Grade: Middle
Student Edition:
The Water Walker: Indigenous Wisdom and Water Contamination
In what ways do Indigenous views of water align with scientific views, and how do Indigenous activists use artistic expression to advocate for water protection?
Student Edition:
Palm Oil – The Environmental Impact
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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?
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The Water Walker: Indigenous Wisdom and Water Contamination
In what ways do indigenous views of water align with scientific views, and how do indigenous activists use artistic expression to advocate for water protection?
Student Edition:
ChocQuibTown- Embracing Cultural Identity through Colombian Rap
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Intersectionality and Punk Music in the 2020s
What is intersectionality, and how do musicians in the Punk music scene navigate life at different intersections?
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Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia
What is mountaintop removal, how does it affect the environment and people’s health?
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Steve Aoki and Growth Mindset
How can our brains be shaped by our mindset, and how has a growth mindset helped Steve Aoki become one of the most successful DJs and record producers in the world?
Unit Plan:
Life Songs: Telling Your Story Through Music
Life Songs is an intergenerational media project organized into a four lesson unit plan. The unit concludes with students presenting their Life Songs Interview - a recorded interview led by the student with an adult who shares how music shaped their life. For classrooms without the ability to create and...
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Post-production: Editing and Finalizing Your Life Songs Interview
How do you use editing to create a final media product?
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Production: Conducting Your Life Songs Interview
How do you conduct and record an interview?
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Pre-production: Preparing for Your Life Songs Interview
How do you prepare for a successful and insightful interview?
Student Edition:
What Makes a Great Front Person in Music?
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Music Tells Our Story
What role might music play in a person’s life, identity, and community?
Student Edition:
The Black Origins of Punk
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The Black Origins of Punk
How did the bands X-Ray Spex, Bad Brains, and Death define Punk on their own terms?
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The Juke Joint: Where Oral Literature Comes Alive
What role do Blues lyrics and juke joints play in Black American literature and life?
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The Crossroads as a Literary Symbol
How have writers, storytellers, and musicians explored the crossroads as a symbol in their work?
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Writing Personal Narratives and The Harlem Renaissance
How do Langston Hughes, Gladys Bentley, and Louis Armstrong effectively write personal narratives about living during the Harlem Renaissance?
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Identifying and Resisting Jim Crow with Words and Songs
How have works of literature and music by Black Americans shared an empowering theme of identifying and resisting Jim Crow?
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...
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Using Algebraic Expressions to Calculate Touring Costs
How can writing and evaluating algebraic expressions be used to anticipate a musician’s touring costs?
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Using Data to Analyze an Artist’s Success
How can data be analyzed and interpreted to better understand a band's success?
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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?
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Using Ratios to Identify Social Media Engagement
How can ratios be used to identify a music artist’s social media audience engagement?
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Using Graphing to Analyze Music Industry Data
How can graphing be used to analyze music industry data?
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...
Student Edition:
Calculating Pitch
Student Edition:
The Mathematics Behind Sound
Student Edition:
The Science of Sound
Student Edition:
Musical Ratios
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The Science of Sound
What is sound, and how are its characteristics explained scientifically?
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The Mathematics Behind Sound
What are the mathematical variables that give a sound its particular quality, and how can these variables be measured, visualized, and calculated?
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Musical Ratios
What role do ratios play in the Western musical concepts of rhythm and harmony?
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Signature Style in Art and Album Covers
How have visual artists worked with musicians without compromising their style?
Trace It Back:
Margo Price
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ChocQuibTown
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LADAMA
lesson:
Joropo: Music Inspired by Nature from the High Plains of Venezuela
What is Joropo, and how is it inspired by nature?
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ChocQuibTown: Embracing Cultural Identity through Colombian Rap
How can the music of ChocQuibTown, from the Pacific Coast of Colombia, help students express and celebrate their cultural identity through Rap?
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Quitiplás: Deep Listening and Rhythm Building with Afro-Venezuelan Bamboo Drums From Barlovento
What is Quitiplás, how does it incorporate the natural world, and how is it an example of polyrhythm?
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Ciranda: The Brazilian Music and Dance that Creates Community
What is Ciranda, and how can group singing and dancing help us feel like a part of a community?
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Colombian Cumbia: African, Indigenous, and Spanish Roots of Rhythm
What is Cumbia, and how do you play its traditional rhythms?
Student Edition:
Dolores Huerta: Labor Leader
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...
Student Edition:
The United Farm Workers Movement through Music and Poetry
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Dolores Huerta and The United Farm Workers Movement
Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?
Trace It Back:
Alice Bag
Student Edition:
Afrofuturism and Flying Africans
Student Edition:
Math with Jackson Browne
lesson:
The United Farm Workers Movement through Music and Poetry
Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?
Student Edition:
Toby Keith and The Chicks: Songs and Words during the War on Terror
Student Edition:
What is Cultural Appropriation?
