Genre: Rock
lesson:
Native Americans and Westward Expansion featuring Redbone
What were the experiences of Native Americans during Westward Expansion and how did the U.S. government use music and other aspects of culture to force assimilation on Native Americans?
Student Edition:
Riot or Rebellion? Asbury Park in the Summer of 1970
What factors led up to the Asbury Park Riots in New Jersey in the summer of 1970?
Student Edition:
Palm Oil – The Environmental Impact
lesson:
Palm Oil – The Environmental Impact
How have palm oil plantations impacted indigenous communities in Indonesia and the global climate as a whole, and how have activists and musicians spread awareness about the issue?
Student Edition:
1950s American Society and Conformity
lesson:
1950s American Society and Conformity
How did the presence of Latin American artists challenge the image of 1950s American society seen in popular media?
Student Edition:
Student Activism and Music During the Civil Rights Movement
lesson:
Student Activism and Music During the Civil Rights Movement
How did activism by Black students challenge Jim Crow segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, and what unique role did music play as an organizing tool?
Student Edition:
What Makes a Great Front Person in Music?
Trace It Back:
Queen
Student Edition:
The Black Origins of Punk
Trace It Back:
Aerosmith
Trace It Back:
Run-DMC
Trace It Back:
Death
Trace It Back:
X-Ray Spex
Trace It Back:
Bad Brains
Student Edition:
Using Data to Analyze an Artist’s Success
Unit Plan:
Math and the Music Industry
Math is inherent in the music industry. Whether calculating touring costs, analyzing industry data, or determining fan engagement on social media, math interprets numerous aspects of the music industry. Through five lessons, students practice math skills within the context of the music industry. Utilizing important artists as case studies, students...
Trace It Back:
Grateful Dead
Trace It Back:
Jackson Browne
lesson:
Using Algebraic Expressions to Calculate Touring Costs
How can writing and evaluating algebraic expressions be used to anticipate a musician’s touring costs?
Student Edition:
Using Algebraic Expressions to Analyze Concert Schedules
lesson:
Using Data to Analyze an Artist’s Success
How can data be analyzed and interpreted to better understand a band's success?
Trace It Back:
Little Richard
Trace It Back:
The Beatles
lesson:
Using Algebraic Expressions to Analyze Concert Schedules
How can writing and evaluating expressions be used to explain the scope of an artist’s concert schedule?
Unit Plan:
Math and Music: Algebra Featuring Mickey Hart
Math and Music: Algebra Featuring Mickey Hart is a lesson collection aligned to 7th to 9th grade math standards that invites students to explore the mathematical and scientific principles of sound and music. In this 4-lesson unit, students: Conduct hands-on activities to discover the physical principles of sound waves, and...
Trace It Back:
Mickey Hart
Student Edition:
Calculating Pitch
lesson:
The Science of Sound
What is sound, and how are its characteristics explained scientifically?
lesson:
Musical Ratios
What role do ratios play in the Western musical concepts of rhythm and harmony?
lesson:
Part 2: Riot or Rebellion? Asbury Park in the Summer of 1970
What factors led up to the Asbury Park "Riots" in New Jersey in the summer of 1970?
lesson:
Part 1: Segregation and the Founding of Asbury Park
What does the founding and early history of Asbury Park reveal about practices of segregation in the Northern United States?
Unit Plan:
Civic Environmentalism
Civic environmentalism is a collective action to address critical environmental issues and implement solutions through democratic processes that will result in an improved and sustainable community. Through six lessons, students identify, analyze, and explore specific details and events related to the origins of the environmental movement in the United States...
Trace It Back:
Alice Bag
Student Edition:
Math with Jackson Browne
Student Edition:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War
lesson:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War
How did popular music amplify the voices and experiences of Americans serving in the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War?
Student Edition:
What is Cultural Identity?
