Exploring the Social, Political and Historical Context of Seminal Albums
Cool Lesson based on a Green Day Album from the NYTimes Learning Network:
THE NEW YORK TIMES LEARNING NETWORK LESSON PLAN
URL:http://www.nytimes.com/learning/
Developed in Partnership with
The Bank Street College of Education in New York City
TODAY'S LESSON PLAN:
POWER BALLADS: Exploring the Social, Political and Historical Context of Seminal Albums
BASED ON THE ARTICLE:
The Morning After 'American Idiot', By JON PARELES,May 8, 2009
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20090508...
AUTHOR(S):
Amanda Christy Brown, The New York Times Learning Network
Kristin McGinn Mahoney , The New York Times Learning Network
GRADES:
6-8
9-12
SUBJECTS:
American History
Current Events
Fine Arts
Language Arts
Media Studies
Social Studies
OVERVIEW OF LESSON PLAN:
In this lesson, students explore the social, political and historical context of seminal songs and albums. They then write liner notes for an existing album and pitch their own ideas for concept albums that deliver social or political messages.
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs... for a companion lesson for Grades 3-5.
SUGGESTED TIME ALLOWANCE:
3-5 class periods
ACTIVITIES / PROCEDURES:
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs... for a companion lesson for Grades 3-5.
1. WARM-UP/DO-NOW:
Open class by playing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" for students. As the song is playing, project the lyrics for students to read. (If the necessary equipment is unavailable, copy the lyrics for students in advance of class.) Both a recording and the lyrics of the song can be found online at BobDylan.com.
Ask students: Do you know when this song was written? (They may or may not know this song as a popular protest song from the 1960s1963, to be exact.) Once you've established the time period, ask: What was going on in the country when the song was written? After students share, invite them to look closely at the lyrics. Ask: Knowing the historical context of the song, what do you notice about the lyrics? What is the song about? How does Bob Dylan use rhetorical questions to engage listeners? What does he mean when he says "the answer is blowin' in the wind"?
Last year, Neil Young said, "I know that the time when music could change the world is past." Ask students: Do you agree? Why or why not? Was there a time when music had more impact? What makes a song significant as opposed to just popular? Does music in general have the potential to change the world?
Ask whether there are any Green Day fans in the room. Tell students that Green Day is set to release a new album, "21st Century Breakdown," on May 15th, and that many of the songs contain social commentary. If possible and desired, play them the video or audio of one of the songs from this album, "Know Your Enemy." After watching the video, project or hand out copies of the song lyrics to the class. Before looking closely at the lyrics, ask students: What is tone of the song we just heard? What do you think the song's about? If you have watched the music video, ask, What images do you see repeated in the video? What might they represent?
Then, ask a student to read the lyrics aloud. Ask: What is this song calling for? What is the political and social context for these lyrics? How is it like "Blowin' In The Wind"? How is it different? What other artists do you know of today who address social and political issues in their music? Does their music have the potential to change the world? In general, is music a good way to deliver political messages? Why or why not?
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS:
As a class, read and discuss the article "The Morning After 'American Idiot'", focusing on the following questions:
a. How did the success of "American Idiot" affect Green Day?
b. What is significant about their album "21st Century Breakdown"?
c. How is the "cultural moment" at which this new album is arriving different from that during which "American Idiot" emerged?
d. In what way is it worse, according to Billie Joe Armstrong?
d. What do song titles like "American Eulogy" and "Last Night on Earth" suggest?
e. What themes emerge on the new album?
f. How is the new album structured?
g. Which characters people the album? Why do you think the lyricist creates these different personae?
h. Why does the author begin the article with a tour through a tour of their longtime studio and trace the band's evolution as part of the article?
j. Why does Armstrong hold off on completing the vocals?
k. What do you think Armstrong means when he talks about what he would like to write saying, "It's something where you write the soundtrack to the chaos. And you write the soundtrack to some kind of revolt"?
3. ACTIVITY:
Tell students that for today's activity, they will be choosing a seminal album from any point in the 20th century to research and creating liner notes that explain how exactly it captured the zeitgeist and both reflected and affected its time period. If necessary, help students differentiate between music that is popular and that which is seminal and defines the times.
Ask students if they are familiar with liner notes. (In the age of iPods and downloadable music, they may not be.) Introduce/elucidate the concept of liner notes by handing out
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs.... If you have access to liner notes at home, you may wish to bring in physical models. Alternatively, you may wish to share some examples from an online library of liner notes. Explain that although many of these albums were produced with an original set of liner notes, theirs will have the advantage of the historical perspective they can look back on these albums and seek to understand them in their social and political context in a way that is not possible when an album is released.
