Week 6

As we move into the 1970s this week, I have to say, I very much enjoy the happy upbeat sounds compared to what we heard in the 1960s. I tend to enjoy most music that is upbeat, happy, and fun to sing along with, which is basically disco music.  The 1970s is a decade shifts from communitarian, politically engaged ideals of the 1960s to a more materialistic and conservative attitudes (Starr & Waterman, 2013). There is a huge shift in the music industry in the 1970s from the rock ‘n’ roll of the 1960s. The Vietnam war ended and the music, in a broad sense, changed with the overall feel lets love and enjoy life.

As an elementary teacher, teaching vernacular music can be difficult if there is a focus on the history of the music and the time period, but there are a number of tunes from the 1970s that could be used for teaching. “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John sounds like a great song and very catchy, and the song isn’t inappropriate for the elementary crowd. “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder is another great song that I could see students enjoying this song, where a song like “Hotel California” by the Eagles is a great song but not appropriate for elementary school. Even some the rock music of the 1970s has the fun upbeat sound, “Oye Como Va” by Santana has another fun song that many of my students would connect with, where “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin might not be something I would share.

The Disco Era has a lot of great music, with some music being great to share with students and others not as much. Disco is known for it’s great dance beats, with nice upbeat tempos that students would be interested in moving to. “Bad Girl” and “Love to Love You Baby” by Donna Summer are great songs and very important to Disco for their popularity and ranks on the charts, but are too sexy for elementary school. “Good Times” by Chic would be a great disco song but a little bit better in turms of the theme of the song. The biggest part of disco music if finding a song that is appropriate and if showing a video, the video is appropriate. So much about the Disco Era is not appropriate to discuss (sex and drugs), but the music by itself is just fine to share. This video of “Good Times” would be a great way to share the music and the feel of the Disco Era with students while still being appropriate.

Overall, there is a lot of music from the 1970s that is very appropriate to share with students. All of the songs that I have spoken about would be great to use in a unit on verse/chorus unit. My only complaint about this 1970s is the length of the music. With songs much longer than the three minute mark and being as long as eight minutes in length, students will not be able to sit and listen to the lengthy songs of the 1970s. Sharing short clips of the music from the 1970s will be necessary to keep students engaged in the music.

Starr, L. & Waterman, C. (2013). American popular music: From

minstrelsy to MP3 (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press

(ISBN:978-0-19-985911-5).

Week 5

In the first module of this class there was a video presentation of pop music, I clearly remember “a popular song is three minutes or less.” I have to say up until 50’s/60’s the three-minute rule was not necessarily true with many songs well over three minutes. The Beatles definitely keep to this rule with most of their songs around two and a half minutes. They are short and sweet, which seems to be what the people wanted especially after the death of J.F. Kennedy.

The Beatles, paved the way for some changes in the music industry. For one, they started writing their own music, up until this point, most popular artists did not write their own music, there were writers that wrote music and the artist would select songs or have songs selected for them. “Please Please Me,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Yesterday,” and “Eleanor Rigby” are all written by John Lennon and Paul McCarthy and all by “Eleanor Rigby” have a similar formula to the song, which seemed to work well for the Beatles. I personally enjoy the simple yet complex lyrics that were used by the Beatle, they had complex songs but at the same time simple catchy choruses that made it very easy to remember.

It is amazing how influential the Beatles were, I never put too much thought into it. I found a live studio session of “Good Vibration” with the Beach Boys, and you could see the influence of the mop-hair style of the Beatles carrying over into the Beach Boys. When I picture the beach boys I see clean cute well put together Californian beach boys, I don’t think of the mop-hair of the Beatles.  It is absolutely what all went into writing “Good Vibrations,” it is such a well put together song and one of my favorites from the Beach Boys.

The 1960’s had a wealth of great music and by listening to it you can hear how the world was changing.  The early 60’s seem to be so happy and upbeat with the songs like “The Twist,” “Be My Baby,” and “My Girl,” that are still written by writers of the time specifically for the artists. By the end of the 60’s you can hear the change in the music as the dynamics of the country are changing. Aretha Franklin brings a change in how the female voice traditionally has sounded with her big booming voice and with a song like “Respect,” she commands attention and will become the voice of both racial and female rights. Another sound that is starting to pop up in the later 60’s is that of urban folk music and Bob Dylan. Dylan was able to touch upon current issues with a down to earth sound. You can hear this sound in “Like A Rolling Stone” as he sings about going out into the world and the struggles of adulthood. Overall, the 60’s had a wide variety of music and helped tell the story of the times.

Week 4

Frank Sinatra really is a truly amazing vocalist. His voice is so warm and always seems to never end. It was interesting to read about how Sinatra developed “his sound.” Star and Waterman (2013) discussed how Sinatra study how Tommy Dorsey played the trombone and Jascha Heifetz played the violin and worked on making his voice work like the trombone and violin. Listening to “Nancy” performed by Sinatra, I can hear how ends phrases very much like an instrumentalist. This would be a great way to incorporate listening into a choral setting.

“Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” performed by Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five has always been a song that I enjoy listening too. I love how the sound of the train is created by the snare drum and piano.  I had no idea from listening to this song that it was being performed by a smaller, “jump band” consisting of only a handful of musicians, this sounds like a big band to me. This would make a great listening activity, where students are asked to identify what instruments they hear and compare it to a big band.

I found a video of “Maybellene” performed by Chuck Berry (seen below) that made me think of the jump band and rhythm & blue style heard in “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie.” It was interesting watching Berry walk out to the “swing” sound with his guitar. I could hear the rhythm and blues style, but it was much faster and the guitar solo was nothing like what was heard previously in music we have heard. You could also clearly hear the twelve-bar blues in this song.

It was interesting listening to “Long Tall Sally,” Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Charlie Brown” and how the twelve-bar blues can be used and sound so different. It was fun listening to the changes that took place between all of the songs this week. All the music I have listened to many times but had no idea what really happened in the 1950’s to the twelve-bar blues. I always thought of the twelve-bar blues as jazz, I never considered how much of pop music is based on the twelve bar blues. I loved hearing Little Richard “scream” over the twelve bar blue and then Elvis hear with his country style still singing to the twelve-bar blues.

I have to say as I listen to the music, I never once considered what color the person was. Reading about the history of music, it is amazing how color really did play a part in the music industry. I new that R&B was mostly black music but I had no idea how the record companies really did promote “black” and “white” music differently. That has been vary interesting as I have been reading each week.

Starr, L. & Waterman, C. (2013). American popular music: From

minstrelsy to MP3 (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press

(ISBN:978-0-19-985911-5).