Popular Music in the Classroom

David Whitt is a professor of communication studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. He teaches mass media, persuasion, communication in the professions, and has taught courses on Star Trek, comic books, and the Irish rock group U2.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction (David Whitt)Part 1: Popular Music History and GenresHighway 61: Alan Lomax and the Mythology of the Road in American Folk Music (Raymond Blanton)“There is no revolution without songs”: Teaching Latin American Resistance Music in the Spanish Curriculum (Eunice Rojas)Teaching the Music of Sunshine and Noir California: From “California Dreamin’” to “Straight Outta Compton” (Shawn Schwaller)Remembering Tomorrow: Exploring the Deeper Transatlantic Story of the Birth of the Psychedelic Sixties (Tom Zlabinger)Globalizing Jamaican Music: From Reggae to New Wave (William M. Knoblauch)Teaching Black Music as a Living Tradition: Pedagogically Connecting the Past to the Present (Justin Patch)Part 2: Artists and Icons Good Rockin’ in the Classroom: Teaching Elvis Presley and Popular Music (Jay Scott Chipman)Teaching the Beatles! (Jeff Mohr)People, Hell and Angels: The Sociocultural Contributions to the Rise and Demise of Jimi Hendrix (Ignatius Calabria)Songs of Ascent: Teaching the History, Music and Activism of U2 (David Whitt)Part 3: Popular Music Analysis and Other Instructional ToolsMusical Identities: Teaching Race, Class and Gender Through Popular Music (James L. Deys and Jacob A. Dickerson)Patriarchy, ­Cross-Dressing, Agency and Violence: Women and the Pedagogical Opportunities in Heavy Metal (Daniel Guberman)Music and Protest: Dissecting and Creating Social and Political Music (Michael W. McFarland)Can ­Bro-Country Kill Your Parents? Using Shifting Musical Taste to Explore the Relationship of Youth and Parent Cultures (Charles R. Warner)Game-Based Learning in the Popular Music Classroom (Brian Robison)About the ContributorsIndex

“This timely compilation shows the part popular music plays in globalization, political resistance, and activism, and how it is relevant to broad issues surrounding race, class, and gender. Many of the lessons Whitt includes can be used for online projects for individual students, or as units for social science, communication, and music history courses. …A fun read and a useful, in-depth resource…. Recommended”—Choice