Once students understand what they will be doing, list album titles considered seminal from which students can choose, or have students brainstorm and/or do research for additional titles. Several examples are listed below, just to get you and/or your students started:
1950s:
Pete Seeger
Woody Guthrie
1960s:
"The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" - Bob Dylan
"The White Album" - The Beatles
"Blue" - Joni Mitchell
1970s:
"4-Way Street" - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
"London Calling" - The Clash
1980s:
"Born in the USA" - Bruce Springsteen
"The Wall" - Pink Floyd
1990s:
"Nevermind" - Nirvana
"Jagged Little Pill" - Alanis Morrisette
"Fear of a Black Planet" - Public Enemy
2000s:
"Home" - Dixie Chicks
"Pearl Jam" - Pearl Jam
"American Idiot" - Green Day
Resources to use to find additional candidates for a list of seminal albums include the following:
The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Time Magazine's The All-TIME 100 Albums
Rateyourmusic.com: 100 greatest albums of all time
Teachers should note that the content of some of the albums included on these lists are explicit; you may wish to curate the list so that it is appropriate for your students or to subject students' choices to final approval.
Once each student has selected an album for which to write liner notes, instruct them to begin to research the historical, political and social context of the album, as well as any contemporary and later impact it seems to have had. Suggest that students use the Times Topics pages for various artists and/or bands as starting points for their research. As a starting point, they should read contemporary reviews and obtain all of the lyrics to the songs on the albums in order to answer the questions outlined on the handout; they should also listen to the album, if at all possible. There are several song lyric databases on the Internet including www.songlyrics.com and www.lyrics.com. In addition, many bands and artists have their own official Web sites which house lyrics, recordings and press.
When research is complete, students write their liner notes according to the guidelines on the handout. Offer them the following examples to help them get started:
-A student writing about the Dixie Chicks album "Home" might note that The Dixie Chicks made waves in 2003 when they spoke out against the war in Iraq and President Bush during a concert in London, England, resulting in a great deal of attention to and criticism of their album.
-A student writing about Bob Dylan's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" might choose "Blowin' In The Wind" as one of the songs to write about and discuss its role as a protest song during the Vietnam war, a civil rights anthem, as well as how it has recently resurfaced in protests of the Iraq War.
As a culminating experience, ask each student to prepare to share one representative song from their assigned album with the class and discuss its significance: why it captured the zeitgeist, how it said something important or how it reflected and/or affected its time. Ask that students bring copies of the lyrics to the song they wish to discuss for each person in their group/class. (Or, if technology permits, have them project the lyrics on the board or a large screen.)
Conclude this activity by sharing this excerpt from the Times editorial "Still Singing" about the 90th birthday concert held for Pete Seeger at Madison Square Garden on May 2, 2009:
"He's [Pete Seeger] 'outlasted the bastards,' Bruce Springsteen said. But others will outlast him, and it will be up to a new generation to write and sing songs to fight power with truth. Will they? Or will they close their eyes and sway to 'Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,' forgetting the part of folk singing that was never sweet for its own sake?
'Behind Pete's somewhat benign, grandfatherly facade,' Mr. Springsteen said, lies a 'nasty optimism,' a great way to describe the steel-willed Seeger method, the geniality that others mistake for softness.
Mr. Seeger is 'a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself,' Mr. Springsteen said, getting it exactly right."
Ask students: In what way do some of the artists and albums you've researched act like 'stealth dagger[s] through the heart of our country's illusions about itself'? How do these seminal albums act as soundtracks to their times? Do you think that new generations will continue 'to write and sing songs to fight power with truth'? Why or why not?
4. FOR HOMEWORK OR FUTURE CLASSES:
Invite students to become part of this new generation: individually, they develop a "pitch" to a record executive for a concept album that fights power with truth. Hand out
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs... and ask students to use it to think through their ideas. Invite students to pitch their ideas to small groups of their peers during a future class.
Related Times Resources:
THE NEW YORK TIMES LEARNING NETWORK LESSON PLAN
URL:http://www.nytimes.com/learning/
Developed in Partnership with
The Bank Street College of Education in New York City
TODAY'S LESSON PLAN:
POWER BALLADS: Exploring the Social, Political and Historical Context of Seminal Albums
BASED ON THE ARTICLE:
The Morning After 'American Idiot', By JON PARELES,May 8, 2009
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20090508...
