PBS Soundbreaking, Lesson 1: Muddy Waters: The New Kid in Town

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In this lesson, students follow the life journey of Blues musician McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, from his early beginnings in rural Mississippi to his music career in Chicago, Illinois. In learning about Waters' life, students consider the ways new environments might inspire people to express themselves in different ways. Students then reflect on ways new experiences might have spurred their own personal growth by creating a life roadmap.

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PBS Soundbreaking, Lesson 20: The Cassette Tape Offers New Possibilities

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This lesson explores the possibilities created by the new technology of cassettes and how people made use of them. In many ways, the digital future and its interactive possibilities were prefigured by the cassette era. By viewing and discussing clips from Soundbreaking Episode Eight, students learn how the Grateful Dead allowed their fans to tape their concerts and freely trade cassettes of their recordings, a move that helped establish the group as innovators in how bands cultivate relationships with their fanbase. Students will also consider how the cassette allowed individuals to express themselves through the selection, sequencing and re-packaging of commercially released music. In the last part of the lesson, they will look at the Sony Walkman and related devices, the first portable cassette players that led toward the current age of iPods, Mp3 players, and other forms of personal digital listening devices, exploring a period in which the boundaries between "consumer" and "producer," and "fan" and "participant" began to erode, allowing even the casual music fan a degree of access to the creative process.

Material Type: Full Course

PBS Soundbreaking. Lesson 3: Learning Rhythm Through Gospel

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In this lesson, Gospel music is used as a way to introduce students to the rhythmic concepts of beat, meter, backbeat, subdivision, and syncopation. By clapping and counting along to videos of Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Staple Singers, and Beyonce, students practice hearing and identifying these various aspects of rhythm. Students will also use an interactive TechTool to gain a deeper understanding of the syncopated rhythms that allows Gospel, as well a popular music in general, inspire us to move.

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PBS Soundbreaking, Lesson 4: 100 Years of Dance:

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In this lesson, students investigate these questions by analyzing videos of dancing through the decades. With the help of a worksheet, student groups watch footage of the Charleston and Lindy Hop, the Mambo, "Love-in" dancing, Disco, and Break Dancing. Based on their informed observation of these styles, they then debate whether dance has "evolved" in American culture, or remained mostly the same.

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PBS Soundbreaking, Lesson 5: Producing the Sounds of a Changing South

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Taking Sam Phillips as a case study, this lesson explores the role of the producer in the recording studio as one defined by an ability to guide the recording process but also to affect the wider cultural context. After investigating what a producer does and why an artist might benefit from a producer's services, this lesson looks at the way Sam Phillips' approach in some ways reflects the trend of urbanization in the American South. Like Phillips, many of his artists came from rural backgrounds and were seeking the benefits of urban life. That move toward the urban, and the racial mixing it fostered, was almost encoded in the music, as the lesson activities will illuminate. Finally, the lesson looks at Phillip's guidance of a young Elvis Presley and suggests how the music they produced created an opening for African-American music to "crossover" into mainstream American popular music.

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PBS Soundbreaking, Lesson 6: The Many Roles of a Music Producer

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Phil Spector and George Martin both created defining sounds of the 1960s, but, inevitably, as music and culture changed, so too did some musicians' ideas about allowing producers to exert control over their music. Some of the Singer-Songwriters of the early 1970s, such as Joni Mitchell, accepted little or no input from producers, focusing on the clarity and directness of the lyrics with sometimes minimal musical accompaniment. In the latter part of this lesson, students use a handout with information about both Betty Friedan's seminal The Feminine Mystique and events in 1960s Second-Wave Feminism as a backdrop by which to consider Joni Mitchell's decision to "self-produce"in the early 1970s.

Material Type: Full Course

Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History, Lesson 3. Kanye and Katrina: Environmental Racism in New Orleans

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Students will analyze demographic data, and watch footage from CNN's Soundtrakcs series and a congressional hearing after the disaster to better understand the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina, and the way the federal government's response brought to light issues of racial neglect. Students will also invesitgate how Kanye West's comments during a national fundraiser articulated the disappointment and anger many black American's felt following Hurricane Katrina.

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Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History, Lesson 4. 9/11: Country Music Reponds

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Students will examine the lyrics and context surrounding three country songs related to the 9/11 attacks: Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" Brooks and Dunn's "Only in America," and Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." Through the lens of these songs, they consider ways Americans reacted to the tragedy of September 11th, and discuss whether some reactions might be more appropriate than others.

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Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History, Lesson 5. What Walls Can't Hold Back: Musical Resistance in Cold War Berlin

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In this lesson, students will consider how Germans resisted what the Berlin Wall symbolized during the Cold War by examining the musical cultures that developed in East and West Germany. To do this, students will watch clips from CNN Soundtracks and analyze primary and secondary historical sources such as newspaper articles, cartoons, interviews, and photographs.

Material Type: Full Course

Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History, Lesson 6. Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War

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In this lesson, students examine how Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "Ohio," Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" and Edwin Starr's "War" articulated the divisive feelings Americans had about the war in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To supplement these songs, students will also watch clips from CNN Soundtracks and analyze polling data, news articles, and photographs from the era.

Material Type: Full Course

Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History, Lesson 7. Debating the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

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Students will watch clips from CNN's Soundtracks to identify historic details of NASA's Apollo program. Students will then identify poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron's critical view of the Apollo program through his song, "Whitey On The Moon" and participate in a structured academic controversy activity to debate the controversy of the program.

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Sountracks: Songs That Defined History, Lesson 11. the Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States

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Students will consider how Germans resisted what the Berlin Wall symbolized during the Cold War by examining the musical cultures that developed in East and West Germany. To do this, students will watch clips from CNN Soundtracks and analyze primary and secondary historical sources such as newspaper articles, cartoons, interviews, and photographs.

Material Type: Full Course

Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid, Part One: Apartheid in South Africa

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In Part One of this lesson, students are introduced to apartheid in South Africa. They watch clips from Steven Van Zandt and Arthur Baker's Sun City documentary to learn about apartheid, and attempt to experience what life might have been like during apartheid through a classroom activity. Then, students consider ways in which apartheid could be fought, and whether elements of apartheid in South Africa also existed in the history of the United States.

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Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid, Part Two: Steven Van Zandt and Artists United Against Apartheid

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In Part 2 of this lesson, students view clips from the Sun City documentary and explore how musicians united to challenge apartheid. In a group setting, students will consider the various strategies activists, corporations, and other governments used to isolate the South African government and hasten the end of apartheid. Finally, students consider how apartheid relates to segregation in the United States.

Material Type: Full Course