E-Seminar Summary

In Cultural Revolutions, the eighth of ten e-seminars in the series America Since 1945, Alan Brinkley discusses the turbulent years of the 1960s and the broad social changes that altered cultural and individual expression in American society. Professor Brinkley notes that during the 1960s "people in the rock-and-roll industry became overt allies of those seeking to challenge the norms of the traditional public world." While some rock artists were less iconoclastic than others, "both the defenders and the critics of rock music," according to Professor Brinkley, "saw clearly that many of the most popular rock musicians of the time were complicit in discrediting the public norm."

The First Lesson: Sixties Protest Music

The Goals of the Lesson

This teaching activity integrates music into the study of history. Rock and roll was a new art form in the 1960s, but the idea that music could be used to undermine traditional norms and institutions was nothing new. Throughout American history, music has been used in the expression of social and political protest. In this exercise, students can pursue one or two activities. In the first, students are taught to analyze the lyrics of the popular protest song "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" by Country Joe McDonald and the Fish. It is included as an excerpt in the document-based question (DBQ) Democracy: Limitations and Possibilities, in which students are asked to consider how foreign and domestic concerns drove the protest movements of the Sixties and influenced demands to expand democracy to underrepresented groups in America. Students will explore these issues as they are represented in the song.

In the second exercise, students are asked to examine protest music during different periods in American history. This second exercise puts the first exercise, on rock and roll, in historical perspective. By comparing various periods, students can determine how the rock-and-roll revolution of the 1960s was similar to and different from protest music of the past.

This teaching activity will teach students how to

• pose questions about a document's author, date, and publication
• identify the author's point of view
• determine the author's intended audience
• understand the author's purpose or agenda
• recognize the author's style and tone

Primary Sources to be Examined

• Protest Music for a New Generation, produced for All Things Considered, National Public Radio.
• Country Joe McDonald, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag."
• Strange Fruit, PBS.

Step 1: Sound Recording Analysis: NPR

Begin by listening to the audio clip Protest Music for a New Generation (March 2003), produced for the National Public Radio program All Things Considered. The clip runs for 8 minutes and 10 seconds and is available online at http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1212060.html. To protest the 2003 war in Iraq, Pete Seeger and other activists from the antiwar movement in the 1960s joined with a younger generation of musicians to hold a concert. The memories evoked at this gathering can help students understand the mindset of protesters in the 1960s.

Having your students listen to the audio clip in class can spark a discussion on three particularly engaging points. Each could probably occupy an entire class, so the teacher will need to make adjustments according to the time that is available. Before listening to the NPR clip, distribute a copy of the Sound Recording Worksheet, created by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Ask students to take notes while listening to the clip and to discuss the following guiding questions when they are done.

Guiding Questions: NPR

1. Does music reflect and follow cultural trends, or does it help drive them? For example, one interviewee says that the protest songs of the 1960s did little to change anyone's mind about the Vietnam War and other political issues. Can we argue that the same piece of music that reflects a composer's radical belief leaves a different impression on a young person's mind? You could ask your students to cite examples.
2. One commentator in the clip believes that today's media-savvy generation knows so much and has become so cynical that they cannot be easily swayed by protest songs. This argument will easily attract student interest and attention.
3. Also raised in the audio clip is the belief that today's youth lack an issue that can motivate them to mobilize, that they have no equivalent of the antiwar and civil-rights movements of the sixties. Ask your students to discuss whether any contemporary issues would motivate them to become political activists.

Step 2: Lyrics Analysis: Next Stop Vietnam

After discussing the major issues raised by the NPR clip, students can examine the lyrics of "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag." To guide them in their effort to consider the lyrics as an historical document, your students should fill out and discuss the NARA worksheet for document analysis. It is available online at http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/document.html.

In addition, ask your students to answer these three questions, which I developed to help them analyze the song. The questions can easily be adapted to other songs.

Guiding Questions: Lyrics

1. What issues are raised in the song?
2. To whom does the song appeal?
3. What reactions or emotions does the song elicit?

The Second Lesson: Protest Music in Historical Perspective

Step 1: Overview of Protest Music

In the next lesson, which could be conducted on the second day, students should go to the PBS program Strange Fruit (available at http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/protest.html), which provides an overview of protest music in American history. At the top of this informative, well-organized page is a section that is arranged chronologically and divided into eight subsections, each representing a historical period, from 1776–1830 (labeled "Slavery") to 2000–the present ("Message Music"). Each subsection contains a short overview of the music of the period, lyrics of representative songs, and the lyrics and an audio clip of a major musical piece that epitomizes the period. Again, ask your students to fill out the appropriate NARA worksheets on primary sources and to answer the same questions they answered when they were considering the Country Joe McDonald song.

Step 2: In-Class Discussion

Teachers facing time constraints could divide their students into groups, each to examine only one of the eight areas, and then report to their classmates on the main themes of the period. One way to use the PBS site to understand the DBQ Democracy: Limitations and Possibilities, which concerns the redefinition of democracy during the 1960s, is to ask students to explain how the song lyrics from each successive period represent an expansion of the ideals of American democracy. Teachers who have the luxury of longer blocks of time could have students assemble in groups, examine each of the eight chronological areas, and compile a greatest-hits list of protest music in American history.

This can lead to an analysis of the value of protest songs as historical sources. Students can identify particular songs and argue that certain evidence provided by those songs helped them understand a given time period. How representative of the spirit of a time period are songs? For example, to what degree can we understand the 1960s by studying protest songs? To what degree did the protest music of the decade reflect the larger tensions that existed between radicals and conservatives, the younger and older generations, men and women in American society? It might be helpful to students for them to discuss the music they listen to and to describe the reactions of their parents and elders. It is a topic about which students will undoubtedly have much to say.

Conclusion

Music has become thoroughly woven into the fabric of today's culture, and it is almost inevitable that students will enjoy listening to some particular type of music, and they will have a strong reaction to it even if they dislike it. Consequently, music can be an effective tool if it is adequately related to the study of history and society, as students are liable to find it more engaging than text documents. They can share it with their parents and elders, who in turn can offer them recollections of earlier eras, including the 1960s. Parents are often thrilled to be able to share in what their children are studying, and this lesson on music of the 1960s provides an excellent opportunity for promoting dialogue between generations, as parents recall how their own parents reacted to the music of what was then the younger generation.

Sources Used

• Protest Music for a New Generation (March 2003), produced for All Things Considered, National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1212060.html.
• Country Joe McDonald, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," music and lyrics written 1965, published by Alkatraz Corner Music, BMI (1977), http://www.countryjoe.com/feelmus.htm.
• Strange Fruit, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/protest.html.