AUTHOR(S):
Amanda Christy Brown, The New York Times Learning Network
Kristin McGinn Mahoney , The New York Times Learning Network
GRADES:
6-8
9-12
SUBJECTS:
American History
Current Events
Fine Arts
Language Arts
Media Studies
Social Studies
OVERVIEW OF LESSON PLAN:
In this lesson, students explore the social, political and historical context of seminal songs and albums. They then write liner notes for an existing album and pitch their own ideas for concept albums that deliver social or political messages.
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs... for a companion lesson for Grades 3-5.
SUGGESTED TIME ALLOWANCE:
3-5 class periods
ACTIVITIES / PROCEDURES:
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs... for a companion lesson for Grades 3-5.
1. WARM-UP/DO-NOW:
Open class by playing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" for students. As the song is playing, project the lyrics for students to read. (If the necessary equipment is unavailable, copy the lyrics for students in advance of class.) Both a recording and the lyrics of the song can be found online at BobDylan.com.
Ask students: Do you know when this song was written? (They may or may not know this song as a popular protest song from the 1960s1963, to be exact.) Once you've established the time period, ask: What was going on in the country when the song was written? After students share, invite them to look closely at the lyrics. Ask: Knowing the historical context of the song, what do you notice about the lyrics? What is the song about? How does Bob Dylan use rhetorical questions to engage listeners? What does he mean when he says "the answer is blowin' in the wind"?
Last year, Neil Young said, "I know that the time when music could change the world is past." Ask students: Do you agree? Why or why not? Was there a time when music had more impact? What makes a song significant as opposed to just popular? Does music in general have the potential to change the world?
Ask whether there are any Green Day fans in the room. Tell students that Green Day is set to release a new album, "21st Century Breakdown," on May 15th, and that many of the songs contain social commentary. If possible and desired, play them the video or audio of one of the songs from this album, "Know Your Enemy." After watching the video, project or hand out copies of the song lyrics to the class. Before looking closely at the lyrics, ask students: What is tone of the song we just heard? What do you think the song's about? If you have watched the music video, ask, What images do you see repeated in the video? What might they represent?
Then, ask a student to read the lyrics aloud. Ask: What is this song calling for? What is the political and social context for these lyrics? How is it like "Blowin' In The Wind"? How is it different? What other artists do you know of today who address social and political issues in their music? Does their music have the potential to change the world? In general, is music a good way to deliver political messages? Why or why not?
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS:
As a class, read and discuss the article "The Morning After 'American Idiot'", focusing on the following questions:
a. How did the success of "American Idiot" affect Green Day?
b. What is significant about their album "21st Century Breakdown"?
c. How is the "cultural moment" at which this new album is arriving different from that during which "American Idiot" emerged?
d. In what way is it worse, according to Billie Joe Armstrong?
d. What do song titles like "American Eulogy" and "Last Night on Earth" suggest?
e. What themes emerge on the new album?
f. How is the new album structured?
g. Which characters people the album? Why do you think the lyricist creates these different personae?
h. Why does the author begin the article with a tour through a tour of their longtime studio and trace the band's evolution as part of the article?
j. Why does Armstrong hold off on completing the vocals?
k. What do you think Armstrong means when he talks about what he would like to write saying, "It's something where you write the soundtrack to the chaos. And you write the soundtrack to some kind of revolt"?
3. ACTIVITY:
Tell students that for today's activity, they will be choosing a seminal album from any point in the 20th century to research and creating liner notes that explain how exactly it captured the zeitgeist and both reflected and affected its time period. If necessary, help students differentiate between music that is popular and that which is seminal and defines the times.
Ask students if they are familiar with liner notes. (In the age of iPods and downloadable music, they may not be.) Introduce/elucidate the concept of liner notes by handing out
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs.... If you have access to liner notes at home, you may wish to bring in physical models. Alternatively, you may wish to share some examples from an online library of liner notes. Explain that although many of these albums were produced with an original set of liner notes, theirs will have the advantage of the historical perspective they can look back on these albums and seek to understand them in their social and political context in a way that is not possible when an album is released.
Once students understand what they will be doing, list album titles considered seminal from which students can choose, or have students brainstorm and/or do research for additional titles. Several examples are listed below, just to get you and/or your students started:
1950s:
Pete Seeger
Woody Guthrie
1960s:
"The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" - Bob Dylan
"The White Album" - The Beatles
"Blue" - Joni Mitchell
1970s:
"4-Way Street" - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
"London Calling" - The Clash
1980s:
"Born in the USA" - Bruce Springsteen
"The Wall" - Pink Floyd
1990s:
"Nevermind" - Nirvana
"Jagged Little Pill" - Alanis Morrisette
"Fear of a Black Planet" - Public Enemy
2000s:
"Home" - Dixie Chicks
"Pearl Jam" - Pearl Jam
"American Idiot" - Green Day
Resources to use to find additional candidates for a list of seminal albums include the following:
The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Time Magazine's The All-TIME 100 Albums
Rateyourmusic.com: 100 greatest albums of all time
Teachers should note that the content of some of the albums included on these lists are explicit; you may wish to curate the list so that it is appropriate for your students or to subject students' choices to final approval.
