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The following unit for high school students frames popular music
within the larger context of social protest movements: |
The Music of Protest, Noah Mass,
Burnsville High School, Burnsville, MN |
Introduction |
In this unit students analyze popular music as statements
of social, cultural, political, and economic protest. They begin
with an exploration of the meaning of protest, both in their lives
and in the larger society, and how individual protest becomes a
protest movement encompassing a group consciousness. By researching
a protest issue, picking apart the elements of protest from selected
works of art, and crafting their own artistic protest, students
initiate a personal dialogue with their social world, manipulating
and critiquing that world so they can more fully understand their
place in it. This, in turn, gives them the knowledge and agency
to effect change. The unit also scaffolds the analysis of text for
meaning and purpose, the consideration of artist and audience perspective,
and the translation of abstract knowledge into unique, personal
art. |
Unit Objectives |
Students will consider the meaning and function
of protest. Students will make thematic and formal connections between
diverse works of art. Students will analyze music and lyrics for
meaning. Students will research a protest issue. Students will create
and present their own protest art. Students will consider the history
of American protest through music. Students will relate the issue
of protest to their own lives. |
Final Project |
The final project consists of two parts. First,
students will write a two-page essay about their protest issue that
explores the problem, its historical antecedents and modern/future
consequences, and proposed solutions. Second, students will create
an original work of art — visual, aural, written etc. —
that could be used to rally support for their issue. |
Materials |
Music:
Cooke, Sam, “A Change is Gonna Come”
Dylan, Bob, “Dear Landlord”
Hendrix, Jimi, “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Holliday, Billie, “Strange Fruit”
Love, “Signed D.C.”
Public Enemy, “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”
U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
Books & Articles:
King Jr., Martin Luther, Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Margolick, David, Strange Fruit
Staples, Brent, “Corporate Radio Kills the Protest Music”
Movies:
Gimme Shelter, Woodstock:The Movie
Websites:
emplive.com
History
in Song
The
Music Festival Home Page
The
Progress Report
Protest.net
Rock
+ Roll Hall of Fame |
Day One: What is Protest? |
To introduce the notion of protest, I will ask the
students to free-write for five minutes about one rule (family,
school, society/culture) or law that they believe is unjust and/or
illegitimate, why they consider it so, and how they would amend
it. Students will then share their responses with each other in
small groups. When the class reconvenes, we will discuss how individual
protest becomes a larger protest movement. How is it that individuals
acquire a group consciousness? What do they rally around? At this
point I will hand out selections from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Students will once again break up
into groups and each group will receive a short selection from the
text. For example: |
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins,
marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You
are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the
very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to
create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community
which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront
the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer
be ignored. |
Students will be expected to summarize their excerpt
for the entire class, discussing how it positions the reader (protester,
witness, bystander, perpetrator?) and what its particular purpose
might be. What does it advocate? Why did King address it as an open
letter to the community? To finish this phase of the lesson, I will
ask each group to write a letter to their own community addressing
one issue that they wrote about in their free-writes. |
Before class ends, we will listen to two protest
songs loosely framed as letters: “Dear Landlord” by
Bob Dylan and “Signed D.C.” by Love. The lyrics will
be projected onto the board, so the students can follow along. The
students will be asked to consider how each song thematically and
formally relates to Dr. King's letter. What connections can be made
between the three texts? How might one map their similarities?
For homework students should read all of Dr. King's Letter from
a Birmingham Jail.
|
Day Two: The Music of Protest |
To start class we will listen to Jimi Hendrix's
version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” from Woodstock.
How can music, aside from lyrical content, be a form of protest?
