Over the past several weeks I have been teaching about American Culture with lectures about the many different genres of American Music.
I started with a lecture about American Folk Music. Some of my students are musicians and actually knew a little bit about different kinds of American Music. Of course, some students describe Taylor Swift as Country music. I made sure to give them a chance to listen to different kinds of music.
I started out by having the students listen to Bluegrass, Appalachian Folk, Old Time Music, Blues, Gospel, Zydeco, and a couple of other genres.
A great Blues song to use to teach english is Robert Johnson's classic song "Love in Vain". It has very easy to understand lyrics and tells a very poetic, short story about a man breaking up with a woman. I never realized what a classic song this really is until I used it to teach with.
Popular music has also gone pretty well. I have had the chance to use many different songs because there are about twenty different, identifiable styles of American Pop music.
For example, the different genres include: ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, r&b, doo woo, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, house music, hip hop, techno, grunge, and perhaps a few others I have ommited.
Earlier this week I had the rare pleasure of explaining the meaning of the song "midnight train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight, "get up offa that thing" by James Brown, and "Rockaway Beach" by the Ramones. My students especially liked listening to Metallica singing "One".
I dont just play the songs. I spend some time introducing each genre of music and then pause the song and try to explain lyrics. So far so good.
I started with a lecture about American Folk Music. Some of my students are musicians and actually knew a little bit about different kinds of American Music. Of course, some students describe Taylor Swift as Country music. I made sure to give them a chance to listen to different kinds of music.
I started out by having the students listen to Bluegrass, Appalachian Folk, Old Time Music, Blues, Gospel, Zydeco, and a couple of other genres.
A great Blues song to use to teach english is Robert Johnson's classic song "Love in Vain". It has very easy to understand lyrics and tells a very poetic, short story about a man breaking up with a woman. I never realized what a classic song this really is until I used it to teach with.
Popular music has also gone pretty well. I have had the chance to use many different songs because there are about twenty different, identifiable styles of American Pop music.
For example, the different genres include: ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, r&b, doo woo, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, house music, hip hop, techno, grunge, and perhaps a few others I have ommited.
Earlier this week I had the rare pleasure of explaining the meaning of the song "midnight train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight, "get up offa that thing" by James Brown, and "Rockaway Beach" by the Ramones. My students especially liked listening to Metallica singing "One".
I dont just play the songs. I spend some time introducing each genre of music and then pause the song and try to explain lyrics. So far so good.
No comments:
Post a Comment