History of Rock and Roll Lesson 1/30/15

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How did changes in the Soul music of the early 1970s reflect broader shifts in American society during that time?

OVERVIEW

The early 1970s were an unsettling time in America.  The nation was divided about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and Americans were still reeling from the 1968 assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.  Race riots in cities like Watts, Newark, and Detroit indicated a high level of tension and frustration. During the Civil Rights movement, African Americans had fought hard for equal rights, but in the early 1970s, many of those rights were still unrealized.  Not surprisingly, the Soul music of this era, according to Hip Hop pioneer Chuck D, was “darker,” reflecting national tensions. 

Motown recording artist Marvin Gaye addressed some of these realities with his album What’s Going On, speaking directly about Vietnam and the political upheaval of the time.  Meanwhile, Curtis Mayfield, who with his group The Impressions had recorded the hopeful Civil Rights-era anthem “People Get Ready,” began producing new songs that captured the raw facts of ghetto life.  When Mayfield released the soundtrack album for the movieSuper Fly in 1972, it seemed to epitomize the direction in which music was moving.  The age of Funk was coming. “The groove was so thick you had to get with it,” recalls Chuck D.  Though Hip Hop would not enter the picture until the late 1970s, this period of “Social Soul” in the early 1970s was planting the seeds for Hip Hop’s deep groove and social awareness.
In this lesson, students will examine photographs, live recordings, video interviews, and a government report in order to learn about the historical and cultural context of the Soul music recorded in the 1970s.

Activity #1 

Marvin Gaye was a celebrated Motown recording artist who pushed musical boundaries during his career.  An extended Marvin Gaye biography is available on our site.  You will be listening to two songs from Marvin Gaye, and carefully analyzing the lyrics to those songs.  

1. Play “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” released in 1964, and “What's Going On” released in 1971.

2. Carefully read  Handout 2: Marvin Gaye Lyric Comparison 

• Compare and contrast the two songs.  Are they similar in any way (e.g. vocals by the same artist, recorded for the same label)?  How are they different?  Think about their musicality, along with their message and tone.
• Note the dates the songs were released.  Can you identify any historical events that transpired took place in between the release of these two songs? 

Activity #2 

In this lesson, you will examine photographs, live recordings, video interviews, and a government report in order to learn about the historical and cultural context of the Soul music recorded in the 1970s.

1. Carefully study the photographs by clicking on the following link
2. On looseleaf, or in your notebooks, carefully answer the following questions, as contained in the following worksheet. 
3. Write a reflection, based on the following questions: 

• Are there any historical events that you learned about for the first time today?  Are there any events from the late 1960s that surprised you?
• Which photograph has the biggest impact on you and why?
• What common themes could you come up with in your groups?  How are these stations related, if at all?

History of Rock and Roll Lesson 1/26/15 and 1/28/15

"Say it Out Loud."

Today's lesson focuses on the evolution, and growth of "soul music" in the late 1960's and 1970's.

Please click here for a link to today's lesson.  You may answer the questions on looseleaf, or download the file to your google docs file.  Please finish the assignment by the end of the period.  If you do not finish by the end of the period, you must finish the assignment for HW, and email it to me, at michael.tesler@wjps.org.  Thanks!

Day 2: 1/28/15 
1. Read  Handout 2: Biography of James Brown
2. Answer the questions below.  You may answer them on looseleaf, or create a google doc.

1. According to the author, what effect did the release of “Say It Loud” have on Brown’s career? How did Brown react? 
2. Why do you think it was important for Brown to make this record? Why was it important for the African-American community at that time?

3. Play the video James Brown, "Man to Man,"
4 . After watching the video, answer the questions below.  

• How does the audience react when Brown says, "I'm a man, a black man, a soul brother?"
• Does Brown seem to be conveying the same message that Smokey Robinson did in his interview? How is his message different?
• What do you think Brown means by saying he is struggling against the old "colored man" and replacing him with a "black" man?  
• How does Brown see his responsibility as an artist? Does he feel he has a particular responsibility to the African-American community? 
• Based on the song, the reading, and the video, how would you summarize the way Brown feels about himself as an African American?  

