people:
Muddy Waters
(1915 – 1983) A Mississippi native who rose to prominence in Chicago in the early 1950s, Muddy Waters is one the most esteemed figures in Blues, and a seminal figure in the postwar electrification of acoustic Delta Blues. He was a major influence on many Rock musicians of the 1960s, revered in particular among players who made up the British Blues scene. Waters was born McKinley Morganfield in 1915, and raised on the Stovall Plantation in the Delta town of Clarksdale, Mississippi. At age five Waters began to play harmonica and as a teen he taught himself guitar, emulating the style...
lesson:
Using Graphing to Analyze Music Industry Data
Grades: Middle
Subjects: Math
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Equations and Calculations
Topics: Music Business
How can graphing be used to analyze music industry data?
article:
Lennon and McCartney: Songwriters — A Portrait from 1966
IT IS NOW ABOUT A DOZEN YEARS since the pop music revolution – since Alan Freed began to play, instead of soupy white imitations, straight rhythm and blues in New York and called it rock'n'roll; since Wild Bill Haley and his Comets roared to the top of the Top Ten with 'Shake, Rattle and Roll'; since the advent of the 45 rpm record and the post-war prosperity stretched that Top Ten into the Top 40, and even the Top 100. Despite adult accusations of the sameness of all the bleating sounds, pop has changed many times in those years. Those...
people:
Edwin Starr
(1942 – 2003) Though his career stretched from Doo-Wop to Disco, Edwin Starr will best be remembered for his groundbreaking hit “War,” one of the first Soul records to deliver serious social commentary along with the beat. Born Charles Edwin Hatcher, Starr pursued a musical career in Detroit after serving in the army, adopting his stage name and signing to the local Ric-Tic label. Starr recorded a series of moderately successful singles for Ric-Tic; then he became a Motown artist when Motown owner Berry Gordy bought the label in 1968. Though Starr’s rough vocal style was atypical for Motown, his...
lesson:
The Blues and the Great Migration
Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History, STEAM
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Document-Based Questions, Maps, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis
Topics: Black History, Economics, Geography, Migration
How did the Great Migration spread Southern culture, helping to give the Blues a central place in American popular music?
people:
Lead Belly
(1889 – 1949) A singular figure in American music, Lead Belly is often called a Blues singer, but his repertoire ran well beyond Blues, and into a breadth of American Folk styles, from prison work songs and field songs to spirituals and square-dance calls. An itinerant singer who was both a songwriter and a repository for tradional songs, Lead Belly built an extensive repertoire that significantly influenced the Folk revival of the 1960s. Huddie Ledbetter was born in 1889 (by most estimates) near Shreveport, Louisiana. He was the son of sharecroppers and took an interest in music as a young boy,...
people:
Alan Lomax
(1915 – 2002) Folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax was an influential figure in 20th century American music, producing archival and field recordings that significantly boosted public awareness of American Folk, Blues and Jazz traditions, and was instrumental in launching the Folk and Blues revivals that took place among young white musicians and listeners in the 1950s and 60s. Lomax spent much of his life traveling and recording music, first traversing the backroads of the American South and eventually making his way around the world, interviewing musicians playing Folk, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Calypso, Cajun music, and other genres, and capturing their music for...
lesson:
Dolores Huerta and The United Farm Workers Movement
Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Creative Writing, Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis
Topics: Civics and Politics, Gender and Sexuality, Labor History, Latin American History, Migration, Social Justice Movements, Women's History
Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?
article:
Long Live Rock: The Who
ARGUABLY THE MOST famous line The Who's Pete Townshend ever wrote was "Hope I die before I get old" on 1965's angry young anthem 'My Generation'. Today, at the ripely Beatle-esque age of 64, Townshend will – in his own words – "carry the flag for the boomer generation" during the half-time show at Super Bowl XLIV in Miami. The entertainment spotlight doesn't burn much brighter. It may even remind the world just how great the Who once were. The group have long had to settle for third place in the pantheon of '60s rock giants behind the Beatles and...