Student Edition:
Indigenous Music: From Wounded Knee to The Billboard Charts
Student Edition:
Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War
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Bonnie Raitt
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The Chicks
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Nina Simone
lesson:
Toby Keith & The Chicks: Songs and Words During the War on Terror
What were the different reactions to songs and comments by Country musicians about the September 11th terrorist attacks versus the Iraq War?
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Janelle Monáe
Student Edition:
9/11: Country Music Responds
Student Edition:
Kanye and Katrina: Environmental Racism in New Orleans
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Drake
Student Edition:
Lost Friends
Student Edition:
Signature Style in Art and Album Covers
Student Edition:
The Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States
Student Edition:
The Stonewall Riots in the Fight for Equality
Student Edition:
Funk Upon A Time: The Beginnings of Funk
Student Edition:
“Alright” and the History of Black Protest Songs
Student Edition:
Business with the Grateful Dead
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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?
Student Edition:
Feeling the Vibrations
Student Edition:
Apollo 11 & Gil Scott-Heron
Student Edition:
How a Bill becomes a Law: The Story of the MLK Holiday
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The Birth of Hippie Culture in the 1960s
How did the Grateful Dead reflect new ideas about life and society in the 1960’s?
Student Edition:
Supporting Sobriety in a Musical Community
Student Edition:
Recording the Human Voice
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Mitski
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Thundercat
Student Edition:
The Roots of Surf Sound
Student Edition:
Who Is Ritchie Valens?
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Betty Davis
Student Edition:
Gen Z Environmental Activists
Student Edition:
Greta Thunberg, Music, and the Climate Crisis
Student Edition:
Who is Billie Eilish?
Student Edition:
Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis
Student Edition:
Cleaning Up the Plastic Beach
Student Edition:
The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll
Student Edition:
The Latin Rhythms of “Despacito”
Student Edition:
The Roots of Hip Hop
Trace It Back:
Kate Bush
Student Edition:
Who Is Amy Winehouse?
Student Edition:
What Is Sampling?
Student Edition:
Design A Distortion Pedal
lesson:
Calculating Pitch
How do musical instruments produce different pitches, and what variables allow you to calculate the pitch of an instrument?
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Chance the Rapper
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Gary Clark Jr.
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H.E.R.
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Rosalía
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?
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Amy Winehouse
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Selena Gomez
lesson:
Greta Thunberg, Music, and the Climate Crisis
How have musicians helped spread climate activist Greta Thunberg’s message?
Trace It Back:
Prince
lesson:
How a Bill Becomes a Law: Legislating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
How does a bill become a law in the United States of America?
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Nicki Minaj
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Dua Lipa
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Camila Cabello
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Beyoncé
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Billie Eilish
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Ariana Grande
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Tame Impala
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Gorillaz
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Mavis Staples
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P!nk (aka Pink)
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Big Freedia
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Lizzo
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Kesha (aka Ke$ha)
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Selena
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St. Vincent
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Lana Del Rey
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Jamila Woods
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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?
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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?
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Jerry Garcia, Addiction, and Intervention
How can you help someone struggling with addiction?
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Feeling the Vibrations
How did the Grateful Dead make their concerts more accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community?
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The Original “Going Viral”
Could a musical group “go viral” before the internet?
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Confronting the Climate Crisis
How can society lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere?
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The Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis (Elementary/Middle School School Version)
What is the Flint water crisis, and why did it occur?
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The Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States
How did same-sex marriage become legal in the United States?
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“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?
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Blues, Poetry, and the Harlem Renaissance
How does Langston Hughes’ Blues-inspired poetry exemplify the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance?
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Debating the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
What was NASA’s Apollo program and why was it controversial?
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#BlackLivesMatter: Music in a Movement
How have musicians responded to the Black Lives Matter movement?
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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?
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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?
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Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War
What was the Berlin Wall and how did music respond to what it symbolized?
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9/11: Country Music Responds
How did Country musicians’ responses to the September 11th terrorist attacks speak to the feelings of some Americans after the tragedy?
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Kanye and Katrina: Environmental Racism in New Orleans
What was Hurricane Katrina, and how did Black Americans articulate the frustrations they felt in its aftermath?
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“Alright” and the History of Black Protest Songs
How have Black artists throughout the 20th century used music to speak about racial injustice in America?
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The Guitar: A Musical Transducer
How can the guitar help us understand the scientific principle of transduction?
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Cleaning up the Plastic Beach (Elementary School Version)
What is plastic, how is it harmful for the environment, and how can it be used more responsibly?
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Cleaning up the Plastic Beach (Middle School/High School Version)
How is plastic made, how does it affect our marine environments, and how can plastic waste be eliminated?
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Making Music Videos with a Homemade Projector
How can one reproduce the effects seen in the music video for Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey’s song “The Middle” using a homemade projector?
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“Glory” and the Continuing Civil Rights Movement
How does Common and John Legend's “Glory” signal Civil Rights movements of the past and the present?