Day 3: 1/29/15
1. Play the video video of the interview with singer Harry Belafonte in 1967 and discuss:

• What is Belafonte's attitude toward the African-American community? How is his message similar to that of James Brown?
• Do Brown and Belafonte see themselves purely as entertainers? Do they see themselves as people whose job it is to simply make music to entertain African Americans and whites alike?  How does being African American influence the way they see themselves and their roles in society?
• How might the attitudes of Brown and Belafonte have been influenced by challenges to the Civil Rights movement and historical events between the early 1960s, when Motown and artists such as Smokey Robinson began recording, and the later 1960s, when dissatisfaction in the African-American community escalated into riots in places such as Los Angeles, California, and Newark, New Jersey, and the more militant political messages of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers became more popular? 

2. Read  Handout 3: Poetry Excerpts from Amiri Baraka and Nikki Giovanni

• What are the similarities between the poems and “Say It Loud.”
• What do you notice about the language and style of the two poems, as well as the language and style of the lyrics to “Say It Loud?" 
• Based on the language and style of the poems, and well as the language and style of "Say It Loud," what can you conclude about African-American self-expression?

3. Review the picture of  Diana Ross and the Supremes from 1966.  Compare it to a picture of Ms. Ross from 1968, 

• What conclusions can they draw from this dramatic change in Ross's look?

History of Rock and Roll Lesson 1/9/15

Learning Target: I will understand how artists have used musical events to promote change. 

In this lesson, we will investigate ways in which artists including George Harrison, Bob Geldof, and others drew on the experiences of the 1960s to harness the inherent power of musical performance to promote awareness and encourage activism. Students will look at the messages, methodologies, and historical contexts of both the Concert for Bangladesh and Live Aid and will refer to these events to develop a proposal for a benefit performance of their own.

Procedure: Here's what you have to do.  

1. Among the most celebrated examples of protest events is the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.  View the clip of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering the “I Have a Dream” speech. The March on Washington was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in the history of the United States. Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 to 300,000.  Based on the clip, and your knowledge of history, answer the questions below, in your notebooks.

• Why was the March on Washington such an effective and memorable protest event? 
• How do you think attending an event like this would have felt? How would it have felt watching it on television?
• Do you think most of marchers and speakers shared a similar set of values?

2.  Carefully study the  images of the March on Washington (1963) and the  Woodstock Festival (1969).  Then, answer the questions below in your notebooks. 

• What do you notice about these images? 
• What do they have in common?
• What are some reasons people might have attended the March on Washington?
• What are some reasons people might have attended Woodstock? How might their reasons have been different than those of the marchers?
• Think back to the phrase used to advertised the festival – “Three Days of Peace and Music.” What kind of political values do you think the attendees of Woodstock might have shared?
• What does the photo of the Woodstock suggest about the popularity of live Rock and Roll music in 1969?

3.  Carefully watch the railer for the Concert for Bangladesh (1971).  George Harrison was a former member of the Beatles. This video is from a year after the Beatles broke up at the height of their popularity in 1970. Discuss as a class:

• At the beginning of the clip, how does George Harrison respond to the reporter who asks “Of all of the enormous problems in the world how did you choose this one to do something about?”
• While not shown in the clip we just watched, Harrison also said the following statement at the press conference announcing the Concert for Bangladesh:

“Ravi [Shankar] came to me and he said if he was to do a concert, maybe play to so many thousand people, but to the size of the problem, the money, the funds that would be made would just be so small. So that’s where I came on. I can generate money by doing concerts and by making albums.”

• As a former Beatle, why was Harrison such a valuable spokesperson?

History of Rock n Roll Lesson 1/7/15

1. Please watch clips of Vietnam War protests from 1969, which are taken from unedited, behind-the-scenes footage. 
• Write a short description of what appears to be going on in each segment of the video 
• note when and how music is used by the protestors.
2. While the nature and visibility of protests changed, antiwar sentiment itself was not new in the 1960s. 
1. listen to recordings of two popular songs from the World War I era, “Over There” (1917) and “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915). Then, answer the questions below. 
1. How do the two songs present contrasting views toward the war? 
2. Which is more like the Saturday Evening Post cover in the motivational activity? 
3. Which has more in common with the protest songs of the 1960s?