Partner Blog:
On page 13 Woodford says "What they elected for and what the public wanted, was polite music that was uncontroversial and guaranteed not to offend or ruffle anyone's feathers. Parents wanted this music in their schools because they believed that it led to social advancement, while music educators gained increased prestige through association with the upper class."
This really stuck with me. It got me to wondering, where should we as teachers stand on the line of uncontroversial music versus uncontroversial music? I mean, at one time "The Rite of Spring" was considered controversial, but it is still taught in schools. I guess what I'm asking is, how do you think we as music educators should handle music that could potentially be controversial but still holds content that we feel is academically and musically beneficial for our students?
posted by Caroline @ 10:46 AM
1 Comments:
This question reminds me of a lesson plan we wrote in CPII last semester, that used Reggaeton as a bridge to students' worlds. Dr. Abrahams showed us a video of Reggaeton videos that he had bought, with almost nude girls and very controversial lyrics. The thought of using this music in our classroom scared many of us. It was a very hard lesson plan for many of us westmsinster students to grasp. We have to remind ourselves though, that in some schools this is the music that students are listening to, whether or not we're teaching it. Popular music spreads like wildfire, as fads, no matter what the moral (or immoral) content is. For us to ignore that would be detrimental.
Also, like you were beginning to say with the "Rite of Sring" I think it's very important to show students that music has been controversial all throughout history, even classical music! This lesson started to excite me when I realized that I could use Reggaeton to show students that what they are listening to contains messages that have been around forever! Personally, I used Beethoven's "O Welche Lust" from "Fidelio" in my lesson plan as a "controversial" song. I connected the messages of protest in Beethoven's music to the messages of protest in the students' music. Hopefully, in the end, the students learned that the messages in music have not changed even though the language has, and the teachers have learned a lot more about the music that their students have listened to. This connects to what we have been talking about with bridging the gap between the students' world inside the classroom and out in the community.
Of course, this lesson only focuses on the idea of controversial lyrics. I guess that segment from the book doesn't specify what it is about the music that's controversial. I'm assuming he means the lyrics, because today there's not much about the actual music that could be controversial.
I guess that's a good thing as well. Since different genres of music like rap and hip hop have some songs with controversial lyrics as well as songs without! Imagine when all jazz music was considered immoral and sinful, and the way those children danced was just beyond comprehension! Kids today just aren't surprised easily, and as teachers we need to adapt that attitude. I know in reality there are administrators, parents, community attitudes to deal with as well, but hopefully they can see that this music should not be treated the way it is now. Controversial music is only controversial because we say it is. Yes, there are "bad words" in it, but there are those same bad words on daytime television, in movies, from friends, siblings, and in some cases coming from the parents. Students will be exposed to controversial material their whole lives, even at a very young age, and those students need to be taught how to handle this material and make a meaning out of it instead of acting on it. If we can teach that lyrics are just words, not a gospel, then we can stop blaming those lyrics on the horrible acts that occur (i.e. marilyn manson and school shootings). We talk about transformation between student AND teacher; it's just as important for students to learn about the music that is valued by the teacher as it is for the teacher to learn about the music that is valued by the students. To be afraid of that music, either because of prudence or "association with the upper class", is unacceptable. Hopefully the attitudes of those in power (administration, parents, etc.) can shift in the future so that we can truly bridge that gap in curriculum.
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