Student Edition:
The Music Behind the Red Power Movement
Student Edition:
Indigenous Music: From Wounded Knee to The Billboard Charts
Trace It Back:
Bonnie Raitt
Student Edition:
Third-Wave Feminism: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1990s
Student Edition:
Music as a Window to the Past
lesson:
Business with the Grateful Dead
How did the Grateful Dead’s business practices create a dedicated fan culture and ensure the financial success of the group?
lesson:
The Birth of Hippie Culture in the 1960s
How did the Grateful Dead reflect new ideas about life and society in the 1960’s?
lesson:
Supporting Sobriety in a Musical Community
Who are the Wharf Rats, and how do they exemplify the practices of sobriety, peer support, and community building within a musical fan culture?
Trace It Back:
Mitski
lesson:
Math With The Grateful Dead
How can math be used to better understand the Grateful Dead’s success?
Trace It Back:
Betty Davis
Student Edition:
The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll
lesson:
Calculating Pitch
How do musical instruments produce different pitches, and what variables allow you to calculate the pitch of an instrument?
Trace It Back:
Gary Clark Jr.
lesson:
The Musical Roots of the Surf Sound (Elementary Version)
How does the “Surf Sound” in Rock and Roll reflect early surf culture, and what are the roots of this genre of music?
Trace It Back:
Prince
lesson:
The Teamwork Behind the Beatles (Elementary Version)
How did the input of manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin help The Beatles develop and refine skills that aided the band in presenting their music and personalities to a mass audience?
lesson:
Ritchie Valens (Elementary School Version)
How did Ritchie Valens meld traditional Mexican music and Rock and Roll?
Trace It Back:
Tame Impala
Trace It Back:
Gorillaz
Trace It Back:
St. Vincent
lesson:
Deadheads and Reagan’s America in the 1980s
Who are the Deadheads and how did their lifestyle contrast with the conservative values promoted by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s?
lesson:
Loudspeakers, PA Systems, and the “Wall of Sound”
What is a PA system, how does it work, and how were the Grateful Dead pioneers in live sound technology?
lesson:
Jerry Garcia, Addiction, and Intervention
How can you help someone struggling with addiction?
lesson:
Feeling the Vibrations
How did the Grateful Dead make their concerts more accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community?
lesson:
Beat Culture and the Grateful Dead
How did beat writers like Jack Kerouac influence the Grateful Dead’s music?
lesson:
Counterculture in the 1960s
How did the counterculture movement of the late 1960s challenge traditional American behaviors and values, and how did the Grateful Dead reflect these changing views of life and society?
lesson:
The Original “Going Viral”
Could a musical group “go viral” before the internet?
lesson:
“Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall”: The Stonewall Riots in the Fight for Equality
What were the Stonewall Riots, and what role did they play in ongoing struggles for LGBTQ+ equality in the United States?
lesson:
Distortion: The Sound of Rock and Roll’s Menacing Spirit
What is distortion, and how did it become a desired guitar effect in Rock and Roll?
lesson:
Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War
How were American’s divisive opinions over the Vietnam War articulated by musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s?
lesson:
Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War
What was the Berlin Wall and how did music respond to what it symbolized?
lesson:
Designing an Electric Guitar with Shapes
How can shapes be used to design an electric guitar?
lesson:
The Guitar: A Musical Transducer
How can the guitar help us understand the scientific principle of transduction?
lesson:
100 Years of Dance
Why might people dance, and how have dance trends changed in America since the 1920s?
lesson:
Learning Rhythm through Gospel
How can Gospel music help students identify the musical concepts of beat, meter, backbeat, subdivision, and syncopation?
lesson:
The Leadership Skills of a Music Producer
How do successful music producers practice positive leadership skills?
lesson:
Designing Album Covers with Color Theory
What is the science behind color theory, and how is it used in fashion and album cover design?
lesson:
The Vietnam War: A Document-Based Question
In what ways and to what extent did the Vietnam War change American culture, society, and values?
lesson:
Debating Dylan’s Nobel Prize
What are the arguments for and against Bob Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature?
lesson:
Negotiating Native Identity through Art, Poetry and Music
How have Native American musicians, poets, and visual artists negotiated their identity, and what role does physical space play in these negotiations?
lesson:
Debating Cultural Appropriation
What is cultural appropriation, how does it affect Native American communities, and should it be regulated by law?