Once each student has selected an album for which to write liner notes, instruct them to begin to research the historical, political and social context of the album, as well as any contemporary and later impact it seems to have had. Suggest that students use the Times Topics pages for various artists and/or bands as starting points for their research. As a starting point, they should read contemporary reviews and obtain all of the lyrics to the songs on the albums in order to answer the questions outlined on the handout; they should also listen to the album, if at all possible. There are several song lyric databases on the Internet including www.songlyrics.com and www.lyrics.com. In addition, many bands and artists have their own official Web sites which house lyrics, recordings and press.
When research is complete, students write their liner notes according to the guidelines on the handout. Offer them the following examples to help them get started:
-A student writing about the Dixie Chicks album "Home" might note that The Dixie Chicks made waves in 2003 when they spoke out against the war in Iraq and President Bush during a concert in London, England, resulting in a great deal of attention to and criticism of their album.
-A student writing about Bob Dylan's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" might choose "Blowin' In The Wind" as one of the songs to write about and discuss its role as a protest song during the Vietnam war, a civil rights anthem, as well as how it has recently resurfaced in protests of the Iraq War.
As a culminating experience, ask each student to prepare to share one representative song from their assigned album with the class and discuss its significance: why it captured the zeitgeist, how it said something important or how it reflected and/or affected its time. Ask that students bring copies of the lyrics to the song they wish to discuss for each person in their group/class. (Or, if technology permits, have them project the lyrics on the board or a large screen.)
Conclude this activity by sharing this excerpt from the Times editorial "Still Singing" about the 90th birthday concert held for Pete Seeger at Madison Square Garden on May 2, 2009:
"He's [Pete Seeger] 'outlasted the bastards,' Bruce Springsteen said. But others will outlast him, and it will be up to a new generation to write and sing songs to fight power with truth. Will they? Or will they close their eyes and sway to 'Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,' forgetting the part of folk singing that was never sweet for its own sake?
'Behind Pete's somewhat benign, grandfatherly facade,' Mr. Springsteen said, lies a 'nasty optimism,' a great way to describe the steel-willed Seeger method, the geniality that others mistake for softness.
Mr. Seeger is 'a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself,' Mr. Springsteen said, getting it exactly right."
Ask students: In what way do some of the artists and albums you've researched act like 'stealth dagger[s] through the heart of our country's illusions about itself'? How do these seminal albums act as soundtracks to their times? Do you think that new generations will continue 'to write and sing songs to fight power with truth'? Why or why not?
4. FOR HOMEWORK OR FUTURE CLASSES:
Invite students to become part of this new generation: individually, they develop a "pitch" to a record executive for a concept album that fights power with truth. Hand out
onmousedown="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcssip','www.nytimes.com','DCS.dcs... and ask students to use it to think through their ideas. Invite students to pitch their ideas to small groups of their peers during a future class.
Related Times Resources:
- ADDITIONAL TIMES ARTICLES AND MULTIMEDIA: Music Review: Pete Seeger Celebrates 90 With a Concert
Article: Protest From the Right Side of Country
Article about the current economic crisis and the content of John Rich's new album.
Article: Punk CD Is Going Theatrical
Article about the debut of the musical production adapted from Green Day's "American Idiot."
Review: The Critic's Talk Back to Zagat; The Music Guide: 'Unreadab...
Article on the creation of the Zagat Survey Music Guide, and what's wrong with it, in the critic's view.
Article: They're Making a List and Checking It Twice, but Why?
Article on music critics' year-end top-ten lists.
Blog: Measure for Measure
Posts by such songwriters as Suzanne Vega and Rosanne Cash about their creative process.
Blog: ArtsBeat
Culture News and Views.
New York Times: Music
The music section of The Times, including podcasts on music, album and concert reviews, and more.
- LEARNING NETWORK RESOURCES: Lesson Plan: Banding Together Exploring the Crossroads Between Music and Culture
Lesson Plan: Off the Record
Exploring the Relationship Between Popular Music and Society
Lesson Plan: Pop Tops
Exploring How Popular Music Affects Our World
Keeping Time
Composing Song Lyrics That Examine Social or Political Issues
Student Crossword Puzzle: Music
Teaching with The Times: Research
- ARCHIVAL TIMES MATERIALS: Why Kids Dig Rock
1968 article about controversies over "revolutionary rock."
