In this lesson, students will listen to recordings that illustrate how guitar …
In this lesson, students will listen to recordings that illustrate how guitar distortion evolved into a defining sound in Rock and Roll. Students will examine key events in the development of the effect and use a techtool to compare and contrast the sound of a guitar when distortion is in the electronic signal path and when it is not.
In this lesson, students will trace the influence of Gospel music on …
In this lesson, students will trace the influence of Gospel music on early Rock and Roll, particularly in R&B's embrace of such key musical features as the call-and-response and in the uses of complex rhythms. The class will make side-by-side comparisons of Gospel and early Rock and Roll songs, as well as work in groups to chart the overall influence of Gospel on a range of different popular music genres.
From its birth in 1920 to the rise of television in the …
From its birth in 1920 to the rise of television in the early 1950s, commercial radio played a central role in American life. For much of this era, the radio itself held an honored place in the center of the home. Entire families would gather around it to hear important news events, listen to live music, or catch the latest installment of a hit drama or comedy series such as The Lone Ranger or Amos n Andy. But by the early 1950s, technological shifts most notably the introduction of television into the family living room heralded significant changes in the American people's relationship with radio. The rise of smaller, portable radios meant that individuals could now listen virtually any time or place. The growing popularity of television rendered radio drama and comedy series nearly obsolete; listeners were less satisfied with merely listening to stories on radio when they could see them unfold before their eyes on television.
This lesson will focus on two of those DJs: Memphis's Dewey Phillips, …
This lesson will focus on two of those DJs: Memphis's Dewey Phillips, whose popular show "Red Hot and Blue" frequently featured music by African-American artists, and Los Angeles's Hunter Hancock, widely regarded as the first DJ in the western part of the country to regularly play R&B on the air. Reaching both black and white audiences, these pioneering DJs played an integral role in bringing African-American music into the mainstream, a process that lay at the heart of the soon-to-come Rock and Roll revolution.
This lesson focuses on Latin American immigration to New York City during …
This lesson focuses on Latin American immigration to New York City during the late 1940s and 50s and the effect it had on popular culture. Students investigate a 1940 U.S. Department of Agriculture film about Puerto Rico, a graph containing immigration data, an interview with bandleader Tito Puente, an array of clips featuring Latin dance music, and both mainstream Pop songs and Broadway showtunes revealing the "Latin tinge." As students examine these resources, they will consider and discuss the roles Latino artists played in bringing a Latin feel to American popular culture.
In this lesson, students will compare Valens' version of "La Bamba" to …
In this lesson, students will compare Valens' version of "La Bamba" to a traditional version of the song, and examine how Valens was able to successfully incorporate a Latin feel into a mainstream Rock and Roll recording. They will further evaluate why the song became influential, paving the way for later artists to develop and explore the genre of Latino Rock, and how it illustrates Rock and Roll's capacity to absorb multiple influences and redefine itself.
Students will investigate what these singers, from Sinatra to Tony Bennett and …
Students will investigate what these singers, from Sinatra to Tony Bennett and Dean Martin, brought to popular song, and why their particular style of singing made such an impression on the American public.
In this lesson, students will evaluate what the emergence of the Girl …
In this lesson, students will evaluate what the emergence of the Girl Groups says about the roles of girls and women in the early 1960s, as the nation sat on the threshold of a new Women's Rights movement that would challenge traditional female roles. In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, widely considered a milestone in the emerging feminist movement and it came at the peak of the Girl Groups' popularity. Did the success of the Girl Groups signal a new female empowerment, under which girls and women could finally come out from the shadows of Rock and Roll and tell the world what was on their minds? Or did the very labels "Girl Group" and "girl singer" and the focus of so many of their songs on the search for the ideal man simply reflect the traditional domestic roles of women as wives and mothers?