Is Hendrix making a protest statement? If so, how? What aspects
of the song suggest a countercultural attitude? What associations
might people in 1967 have made between this piece of music and their
world? If someone made the same sort of gesture today, what associations
might we make in response? After a full-class discussion of these
issues, we will watch footage of Hendrix performing the song (from
Woodstock: The Movie). How have our perceptions of the song changed
now that we've seen actual pictures of the event? In small groups
I will ask the students to brainstorm adjectives they could use
to describe Hendrix, his song, and the atmosphere on stage and in
the crowd at Woodstock that day. Students will then individually
read a short article about Woodstock and first-hand reminiscences
of the concert from The
Music Festival Home Page. |
To demonstrate that the music of protest, although
certainly associated with the 1960s, transcends time and place,
I will play two song selections from different U.S. historical periods.
First we will listen to “Strange Fruit” as recorded
by Billie Holliday. This song vividly recalls the lynching of a
black man in the American South: Southern trees bear a strange fruit
/ Blood on the leaves and blood on the root / Black body swinging
in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Playing the song again, I will ask students to write down the most
resonant images and draw any pictures (abstract or concrete) that
come to mind as they listen. They will then free-write responses
to the song and discuss them in pairs. For the second song I will
play “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” by the rap group
Public Enemy: I got a letter from the government / the other day
/ I opened and read it / It said they were suckers / They wanted
me for their army or whatever / Picture me given' a damn —
I said never / Here is a land that never gave a damn about a brother
like me . . .” The speaker of this song fantasizes from his
jail cell about a prison riot, a depiction of violent liberation.
Students will be asked to consider this song as a protest document.
How does the song make you feel? How might it make someone of a
different ethnic group (African-American, for instance, or Asian-American)
feel? Is it dangerous? If so, to whom? How might it relate to Dr.
King's letter, and very specifically, to his notion of creating
and maintaining “tension” as a nonviolent protest technique? |
For homework, students will read a short excerpt
from Strange Fruit: Billie Holliday, Cafe Society, and an Early
Cry for Civil Rights by David Margolick. They will also be responsible
for presenting a personal protest issue at the end of the next class.
|
Day Three: Protest Research |
Students will have most of this period to conduct
online research related to a specific protest issue that he or she
finds personally relevant. We will meet in the media center for
this purpose. Students will be prompted to begin their research
at www.protest.net, an internet clearinghouse for protest issues;
however, I will also advise my students that they may choose any
issue and need not focus on a political concern. Sample issues on
the website include Animal Rights, Civil Rights, Death Penalty,
Environment, Fascism, Immigration, Globalization, Poverty, Sexuality,
and the Third World. |
At this point I will introduce the final project
for the unit. The project consists of two parts. First, students
will write a two-page essay about their protest issue that explores
the problem, its historical antecedents and modern/future consequences,
and proposed solutions. Second, students will create a unique and
personal work of art — visual, aural, written etc. —
that could be used to rally support for their issue. On Day Four
of the unit, students will be expected to submit their issue choice.
Overnight I will confirm or deny choices based solely on their relevance
to what we are studying. On Day Five students will be expected to
submit their choose of medium for the work of art. This too will
be subject to my approval. The project will be due on the last day,
Day Ten, of the unit. |
Near the end of class, we will go around the room
and each student will present a short synopsis of their protest
issue and what they learned about it so far. If anyone shares a
topic, they have the option of combining their talents and writing
a four-page paper and creating a more substantial work of art. Groups,
however, may be no larger than a pair. |
Day Four: Make Your Own Protest Song |
To begin class we will listen to “Sunday Bloody
Sunday” by U2. Then students will get into groups and read
the poem aloud to each other. How should it be read? What is the
tone? How does the music set the tone? If we disregard the music,
how do the lyrics by themselves set the tone? Each group will present
a dramatic reading to the class. Going back to the text, students
will annotate the text, noting the associations conjured by each
image. How do they relate to a protest theme? How do we know this
is a protest song? Finally, students will be asked to consider how
and if the song might be improved, and also, how it might be changed
to reflect different circumstances. Imagine the song was still a
rought draft — how might you edit it? Written about Northern
Ireland, how might you rewrite the song to reflect the particular
history of the United States? What events could we relate to it?
|
As a companion activity, each group will receive
one piece from “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke.