lesson:
The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll
What does Link Wray’s biography say about how Native Americans lived in the first half of the 20th century, and what role did Wray’s upbringing have on his music?
lesson:
Indigenous Music from Wounded Knee to the Billboard Charts
In what ways did the music of Native Americans mark them as outsiders from the developing narratives of “American-ness” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and how did the federal government attempt to use music as a tool to force assimilation?
lesson:
Designing a Band Logo
What is a logo, what are the elements of effective logo design, and how have musicians and bands used logos to brand themselves?
lesson:
Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid – Part 2
What was South African apartheid, and how did musicians unite to challenge it?
lesson:
Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid – Part 1
What was South African apartheid, and how did musicians unite to challenge it?
lesson:
The Beatles Work Towards Success
How did The Beatles' rigorous work schedule during the years 1960-63 build their strengths as performers, as musicians, and as a band?
lesson:
The Beatles and Teen Culture
How did the Beatles’ image as a “rock band” affect young people in America?
lesson:
The Teamwork Behind the Beatles
How did the input of manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin help The Beatles develop and refine skills that aided the band in presenting their music and personalities to a mass audience?
lesson:
From the Stage to the Studio
What caused The Beatles to cease touring in 1966 and how did the innovative music they then created during their subsequent immersion in the recording studio both reflect and influence the world at that time?
lesson:
The Beatles, a New Kind of Star
How did The Beatles establish a new paradigm for the image of "the star," and how did that image support their global success?
lesson:
The Many Roles of a Music Producer
What does a music producer do and in what ways does one hear the sound of a producer’s work in recordings?
lesson:
The Impact of the Electric Guitar
How did the electrification, amplification and design of the guitar facilitate its emergence as a dominant instrument of popular music?
lesson:
How Records and Radio Shaped American Culture
How did changes in the technology of record manufacturing effect popular music, radio, and the people who consumed both?
lesson:
Recording and Producing the Voice
How have singers responded as advances in studio recording techniques have enabled increased technological “perfection”?
lesson:
Sound Waves, Analog Synthesis and Popular Culture
How did synthesizers allow musicians to create new sounds and how did those sounds reflect American culture throughout the 20th century?
lesson:
The Cassette Tape Offers New Possibilities
How did the cassette tape change the audience’s experience by allowing the listener to record, compile and disseminate music?
lesson:
“Hound Dog” and 1950 Race Relations
How does the story of “Hound Dog” demonstrate music culture’s racial mixing as it differed from mainstream American life in the 1950s?
lesson:
“Twist and Shout” and Post-War Britain
What role did cover songs like “Twist and Shout” play early in the Beatles's career, and how did their experiences growing up in post-WWII Liverpool and performing in Hamburg nightclubs help them to develop as a professional musical ensemble?
lesson:
“Blowin’ in the Wind” as a Rallying Cry
How does the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” use poetic devices to communicate an open-ended yet powerful message about the human condition, without ever losing its historical specificity?
lesson:
Multitracking in the Countercultural 1960s
How did The Beatles’ use of cutting edge recording technology and studio techniques both reflect and shape the counterculture of the 1960s?
lesson:
The Evolution of Sound Recording
How did multitrack recording technologies enable musicians to create a form of music that could only be realized in the studio?
lesson:
The Beatles and American Segregation
How did the Beatles take a stand against segregation while touring America? And what did it mean for popular music culture?
lesson:
Rhythm as a Representation of People and Place
How does “the beat” of popular music reflect the histories of multiethnic populations and places?
lesson:
The History of Music Videos
How has the relation between sound and image shifted through the history of recorded music, and how did the rise of MTV bring that relationship to a culmination of sorts?
lesson:
Jimi Hendrix: Introducing Hard Rock
In what ways did Jimi Hendrix help create a new "Hard Rock" sound while retaining a connection to the Blues and R&B of his past?
lesson:
Introducing Glam Rock
How was Glam Rock a reaction to the "seriousness" of popular music at the time?
lesson:
Introducing New Wave
What did Punk Rock provide that opened the door for New Wave acts? And what are some among the defining attributes of New Wave?
