[Note to Teachers: Some of the scenes and topics in the videotaped program that these lessons accompany address social change, the sexual revolution, AIDS disease, and drug culture. If your curriculum is subject to restrictions on these topics, you should review the videotape before using it in the classroom.]
The popular music of the 1980s both reflected and influenced everyday
lives, says Shannon Daugherty, the host of "VH1 Presents the 1980s." The
popular music in the 1960s responded to the Vietnam War with anthems of
peace and protest, and the music of the 1970s mirrored the cultural transition
to a time when the once vibrant youth movement was feeling bitter and
betrayed. During the 1970's some popular musicians were laying aside political
messages, some turning inward for themes, others rejecting any message
at all. The music of the 1980s also reflected the culture of its decade.
The popular music of the 80's reflected both a culture focused on conspicuous
consumption and wealth as well as a generation addressing social change
with the emergence of concerts and albums to raise money for famines in
Africa and the economic plight of America's farmers.
 | VH1 Presents the 1980s
VH1 Music Studio
Cable in the Classroom
Lessons for High School Music Classes
Lesson 2 |
Objectives
- Students will identify the differences between program music and
absolute music
- Students will discuss whether music must have a theme, a message
or a non-musical story
- Students will discuss messages present in 1980s popular music
National Standards 6, 8, 9— Listening to, analyzing, and describing
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 VH1 Presents the 1980s
- Web-based lesson materials
- Teacher-provided recording of a piece of program music that students
are familiar with, for example:
- Bernstein’s West Side Story, Prokofiev’s Peter and the
Wolf, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet,
- Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, symphonic poems of
Liszt, Sorceror’s Apprentice by
- Dukas or another piece that tells a story
- Teacher-provided recording of a piece of absolute music, for example,
Bach’s Art of Fugue or pieces composed by Schoenberg or Stravinsky.
- Audio-playback equipment
Prior Experience
Students have viewed the program VH1 Presents the 1980s.
Students have listened to and discussed a teacher-selected piece of
program music.
Procedures
- Before students enter the classroom, have the following definitions
written on the chalkboard:
Absolute Music—Music without extramusical connotations. The term
is applied to music that is free from programmatic designs, psychological
affiliations, or illustrative associations. Baker’s Dictionary
of Music (Schirmer Books, 1997)
Program Music—Music that attempts to express or depict one or
more nonmusical ideas, images, or events. The New Harvard Dictionary
of Music (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986)
- As students enter the classroom, have a piece of program music playing
that you have selected from your school or personal music collection
(See Materials section above for examples.)
- When students are settled, ask students if they can identify the
music they are hearing. Lead them in a discussion of what the music
expresses or describes.
- Discuss with students program music, reviewing with them the definition
on the chalkboard as well as additional descriptions or examples that
are helpful to your students.
- Ask students what the opposite of program music would be. In discussing
absolute music, play a recording of a Schoenberg or Stravinsky piece
that you provide. You may also chose to playy a piece of instrumental
popular music, composed with no message or story in mind (“Techno”
House-dance” dance music may be examples). After listening to
a sample, tell students that the composer intended the music to be
free, or independent, of any nonmusical meaning.
- Ask students if popular music played on the radio or in music videos
is music with meaning or music that is free of nonmusical meaning.
Give examples.
- Tell students they are about to watch a videotaped program about
music in the 1980s. Have them listen for mention of music that has
meaning, or a message, and music that does not carry a message. Also
tell students to be ready to name some of the musicians they will
see who have a message.
- Show program from [13:55] to [31:17].
- Ask students to name a musician who did not have a message. (Help
students to recall that John Taylor of Duran Duran tells us that he’s
“never really been a fan of music with a message, and so celebrated
having nothing to say.” Be prepared that some students might
suggest that having nothing to say is a message itself.)
- Ask students to name musicians who wrote about social issues. (Tracy
Chapman, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, U2.)
- Ask students what movement developed in the 1980s which used music
and musicians to raise public awareness of and charitable funds for
social needs. (Concerts, such as “FarmAid” “LiveAid”
and recordings of “We Are the World,” etc...)
- Have students discuss if that method of raising social awareness
and money is used today. When and where? (The Concert for New York
City, for example.)
- Ask students to recall the music--program and absolute--that was
played at the beginning of the class. Lead students in a discussion
about whether music must carry a message. Is it possible for music
to not carry a message? Is one preferable to the other? (Accept reasonable
answers. Students may disagree, encourage discussion and possibly
further research into program and absolute music.)
- Students may analyze examples of popular or serious music, determining
if the composer intended the listener to recognize a specific message.
Students may also identify pieces which took on a meaning that the
composer did not originally intend (Ryan Adams’ “-------“
took on a new meaning after the tragedy of September 11, 2001; ---------
“Dancing In The Streets” became an anthem for equality during
the civil rights movement.)
Extension:
Have students discuss the connections between social protest songs
and songwriters of the 1980s have with the protest songs and songwriters
of the 1960s. (They may refer to lessons 1 and 4 from Behind the Music:
Music in America 1968 at www.vh1musicstudio.com.)
Have students select one of the musicians mentioned in procedure 9
and prepare a short oral report on the artist and the music he or
she wrote. Have students include what the musician’s message
was and if there was a musician from the 1960s who may have been an
influence.
VH1, in partnership with Cable in
the Classroom, collaborated with
MENC: The National Association for Music Education to develop this
series of lessons.
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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