Using Music Videos

[Jeana Rock]

I love to use music videos because the students are familiar with them
and they are short and packed with meaning. I think of them as video poetry. Here are a few I love:

"Teardrops on My Guitar" by Taylor Swift

This one lends itself to good discussions dealing with symbols, multiple story lines, feminist critical theory, etc. I have used it with Cyrano de Bergerac and the Unrequited Love unit.

"Her Morning Elegance" by  Oren Lavie  

I have only used this one to illustrate stop-motion photography, but there are many elements of narrative as well.

"Memory" by Zoot Woman

I downloaded this one for free last week from iTunes. It is reminiscent of the Aha video, which is still one of my all-time faves, "Take on Me." I will use this one to show point of view and rototscoping, but like the last one, there are many elements of narrative you could discuss.

I haven't really used the actual lyrics in any of these videos because I have used them for visual literacy. Maybe you could think of ways to use them narratively, or suggest other music videos that could be used in class.   

[Lynn Gregory]

I have used the visual, audio, and linguistic elements of music videos for years. Now I find myself using Youtube much more, but this has inspired me to revisit some of those old classics and to find some new favorites on Itunes! Thank you!

[Anne Gaspers]

Sometimes I take just a line from a song and focus the students in on it while they watch the video to see if they can match that part of it to the visual images or if they can come up with an overall theme of the song. I've also allowed students to re-produce music videos as an assessment tool which always ends up creative and entertaining.