazz, a once suppressed black community greeted this newfound freedom by cultivating artistic expression in ways they were prohibited from doing before. Visionaries like Duke Ellington and Zora Neale Hurston thrived during this cultural revolution, and the Harlem Renaissance symbolized the power of the freed black mind in America."
How Sampling Transformed Music, Mark Ronson
"Sampling isn't about 'hijacking nostalgia wholesale,' says Mark Ronson. It's about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that story forward. Watch the DJ scramble 15 TED Talks into an audio-visual omelette, and trace the evolution of "La Di Da Di," Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's 1984 hit that has been reimagined for every generation since."
100 Years of Rock
"The history of rock music is pretty interesting. Everyone knows that it's roots lie in genres like Gospel, but what about all the other genres?"
Map or web of genres in chronological order, playing examples featured for each genre!
MusicMap
"Musicmap attempts to provide the ultimate genealogy of popular music genres, including their relations and history..."
Interactive music "web" connecting genres, with a short, detailed history and playlist attached to each category.
Fresh Ed Interactive Songs
Raps with interactive lyrics, history themes and definitions of vocabulary! Song structure/parts also identified.
Featured Lesson: The Blues and the Great Migration
"The repercussions of the Great Migration are far-reaching. Today, much of the restlessness and struggle that the Blues helped to articulate in the Migration era remains central in other forms of American music, including Hip Hop. In this lesson, students look to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf as case studies that illustrate why African Americans left the South in record numbers and how communities came together in new urban environments, often around the sound of the Blues."
Featured Lesson: Stonewall: Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ Pioneers
"In the decades following the Stonewall Rebellion, Discos became one of the prominent spaces for activism and liberation for the Gay Liberation Movement. In these spaces, Sylvester’s 1978 hit “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” became a kind of anthem for the LGBTQ+ community due to its identity-affirming message. Coming from an African-American family, Sylvester was known for his work as a drag queen in Los Angeles and San Francisco before becoming a Disco star. Throughout his career, he maintained his gender-bending style and his decision to live openly as a proud gay man, which solidified “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” as an anthem of pride and defiance for the LGBTQ+ community."
Sites to Further Explore
"TeachRock is a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students."
"American Epic: In the 1920s, as radio took over the pop music business, record companies were forced to leave their studios in major cities in search of new styles and markets. Ranging the mountains, prairies, rural villages, and urban ghettos of America, they discovered a wealth of unexpected talent. The recordings they made of all the ethnic groups of America democratized the nation and gave a voice to everyone. Country singers in the Appalachians, Blues guitarists in the Mississippi Delta, Gospel preachers across the south, Cajun fiddlers in Louisiana, Tejano groups from the Texas Mexico border, Native American drummers in Arizona, and Hawaiian musicians were all recorded. For the first time, a woman picking cotton in Mississippi, a coal miner in Virginia or a tobacco farmer in Tennessee could have their thoughts and feelings heard on records played in living rooms across the country. It was the first time America heard itself…”