lesson:
The Emergence of Folk Rock
What is Folk music? To what extent did Folk Rock sustain the spirit of Folk music?
lesson:
Dan Penn
How did black artists and white songwriters and musicians interact in the Soul era, and what contributed to that interaction?
lesson:
The American Blues in Britain
In what ways did American Blues affect English musicians in the early 1960s?
lesson:
Considering the Future of Rock and Roll
How is Rock and Roll's power, at least in part, a result of its being born on the margins of society?
lesson:
Thematic Lesson: Love Songs
Why is the Pop song such a common medium for expressing feelings about love, and how do individual songs relate to their historical moments?
lesson:
Singer-Songwriters and the Environmental Movement
How did the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 70s address the concerns of the environmental movement?
lesson:
Radio Before Rock and Roll
How did radio influence American life in the years before the birth of Rock and Roll?
lesson:
Glam: The Return of the Teenager
How was Glam Rock part of a new teenage culture in the 1970s?
lesson:
The Rise of the Electric Guitar
What factors led to the rise of the electric guitar as the dominant symbol of Rock and Roll?
lesson:
The Memphis Sound and Racial Integration
How has Memphis music culture provided one example of art’s capacity to challenge the racial boundaries that have so often structured American life?
lesson:
The Birth of the Electric Guitar
How did the electric guitar transform Blues music from the 1940s forward?
lesson:
The Who’s Generation
How did the Who represent “My Generation” in mid-1960s England?
lesson:
The Sound of Blue Collar Detroit
How did Rock and Roll serve as an expressive tool for the working-class youth of Detroit?
lesson:
Ritchie Valens
How did Ritchie Valens meld traditional Mexican music and Rock and Roll?
lesson:
Chuck Berry
Why is Chuck Berry often considered the most important of the early Rock and Rollers?
lesson:
The Roots of Progressive Rock
How did Progressive Rock’s incorporation of classical traditions and countercultural values help to forge a unique Rock genre in the late 1960s?
lesson:
The Roots of Country Rock
How did Country Music influence Rock and Roll and the musicians who made it?
lesson:
The New York City Underground
How did New York bands interact with the city's art scene to create something new?
lesson:
Protest as Event
Since the 1960s, how have artists used musical events to promote change?
lesson:
Dylan as Poet
How did Bob Dylan merge poetry with popular music?
lesson:
Liverpool: The Birthplace of the Beatles
How did growing up in post-WWII Liverpool influence the Beatles?
lesson:
Birth of the American Teenager
How did teenagers become a distinct demographic group in the 1950s?
lesson:
The Impact of 1960s Antiwar Music
How did antiwar protest music provide a voice for those opposed to the Vietnam War?
lesson:
The Musical Roots of the Surf Sound
What is the Surf sound and where did it come from?
lesson:
The Sound of the Suburbs
How did the music of the Beach Boys reflect the suburbanization of postwar America?
lesson:
Car Culture in Postwar America
How did car culture intersect with and inspire Rock and Roll?
lesson:
Folk Music, Rock and Roll Attitude
How did Bob Dylan’s early experiences with Folk and Rock and Roll music influence his songwriting?
lesson:
How to Study Rock and Roll
How can teachers help students analyze and understand Rock and Roll?
lesson:
Rock and Roll and the American Dream
What is the American Dream and how did Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash personify its ideals?
lesson:
Rock and Roll Goes to the Movies
How did movies help to introduce Rock and Roll culture to mainstream audiences in the 1950s?
lesson:
Beatlemania
What were the factors that contributed to the rise of Beatlemania?
lesson:
Female Singer-Songwriters in the Early 1970s
What did the success of the female Singer-Songwriters of the early 1970s reveal about the changing roles of women in the United States?
lesson:
Dancing the Twist on Television
How did teen dance shows and the Twist influence American culture?
lesson:
The San Francisco Scene, 1967
Why did nearly 100,000 young people descend upon San Francisco in 1967 for a “Summer of Love"?
lesson:
The Rolling Stones: Giving America Back the Blues
How did the early Rolling Stones help popularize the Blues?