Standard: TX
lesson:
Debating Dylan’s Nobel Prize
What are the arguments for and against Bob Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature?
lesson:
The Latin Rhythms of “Despacito”
What Latin American genres inspired Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s hit song “Despacito”?
lesson:
Who is “Us” in P!nk’s “What About Us”?
Who is the ‘us’ in P!nk’s song “What About Us?”
lesson:
Debating Cultural Appropriation
What is cultural appropriation, how does it affect Native American communities, and should it be regulated by law?
lesson:
The Ethics of Sampling
What makes a work of art “original,” and how does the use of “sampling” technology in Hip Hop challenge perceptions of “originality”?
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:
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:
Sampling: The Foundation of Hip Hop
How is the re-use and re-purposing of existing music at the heart of the Hip Hop recording experience?
lesson:
The Beat as an Object of Celebration and Concern in Segregation-Era America
How has “the beat” been an object of both celebration and concern in the history of popular music?
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:
Producing the Sounds of a Changing South
How did the recordings Sam Phillips produced at Sun Records, including Elvis Presley’s early work, reflect trends of urbanization and integration in the 1950s American South?
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:
The Birth of the Microphone
How did the development of microphones in the 20th century change the way people make and listen to music?
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:
The Influence of Rhythm and Blues
What did R&B bring to early Rock and Roll, and how was early Rock and Roll different?
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:
The Musical Roots of Doo Wop
How did Doo Wop develop as a musical genre?
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:
Assembling Hits at Motown
How did Motown Records in Detroit operate during the 1960s?
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 Blues and the Great Migration
How did the Great Migration spread Southern culture, helping to give the Blues a central place in American popular music?
lesson:
Artists Protest McCarthyism
How were musicians and artists affected by McCarthyism in 1950s America?
lesson:
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?
lesson:
Funk Asserts Itself
How did 1970s Funk respond to African-American life in the decade following the Civil Rights movement?
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:
The New York City Underground
How did New York bands interact with the city's art scene to create something new?
lesson:
Soul Music and the New Femininity
How did Aretha Franklin represent a new female voice in 1960s popular music?
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:
Music and Political Movements
How did Sixties Soul help give voice to the Civil Rights movement?
lesson:
Gospel Music and the Birth of Soul
How did Gospel influence American popular music?
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:
Rhythm and Blues Hit the Airwaves
How did Dewey Phillips and Hunter Hancock help bring Rhythm and Blues music to mixed race audiences?
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:
Italian-American Vocalists Before Rock and Roll
How did the careers of Italian American vocalists in the first half of the 20th century reflect the experiences of Italian American immigrants and attitudes toward them in the wider American culture?
lesson:
The Roots of Country Rock
How did Country Music influence Rock and Roll and the musicians who made it?
lesson:
Liverpool: The Birthplace of the Beatles
How did growing up in post-WWII Liverpool influence the Beatles?
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:
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 Rise of Black Pride
How did Social Soul reflect a new vision of African-American identity in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
lesson:
Seventies Soul: The Soundtrack of Turbulent Times
How did changes in the Soul music of the early 1970s reflect broader shifts in American society during that time?
lesson:
Car Culture in Postwar America
How did car culture intersect with and inspire Rock and Roll?
lesson:
The Musical Roots of the Surf Sound
What is the Surf sound and where did it come from?
lesson:
How to Study Rock and Roll
How can teachers help students analyze and understand Rock and Roll?
lesson:
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?
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:
Rock and Roll and the American Dream
What is the American Dream and how did Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash personify its ideals?
lesson:
Divergent Paths in the 1990s: Gangsta Rap and Conscious Hip Hop
How did Gangsta Rap and Conscious Hip Hop respond to the social and political conditions of the 1990s?
lesson:
Dion and the Teen Idols
What role did the so-called "teen idols" of the late 1950s play in bringing Rock and Roll into mainstream American culture?
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:
The Roots of Hip Hop
What are the roots of Hip Hop?
lesson:
Beatlemania
What were the factors that contributed to the rise of Beatlemania?
lesson:
The Rise of Disco
How did Disco relate to the sentiments and social movements of the 1970s?
lesson:
The Rolling Stones: Giving America Back the Blues
How did the early Rolling Stones help popularize the Blues?
lesson:
The Emergence of Grunge
What was Grunge and where did it come from?
lesson:
The Roots of Heavy Metal
What are the musical and cultural roots of Heavy Metal?
lesson:
Mainstream Metal, Parental Advisories, and Censorship
How was Heavy Metal involved in the 1980s controversy surrounding the creation of parental advisories for “offensive” music?
lesson:
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?
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 Rise of the “Girl Groups”
Were the Girl Groups of the early 1960s voices of female empowerment or reflections of traditional female roles?
lesson:
Dancing the Twist on Television
How did teen dance shows and the Twist influence American culture?
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?