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A People’s Playlist: U.S. History with Music as a Primary Source

  1. Unit 3: American Imperialism
  2. Unit 5: World War II
  3. Unit 1: Post Civil War America
  4. Unit 2: The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era
  5. Unit 4: The Roaring 20s and the Great Depression

Into the 1950s

  1. The Roots of Rock and Soul
  2. Rock and Roll Emerges
  3. The Genesis of Soul Music
  4. Rock and Soul in Popular Culture

The 1960s

  1. From Rock and Roll to Rock
  2. Soul Across America
  3. The British Invasion
  4. Music and the Civil Rights Movement
  5. Music and Counterculture

The 1970s

  1. Singer-Songwriters
  2. Dance Music
  3. Emergence of Punk
  4. Rock Branches Out

The 1980s

  1. New Technologies, New Music
  2. Hip Hop

Book 1: Birth of Rock

  1. Why Rock and Roll?
  2. Country Blues
  3. The Blues Goes Electric
  4. The Forties Transition
  5. Elvis
  6. Doo Wop
  7. The Pioneers
  8. Gospel Music: The Birth of Soul
  9. The DJs
  10. Rock and Roll Becomes Pop

Book 2: Teenage Rebellion

  1. The Italians
  2. Invitation to the Dance
  3. The Brill Building and the Girl Group Era
  4. Surf
  5. Sixties Soul and Civil Rights
  6. The Blues Explosion
  7. British Invasion I: The Beatles
  8. British Invasion II: The Rolling Stones
  9. British Invasion III: The Rest of the Family
  10. Latin Rock

Book 3: Transformation

  1. Bob Dylan
  2. Folk Rock
  3. Hard Rock is Born
  4. Detroit: Blue Collar Rock
  5. The Summer of Love
  6. The Protest Tradition
  7. Country Rock
  8. Social Soul: The Roots of Hip Hop
  9. Southern White Soul / Blue Eyed Soul
  10. The Singer-Songwriters

Book 4: Fragmentation

  1. Heavy Metal
  2. Glam Rock
  3. Prog Rock
  4. New York Underground
  5. Seventies: Fragmentation Begins
  6. Punk Rock
  7. Eighties New Wave
  8. Grunge and Hardcore
  9. Hip Hop
  10. Rock Today: The Persistence of an Idea

Book 5: Music Across Classrooms

  1. English Language Arts
  2. Visual Arts
  3. STEAM
  4. Environmental Jukebox
  5. Math + The Music Industry
  6. Social Emotional Learning
  7. Crossroads: Where Economics, History, and Music Meet

Partnership Lessons: Music Will

  1. “Hound Dog” and 1950 Race Relations
  2. “Twist and Shout” and Post-War Britain
  3. “Blowin’ in the Wind” as a Rallying Cry
  4. The Gospel Origins of “Chain of Fools”
  5. “Here”: Managing Peer Pressure and Anxiety
  6. Everyday Heroes: Beyoncé and United Nations World Humanitarian Day
  7. Heroes and Mortals in “Something Just Like This”
  8. “See You Again”: How We Mourn with Music
  9. The Latin Rhythms of “Despacito”
  10. “Praying” and the #MeToo Movement
  11. Who is “Us” in P!nk’s “What About Us”?
  12. “Glory” and the Continuing Civil Rights Movement
  13. Making Music Videos with a Homemade Projector
  14. Celebrating Community with Art and Poetry (Elementary School Version)
  15. Celebrating Community with Art and Poetry (High School Version)