The entire song, a civil rights anthem with religious overtones,
reads as follows: |
I was born by the river in a little tent And just
like the river, I've been running ever since It's been a long time
coming But I know a change is gonna come It's been too hard living,
but I'm afraid to die I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long time coming But I know a change is gonna come I
go to the movie, and I go downtown Somebody keep telling me "Don't
hang around" It's been a long time coming But I know a change
is gonna come Then I go to my brother and I say, "Brother,
help me please" But he winds up knocking me back down on my
knees There've been times that I've thought I couldn't last for
long But now I think I'm able to carry on It's been a long time
coming But I know a change is gonna come. |
Based on their excerpt, each group will write the
full lyrics for a protest song. It can be either related to a particular
issue or general in tone. It should incorporate the excerpt and
remain true to its spirit, however the group decides to interpret
that spirit. Groups will read their lyrics to the class. I will
then pass out the true lyrics to the song. Each student will free-write
about his or her expectations based on their excerpt and how the
song did or did not fulfill those expectations. Finally, we will
listen to the Sam Cooke recording. |
For homework students will prepare their proposals
for a work of protest art. |
Day Five: Gimme Shelter |
For this class period we will watch excerpts from
“Gimme Shelter” by the Maysles brothers. “Gimme
Shelter” is a documentary about the Rolling Stones' 1969 concert
tour, focusing primarily on the disastrous free concert at Altamont
Speedway, during which the Hells Angels, hired as cheap security,
drunk and stoned and out of control, murdered one concertgoer and
injured many others. In addition, the lead singer of Jefferson Airplane,
Marty Balin, was assaulted by a biker. Altamont is commonly viewed
as the anti-Woodstock — a music event associated not with
peace and love, but rather with debauchery and license — and
therefore provides an appropriate antidote to the idealism of Jimi
Hendrix's performance viewed on Day Two. “Gimme Shelter”
shows how the nature and meaning of protest music (for example,
Jefferson Airplane's “Volunteers,” or more complexly,
the Rolling Stones' “Sympathy for the Devil”), is negotiated
between artist and audience. It provides a graphic demonstration
of what happens when an audience chooses not to accept or does not
understand the artist's intended meaning. At Altamont, protest music
became just another reason to party. |
After viewing selected scenes from the movie, students
will break up into groups and brainstorm reasons why the concert
went awry. How much control does anyone have over the meaning of
their art? |
For Day Six students will prepare a short presentation
on one protest song that means something to them. They will play
a portion of the song and talk about its relevance to their life.
The one requirement for the assignment is that each student must
talk about how the song qualifies as a protest. |
Day Six: Protest Song Presentations |
Students will share their favorite protest songs
with the class, so that, at the end of the unit, each student will
have a musical bibliography related to the topic. I will compile
a master list and hand it out on Day Ten. |
Day Seven: History in Song |
Today class will meet in the computer lab, so that
students can conduct research on the internet. Using three websites:
History
in Song
The Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame
Experience
Music Project
students will explore the history of American popular music and
the way that American popular music has embodied aspects of history.
Students will answer questions such as the following: Find a song
that addresses the life of a prisoner. How is it described? Does
the song have a political message? If so, what is that message,
and how is it communicated? What emotions does the song convey about
prison life? Read the biography of one early blues musician. How
was he or she shaped and/or affected by the historical period in
which he or she lived? Was he or she treated fairly by his or her
time and by history? How did his or her music reflect historical
circumstances? Pick one social/cultural event in American history
and annotate the songs that grew out of that moment. Were they similar
in tone and perspective or did they vary? How did they interpret
the event? How accurately did they paint the event for the listener?
Protest is alive and well in America! Find one post-1990 example
of protest music. Was it popular? To what genre does it belong?
