Educating Our Eagles - Issue 13

HIGH SCHOOL:
Identifying Musical Influence
Students enrolled in History of Pop Music were asked to choose any song that they
wanted to dive deeper into. They were tasked with completing a musical analysis
of their chosen song and identifying three other influential genres of music that
their chosen artist may have drawn from (as evidenced by a compare/contrast
between their chosen song and another artist from the influential genre of music).
Students were given the option to either complete a paper or a presentation in order to
share their findings with the class.
As a result of instruction, students will be able to:
• utilized their developed musical listening skills and music historical knowledge to
make connections between the influences of different genres of music.
Observations:
All of these students engaged in an analysis in some way. What was surprising, however,
is what the students chose to focus on in their analysis. Not all of the students in this class
identify as musicians. Those who do focused their analysis more on what they heard in the
musical aspects of the song (i.e. instruments, tempo, timbre, etc.), while those who do not
focused on other aesthetic aspects (i.e. lyrics, “vibes”, emotions they associate the song with,
etc.). While I was more expecting the former, the latter was a pleasant surprise that is just as
meaningful an analysis when it comes to diving deeper into music.
MA Standards:
Interpret Intent and Meaning in Artistic Work (F.M.R.08) and Synthesize and Relate
Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art (F.M.Co.10)