PBS Soundbreaking

  1. Sampling: The Foundation of Hip Hop
  2. The Ethics of Sampling
  3. Multitracking in the Countercultural 1960s
  4. The Evolution of Sound Recording
  5. The Beat as an Object of Celebration and Concern in Segregation-Era America
  6. Rhythm as a Representation of People and Place
  7. Producing the Sounds of a Changing South
  8. The Many Roles of a Music Producer
  9. The Birth of the Microphone
  10. Recording and Producing the Voice
  11. The Impact of the Electric Guitar
  12. Sound Waves, Analog Synthesis and Popular Culture
  13. The History of Music Videos
  14. How Records and Radio Shaped American Culture
  15. The Cassette Tape Offers New Possibilities
  16. Muddy Waters, the New Kid in Town
  17. The Leadership Skills of a Music Producer
  18. Learning Rhythm through Gospel
  19. 100 Years of Dance

The Beatles

  1. The Beatles Work Towards Success
  2. The Beatles and Teen Culture
  3. The Beatles, a New Kind of Star
  4. The Beatles and American Segregation
  5. The Teamwork Behind the Beatles
  6. From the Stage to the Studio
  7. The Teamwork Behind the Beatles (Elementary Version)

Sun City

  1. Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid – Part 1
  2. Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid – Part 2

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World

  1. Indigenous Music from Wounded Knee to the Billboard Charts
  2. The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll
  3. Debating Cultural Appropriation
  4. The Music and Poetry Behind the Red Power Movement
  5. Negotiating Native Identity through Art, Poetry and Music

The Music that Shaped America

  1. Mining and Union Songs in the Early 20th Century
  2. The Banjo, Slavery, and the Abolition Debate
  3. Singing Democracy During the Second Great Awakening
  4. Almost Emancipated: The Civil War and the Port Royal Experiment
  5. Almost Emancipated: Reconstruction
  6. The Reclamation of the American Cowboy
  7. The Myth of the American Cowboy

CNN Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History

  1. “Alright” and the History of Black Protest Songs
  2. #BlackLivesMatter: Music in a Movement
  3. How a Bill Becomes a Law: Legislating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
  4. Kanye and Katrina: Environmental Racism in New Orleans
  5. 9/11: Country Music Responds
  6. Toby Keith & The Chicks: Songs and Words During the War on Terror
  7. Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War
  8. Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War
  9. A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War
  10. Debating the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
  11. Swing Down: Afrofuturism & Flight in the Black Imagination
  12. Third Wave: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1990s
  13. Women’s Perspectives in Country and Tejano Music
  14. Second Wave: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1960s
  15. “Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall”: The Stonewall Riots in the Fight for Equality
  16. Art, Music, and the AIDS Epidemic
  17. The Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States
  18. “Y’all Better Quiet Down”: Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ Pioneers

Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead

  1. The Original “Going Viral”
  2. Business with the Grateful Dead
  3. Jerry Garcia, Addiction, and Intervention
  4. Feeling the Vibrations
  5. Supporting Sobriety in a Musical Community
  6. Loudspeakers, PA Systems, and the “Wall of Sound”
  7. Math With The Grateful Dead
  8. Counterculture in the 1960s
  9. Deadheads and Reagan’s America in the 1980s
  10. The Birth of Hippie Culture in the 1960s
  11. Beat Culture and the Grateful Dead

LADAMA: Movement, Music, and Community in South America

  1. Colombian Cumbia: African, Indigenous, and Spanish Roots of Rhythm
  2. Joropo: Music Inspired by Nature from the High Plains of Venezuela
  3. Quitiplás: Deep Listening and Rhythm Building with Afro-Venezuelan Bamboo Drums From Barlovento
  4. ChocQuibTown: Embracing Cultural Identity through Colombian Rap
  5. Ciranda: The Brazilian Music and Dance that Creates Community
  6. Aguinaldos: Venezuelan Songs for the Holiday Season

Segregation and Integration in Asbury Park

  1. Part 1: Segregation and the Founding of Asbury Park
  2. Part 2: Riot or Rebellion? Asbury Park in the Summer of 1970
  3. Part 3: Asbury Park from the 1970s to Today

Math and Music: Algebra Featuring Mickey Hart

  1. The Science of Sound
  2. The Mathematics Behind Sound
  3. Calculating Pitch
  4. Musical Ratios