What modern-day protest issues are most prevalent in music? Listen
to a RealAudio interview with a musician. What does he or she say
about politics and the political/social/cultural content of his
or her work? Do you think the musician places political considerations
before artistic ones — and is this an effective way to be
an artist? Does it make for good art? Why or why not?
|
Day Eight: Project Workday |
At the beginning of class, students will meet in
small groups to present their research from the previous day. Afterwards
they will have the remainder of the period to build their projects.
Students may meet with each other to discuss a shared issue or provide
feedback on their essay or work of art. I will circulate around
the room and meet with whoever needs assistance. Those students
who want to use a computer, either to word-process or conduct web
research, will be allowed to access the resource room or media lab.
I will remind students that their works of art must be ready for
presentation in two days — on Day Ten, the final day of the
unit. |
Day Nine: Protest and Free Speech |
Students will first read a short essay about “message
music” and social protest, written by Andrew Rosenthal and
posted to
his website that begins as follows: |
For many years, popular music has been
a forum for free speech. Ideas that might normally be censored by
other media can be expressed though the subtle art of pop-rock music.
Although the process of using songs as social protest took some
time to gain popularity, the songs that were produced contain a
great deal of emotion and important meaning, which can be delivered
to the listener through a variety of components. Among them are
the beat, the instruments, and, of course the lyrics. The song is
then used to enlighten its audience as to what the writer feels
is a problem in society. |
This essay will be juxtaposed with an article by
Brent Staples called “Corporate Radio Kills the Protest Music,”
available online at www.progress.org.
Staples argues that corporate control and consolidation of the airwaves
has also consolidated the message that “radio-friendly”
songs may communicate to listeners, limiting the range of topics
deemed acceptable by the hitmakers. For example: |
Pop music played a crucial role in America's debate
over the Vietnam War. By the late 1960s, radio stations across the
country were crackling with blatantly political songs that became
mainstream hits. After the National Guard killed four anti-war demonstrators
at Kent State University in Ohio in the spring of 1970, Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young recorded "Ohio," a song about the
horror of the event, criticizing President Richard Nixon by name.
The song was rushed onto the air while sentiment was still high,
and became both an anti-war anthem and a huge moneymaker. |
A comparable song about President George W. Bush's
rush to war in Iraq would have no chance today. There are plenty
of angry people, many with prime music-buying demographics. But
independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political
music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds
of stations and have no wish to rock the boat. |
After the students have read both articles, they
will free-write about their favorite radio stations. What type(s)
of music do they play? What period music do they play? What general
percentage of the broadcast is music vs. talk/advertisements? How
does their particular station rise above all the other competition?
What makes it the best? How often do they repeat songs? Is this
considered good or bad? Do they think the music is programmed locally
or nationally — why? Can they pick out a perspective or viewpoint
based on the selection of music? |
Next I will turn on the radio, so we can observe
and compare different stations. I will toggle between students'
favorite stations — including my own: independent Radio K
— soliciting opinions and observations about quality and quantity.
Does the music have a political component? If not, is this a political
statement as well, and for what? Should radio stations be accountable
for their choices? Do they have any responsibility to the society?
Should they? Is this a free speech issue at all? |
Finally students will meet in groups to design their
own “ideal” radio stations, ones that reflect what they
want from the medium. They will choose genres, sample playlists,
and format. (Is the morning show, for example, talk-based, humorous,
or music-only?) In addition they will consider their mission and
write an appropriate statement. What are their goals? This activity
will prompt them to think about how music is controlled and disseminated
through our culture, and how music is a product of consumer and
power relationships. Music is not unmediated — it is manufactured
and produced, filtered through a series of social, political, and
economic decisions. |
Day Ten: Performance and Presentation |
Students will present their works of protest art
— songs, poems, paintings or sculptures, etc. — to the
class. |
See also: Webquest:
Song of Revolution, Protest, and Solidarity
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