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New Perspectives on The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan
Does Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” help humanize Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby?
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100 Years of Dance
Why might people dance, and how have dance trends changed in America since the 1920s?
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Learning Rhythm through Gospel
How can Gospel music help students identify the musical concepts of beat, meter, backbeat, subdivision, and syncopation?
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The Leadership Skills of a Music Producer
How do successful music producers practice positive leadership skills?
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Designing Album Covers with Color Theory
What is the science behind color theory, and how is it used in fashion and album cover design?
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Drawing to Music
How might visual artists use music as a tool for inspiration, and how might sound be reflected through art?
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Hometown Documentaries
How can music help tell the story of your hometown?
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Fame and Judgement in “Funny”
How might Tori Kelly’s song “Funny” speak to the potential pitfalls of “superstardom,” and how does it relate to past songs written about the subject?
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The Latin Rhythms of “Despacito”
What Latin American genres inspired Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s hit song “Despacito”?
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Who is “Us” in P!nk’s “What About Us”?
Who is the ‘us’ in P!nk’s song “What About Us?”
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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?
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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?
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“See You Again”: How We Mourn with Music
How does music help us remember people we are close to, or those we have lost?
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Heroes and Mortals in “Something Just Like This”
Who are the gods and superheroes referenced in “Something Just Like This,” and what are the connections between them?
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“Here”: Managing Peer Pressure and Anxiety
In what ways does Alessia Cara’s “Here” defy popular music conventions, and what does the song say about peer pressure in youth culture?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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Recording and Producing the Voice
How have singers responded as advances in studio recording techniques have enabled increased technological “perfection”?
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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?
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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?
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“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?
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“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?
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“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?
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The Gospel Origins of “Chain of Fools”
Essential Question: How did Aretha Franklin’s foundation in Gospel music influence her recording of “Chain of Fools,” helping to establish a Soul sound and bringing black culture into mainstream America?
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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?
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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?
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The Birth of the Microphone
How did the development of microphones in the 20th century change the way people make and listen to music?
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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?
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The Influence of Rhythm and Blues
What did R&B bring to early Rock and Roll, and how was early Rock and Roll different?
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Introducing Glam Rock
How was Glam Rock a reaction to the "seriousness" of popular music at the time?
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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?
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The Emergence of Folk Rock
What is Folk music? To what extent did Folk Rock sustain the spirit of Folk music?
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Dan Penn
How did black artists and white songwriters and musicians interact in the Soul era, and what contributed to that interaction?
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The American Blues in Britain
In what ways did American Blues affect English musicians in the early 1960s?
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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?
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The Musical Roots of Doo Wop
How did Doo Wop develop as a musical genre?
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Radio Before Rock and Roll
How did radio influence American life in the years before the birth of Rock and Roll?
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Glam: The Return of the Teenager
How was Glam Rock part of a new teenage culture in the 1970s?
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Bo Diddley: The Grandfather of Hip Hop?
How were Bo Diddley’s recordings an anomaly in relation to 1950s Pop music, and how is his rhythm-driven sound and self-presentation a precursor to Hip Hop style?
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Gospel Music and the Birth of Soul
How did Gospel influence American popular music?
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The Who’s Generation
How did the Who represent “My Generation” in mid-1960s England?
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Rhythm and Blues Hit the Airwaves
How did Dewey Phillips and Hunter Hancock help bring Rhythm and Blues music to mixed race audiences?
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Ritchie Valens
How did Ritchie Valens meld traditional Mexican music and Rock and Roll?
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Chuck Berry
Why is Chuck Berry often considered the most important of the early Rock and Rollers?
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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?
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The Roots of Country Rock
How did Country Music influence Rock and Roll and the musicians who made it?
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The New York City Underground
How did New York bands interact with the city's art scene to create something new?
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Dylan as Poet
How did Bob Dylan merge poetry with popular music?
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The Musical Roots of the Surf Sound
What is the Surf sound and where did it come from?
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Punk as Reaction
How was Punk Rock a reaction both to the commercialization of Rock and Roll and to the social climate in late 1970s Britain?
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Folk Music, Rock and Roll Attitude
How did Bob Dylan’s early experiences with Folk and Rock and Roll music influence his songwriting?
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How to Study Rock and Roll
How can teachers help students analyze and understand Rock and Roll?
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Rock and Roll Goes to the Movies
How did movies help to introduce Rock and Roll culture to mainstream audiences in the 1950s?
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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?
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The Blues: The Sound of Rural Poverty
How do the Country Blues reflect the challenges of sharecropping, racial injustice, and rural poverty in early 20th-century African-American life?
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Mainstream Metal, Parental Advisories, and Censorship
How was Heavy Metal involved in the 1980s controversy surrounding the creation of parental advisories for “offensive” music?
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The Emergence of Grunge
What was Grunge and where did it come from?