OVERVIEW: The three lesson plans, written to correspond with Behind the Music: Music in America 1970, can be used as a unit of study or as individual lessons. Coordinating this unit with the student's social studies/history curriculum will enhance the student's understanding and comprehensive learning of both musical and historical concepts.
[Note to Teachers: This series of lessons covers music that rose to popularity during conflict in the United States over participation in the Vietnam War. Some of the musicians featured experimented with drugs, including two who died from drug-related causes, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. If your curriculum is subject to restrictions on the topic, you should review the videotape before using it in the classroom.]
 | Behind The Music: Music in America 1970
Lessons for Middle and High School Choral and General Music Classes
Protest Songs
Lesson 2 of 3 |
Objectives
- Students will analyze and perform an American social protest song and describe its historical setting
- Students will consider the effectiveness of music to communicate ideas
- Students will recognize popular music as reflection of the culture
National Standard 1, 8, 9 singing alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music; Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts; Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Materials
- VHS VCR Player
- Television
- VH1 Cable in the Classroom program Behind the Music: Music in America 1970
- Web-based lesson materials
- Recording of one of the following social protest songs: "Ohio," Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Eve of Destruction," Barry McGuire "Blowin' in the Wind," Bob Dylan "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" Judy Collins or Pete Seeger
- Sheet music for the selected song
- Instruments for folk rock ensemble
- Chalkboard Student notebooks
- Audio-playback equipment
Prior Knowledge and Experiences
- Students have appropriate music vocabulary for describing vocal style.
Procedures
- Show students second 10 minutes of the video Behind the Music: Music in America 1970. You may show the entire video, but this lesson is related to music in the video's second segment.
- Briefly review events leading up to the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University in Ohio, including:
- April 29, 1970 announcement by President Nixon that troops were invading Cambodia
- May 2, 1970 burning of the Reserve Officers Training Corps Building at Kent State and subsequent calling out of the National Guard to the campus
- May 4, 1970 student protest rally on Kent State Commons where National Guard shot and killed four student protesters
- Two weeks later radio stations across the country were playing "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
- Play a recording of a social protest song and then discuss the lyrics with students. Have them identify the genre of the song and briefly discuss the difference between songs that focus on social issues and those concerned with personal ones. Outline the history of social protest songs in this country. Mention the sources of the genre and its importance in relation to America's history and culture. [Note: For information about American social protest songs, see "Political Music" in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, ed. H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1986).]
- Replay the recording, and have students focus on the vocal style and instrumentation. Lead a discussion that explores characteristics of the style and instrumentation and that places the song in its historical period. Help students describe in what ways the vocal style expresses the song's content and historical setting. In their notebooks, have students make a chart, list, or timeline that summarizes the discussion, as you or a student writes the information on the chalkboard. Include some notable figures and historical events of the time period.
- Distribute sheet music for the selected song. Briefly review the vocal style of the singer, and have students sing all or a section of the song. [Note: If you do not have access to sheet music, simply have students sing with the recording.]
- Have students evaluate their singing and decide to what degree it expressed the song's content.
- Lead students in summarizing what they have learned about social protest songs, their historical settings, and performance style.
VH1, in partnership with Cable in the Classroom, collaborated with
MENC: The National Association for Music Education to develop this series of lessons.
The lesson is adapted from Strategies for Teaching Specialized Ensembles, compiled and edited by Robert A. Cutietta: 1999 ( MENC: Reston, Va.).
National Standards for Music Education
- Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
- Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
- Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
- Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
- Reading and notating music.
- Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
- Evaluating music and music performances.
- Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
- Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
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