In this lesson students will investigate the different elements of the Beach …
In this lesson students will investigate the different elements of the Beach Boys' Surf sound by visiting four listening stations and identifying some essential elements of their early music. These elements include rich vocal harmonies, a production aesthetic influenced by Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings, Chuck Berry-inspired electric guitar riffs, and the liberal use of "reverb" effects facilitated by technical innovations to Fender amplifiers in the early 1960s.
In this lesson, students will analyze the rise of the suburbs, and …
In this lesson, students will analyze the rise of the suburbs, and the ways in which the Beach Boys made music that evoked this important demographic trend.
Using a selection of songs, statistics, television spots, archival films, and magazine …
Using a selection of songs, statistics, television spots, archival films, and magazine advertisements, students investigate how the postwar resurgence of the U.S. automotive industry coincided with the rise of the teenager, the two intersecting in Rock and Roll culture.
In this lesson, students embark on a "walking tour" of Memphis, using …
In this lesson, students embark on a "walking tour" of Memphis, using the city as a case study through which to view complex race relations and integration issues that affected communities across the U.S. While plotting points of historical interest on a map, students consider how artists such as Elvis, the Mar-Keys, and Booker T. and the MGs resisted social norms through their music and performances. Listening to oral history from Stax owner Jim Stewart, students explore how an integrated record label operated in the middle of a segregated community and was able to create a unique and powerful Soul sound that signaled a shift in race relations in America.
In this lesson, students will watch a 25-minute video, Aretha Franklin ABC …
In this lesson, students will watch a 25-minute video, Aretha Franklin ABC News Close Up (1968), as a pre-lesson activity. In class, students examine a timeline of landmark events that occurred during the women's movement from 1961 to 1971. While watching multiple live performances of Aretha Franklin, including "Dr. Feelgood," "Do Right Woman," "Respect," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," and "Chain of Fools," students will seek to identify Gospel influences and investigate whether issues related to women's rights are reflected in the songs as well. The extension activity includes an insightful personal narrative that provides an account of sexism that existed during the Civil Rights era.
In this lesson, students will explore the emergence of Sixties Soul music …
In this lesson, students will explore the emergence of Sixties Soul music within the context of the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960s. Using Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions' iconic "People Get Ready" as a starting point, students will examine the connection between musical and political voices, and the ways in which popular song helped express the values of the movement and served as a galvanizing force for those involved.
Central to this lesson is a comparison of Cliff Richard and the …
Central to this lesson is a comparison of Cliff Richard and the Shadows, as an example of early 1960s British popular music, with the Blues that a young person in the U.K. might have seen at an American Folk Blues Festival. Students will get a chance to consider what the Blues might have meant to musicians like Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner, and Long John Baldry, all key figures in the British Blues explosion.
In this lesson, students will work in groups to discover how growing …
In this lesson, students will work in groups to discover how growing up in post-WWII Liverpool influenced the Beatles, nurtured their fascination with American music and culture, and helped them become a force that would in turn take American culture by storm in the 1960s.
The Beatles' skilled songwriting abilities, sophisticated pop sensibilities, and power as an …
The Beatles' skilled songwriting abilities, sophisticated pop sensibilities, and power as an ensemble were all key factors in the rise of Beatlemania. However, other factors also contributed to their popularity. Teen idols such as Elvis and Frank Sinatra had captured the hearts and minds of America's youth before, but there was something magnetic and particularly approachable about these four "mop-tops"from Liverpool named John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They seemed more like the boys next door than heartthrobs to be placed on a distant pedestal. And this image was no accident. Under the guidance of their manager Brian Epstein, they had carefully crafted a persona as a youthful, fun-loving band, friends with whom a young audience could identify.
This chapter's lessons will look hard at the question of what Britain …
This chapter's lessons will look hard at the question of what Britain meant to Stateside audiences. The strength of the British Invasion would have been much diminished if the audiences in the United States were not eager for what was being delivered. What was the context of the Invasion? What needs did it answer? This chapter will explore it all.
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