Pop Music in Social Studies

Since I decided to become a social studies teacher I have envisioned integrating pop music and its history within the curriculum. I would eventually like to create a whole pop music unit that integrates within the social studies curriculum. Below is my review of an article that I feel is a great launch pad for harmonizing pop music in the classroom. Just as a note on definition: I use pop music as a broad sweeping term to encompass many forms of non-classical, "western" oriented pop-culture or counter/sub culture music and their respective movements.

Simon Butler’s article ‘What’s that stuff you’re listening to Sir?’ Rock and Pop Music as a Rich Source of Historical Enquiry encourages teachers to use rock and pop music as a tool to captivate classes and even attract the attention of the students that are chronically disengaged. Butler cites the article by Grice, Sweets and Mastin in a previous issue of Teaching History in which music is used to provide, “insight into beliefs, attitudes, and feelings,” of the past. Building upon this previous article, Butler believes that music can create an atmosphere of the period that is easier for the students to hear, and therefore become interested in, than it is to read.
Butler mentions how a song with historical subject mater can be used in different ways: as a starter activity to attract initial attention to the subject, as a cross referencing source, or as its own viewpoint that students can evaluate and reflect upon as historically significant. Butler then puts forth two songs and gives detailed instruction on how to use each in the classroom.
Billy Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ is used as a primary source by Butler to visually explore the South East US during the 1930s. Once the students are “hooked”, usually after the second listening, the lesson unfolds with lyrical analysis. Afterwards, the discussion leads to a vast array of possible directions including, but not limited to who, what, when, where, and why the song was written. After the song has been analyzed the students then have a decent picture of the historical setting of the time. Once the students have come to a conclusion of the song and its context, Butler “throws them a curveball” that a white Jewish communist sympathizer actually wrote the song. This will then lead to further discussions and look at the situation from a different historic angle.
Billy Bragg’s ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ is used as a secondary source by Butler to investigate the Diggers of the American Civil War. In addition to the song, Butler gives a short biography of Billy Bragg. This song may appeal more to today’s students, as opposed to 1930s jazz/blues, as it has a “one man guitar rock style” states Butler. He uses the song to get students to compare and contrast the historical accuracies of Bragg’s lyrical landscape. However, the use of the tune does not stop there as many questions may be asked of the song such as: why is this subject sang about 300 years after it has taken place? What is the view presented in the song? Why might Bragg have these views? What inspires Bragg in today’s world to write about the Diggers in this manner? The lesson can link learning about the civil war and its radical groups to today and why people, after all this time, still sing about these groups.
Butler concludes that for the most part the songs he has chosen are not necessarily remembered for their musical merit. However, they do provide a good cultural record and can give insight into popular opinions of the times or of today using historic references.
Ever since I chose to become a teacher I have thought about incorporating my love for music and record collecting into my future lessons. Butler provides a descriptive and anecdotally successful approach to incorporating pop and rock music into his lesson plans as a means to capture the interests of his students including the ones who before have never paid attention. During my year teaching ESL to kindergarten kids in Seoul, South Korea I used pop music in my classroom. I used music as a form of calming the students and bribing them into staying on task so they could hear songs that they developed a liking for or to laugh at Toban Teacher’s attempt to sing along. The incorporation of music proved effective and though Butler and I had different motives and implementations of music the end result of getting our students engaged and focused was similar.
Since I have not had any experience with teaching high school students yet Butler’s anecdotal success and detailed lesson descriptions seem like an excellent incorporation of pop and rock music into the classroom. There are a couple things that I would do differently with regards to music choice. I would work backwards from a historical point of view incorporating music of today and trace the evolution of its sound to a particular period piece.
One example is that I would use some of the hip-pop of today since many students are a fan of the sound. I would relate it back to when hip-hop had a message and play for them some early Public Enemy. Then I would ask the class where the samples/breaks in a certain song came from. I would have music of James Brown on hand and explain the influence and social-political force he was in the 60s and early 70s within the African-American population at the tail end of the civil rights movement. Then I could go back to the roots of the civil rights campaign and introduce Billy Holiday. This would be just one example of how I would attain a more recent connection to a primary source being used to explore a certain historical timeframe. This could be done for various current “genres”/sounds of music. I believe that the sounds of the song are equally important as the message. Without each other the tune would not exist. Though I respect and own records of both Bragg and Holiday I would not simply jump into either without linking it to something the kids were listening to today.
When Butler uses Billy Bragg as a secondary source I think he could discuss the context of the era when the song was written more. Then link it to how there are always parallels between historical periods and the sentiments of each. I understand that time is an utmost issue to teachers and covering as much ground as possible is usually the means of instruction. But I feel the more one relates past to present, the more students will be interested and engaged in the subject matter as it relates more to their lives. This is also true with incorporating and teaching students about pop and rock music.




Bibliography

'What's that stuff you're listening to Sir?’ Butler, Simon. Teaching History, Jun2003, Issue 111, p20, 6p.