Songs a Weapon in Rights Battle
1962 article about black folk music as a "vital force" in the civil rights movement.
Public Writer No. 1?
1965 article about the emergence of Bob Dylan as a leading contemporary American writer among young people because, as a writer of social and political protest songs, he was "writing about things they care about."
- TIMES TOPICS: Music Green Day
Folk Music
Bob Dylan
- OTHER RESOURCES: Sorry, Neil Young, Music Never Could Change The World Opinion piece from The Huffington Post.
Independent Lens: Strange Fruit: Protest Music Overview
An overview of protest songs in American from 1776 to the present from PBS.
Protest Music for a New Generation
Story broadcast on "All Things Considered" in 2003 about an Iraq War protest concert at Joe's Pub in New York City.
Songs of Protest: The Vietnam Songbook
VOCABULARY:
gentrified, estuary, squatters, overpass, inscribed, rabble-rousing, ambitious, distillation, concept album, garnered, cocky, activism, redemption, idealism, annihilate, grappling, agitprop, sloganeering, surging, harbinger, beneficiary, plummeting, protracted, apocalyptic, unity, delirious, mesh, abstractions, earnest, pragmatic, irreverent, emote, tunesmith, fundamental, punk, ballads, vulnerable, linear, triptych, ferocity, grafting, fragmented, firebrand, jams, riffs, arrogant, humbling, tumultuous, audacity, defiance, jackbooted, complacent
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:
1. Design a space, such as a room, decorated with song lyrics that are meaningful to students, as mentioned toward the beginning of the article in the description of Green Day's studio. You may wish to create a computer model or a diorama to show your design.
2. Brainstorm a list of the important social, political and cultural events of their lifetimes. Then contribute a song you think reflects one or more of these events and/or captures the spirit of the times to a class "Soundtrack of the Millennium." Create a podcast to share the songs you choose, introducing your own with a brief commentary on its significance.
3. Create a class timeline or wiki where each student can post their album and a blurb about what was happening in the word at the time of its release. If possible, create your display in a school common area like the library or a much-trafficked hallway and invite students, faculty, and staff to contribute album titles seminal in their own lives with a blurb explaining why.
4. As a class, research the cultural and historical references in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". Then create a hypertext version of the song, with links to resources.
5. Using PBS's Independent Lens: Strange Fruit as a starting place, research the history and role of protest songs in African-American slave communities.
6. Brainstorm a list of "one-hit wonders" that were popular, but didn't necessarily have staying power. What makes some songs popular but not lasting? Share examples of popular songs that lacked the substance and/or other qualities necessary for a song to have lasting significance, with explanations of why.
7. Interview your parents about the role music has played in their lives. Using the Favorite Poem Project as a model, have a listening party in your classroom during which parents and students share the music seminal to them and explain its personal and/or cultural/historical significance.
8. Read several of the short essays inspired by Nick Hornby's book 'Songbook' at McSweeney's Web site. Make a timeline of seminal albums or songs in your own life. Then, choose one of these and write a personal essay, modeled after those on the McSweeney's site, in which you explain how that particular song reflected and affected your life at a particular moment.
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS:
Economics - Investigate the commercial success of the seminal albums researched by the class. How many of these albums were commercially successful during their initial few weeks of release? Just because an album is critically acclaimed or culturally significant, does it make money? Create a graph showing how much money each of these albums has made since its release. What is the relationship between significance and popularity?
Global History - Research collaborations by musical artists to raise money for and awareness of issues in other countries, like U.S.A. for Africa's "We Are the World" and BandAid's "Do They Know Its Christmas?". What was happening in Africa at the time these singles were released? What prompted artists to join together and make a difference? Did the proceeds from these albums and concerts actually make a difference?
NATIONAL CONTENT STANDARDS:
Grades 6-8, 9-12
United States History Standard 31 - Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States
Art Connections Standard 1- Understands connections among the various art forms and other disciplines
Behavioral Studies Standard 1 - Understands that group and cultural influences contribute to human development, identity, and behavior
Language Arts Standard 1- Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process
Language Arts Standard 4- Gathers and uses information for research purposes
Language Arts Standard 7- Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational texts
Language Arts Standard 8- Demonstrates competence in speaking and listening as tools for learning
Music Standard 7- Understands the relationship between music and history and culture
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