I have started thinking about this topic as Jabiz is exploring the topic on his new ‘Intrepid Classroom’. See the blog here, and the Ning here. Check out the conversations that have been happening there, it will be worth your while. Music and politics is a topic I’ve always been engaged in, in fact, my music listening is political. I don’t see much of a distinction or difference.
So I thought I’d take you through a couple of musicopolitical connections that I have been pondering lately. First of all, the title of this post comes from the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopcrisy song of the same name. The Disposable Heroes are a previous incarnation of Michael Franti and some members of Spearhead. If you haven’t yet discovered their music, you need to do so here.
Today in class, we continued our work on political cartoons. The students are really into it, and I’ve spent more time on the topic than I originally intended. We started off by talking about stereotypes, and how these are used in caricature. Some of the stereotypes that they came up with included bogans, emos, yobboes, migrants and blondes. This is pretty easy for secondary students to do, their social lives are sometimes dictated by stereotypes. We then talked about the features of politicians that are exaggerated for caricature, including Kevin Rudd’s spectacles, Julia Gillard’s nose, John Howard’s eyebrows, and of course, Peter Garrett’s head.
National Museum of Australia – Seen to be green
Some of the cartoons that we were looking at today were satirising the Australian Labor MP Peter Garrett, previously the lead singer of the Australian band Midnight Oil. Many claim that by becoming involved in party politics he sold out on his old ideals (Many Oils lyrics were about indigenous rights, uranium mining, environmentalism, etc). Very interesting discussions here – is music politically involved? Is it party-political?
Some of the students needed Peter Garrett put in context – they knew him as a Labor MP, but hadn’t heard Midnight Oil’s music, and weren’t aware of his role immediately before entering politics as President of the Australian Conservation Foundation. So, recognising the teachable moment, I fired up my laptop and portable speakers, and we listened to ‘Beds Are Burning’ and ‘Power and the Passion’.
Still on the theme of music and politics, Number 2 on our ARIA charts last week was a remix of Paul Kelly & Kev Carmody’s song ‘From Little Things, Big Things Grow’, performed by the Get Up Mob, re-released to acknowledge the Australian government’s apology to the Stolen Generation of indigenous peoples. It gives me shivers.
I think that now, as I am about to move with this class from political cartoons and persuasive language into a unit on poetry, I can see a convergence emerging. Other political artists that I enjoy include Ani DiFranco, John Butler Trio, Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine. ‘Do yourself a favour’ and check them out. One of my students also mentioned Green Day as political. Note that note all of those artists’ lyrics are ‘student appropriate’.Happy listening!
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I am so glad you are getting involved with the IntrepidClassroom, I plan to “cover” all the artists you mentioned. I have seen both Ani Difranco and Rage Against the Machine several times live and am a huge fan of both.I have just recently discovered Franti and I love him. I just watched his film I Know I am Not Alone and cried through the whole thing.
I hate to sound like a gushing teen ager, but I am really glad we met. I foresee us doing some great things togther with our students…Feel free to speak in the Ning and get involved. I know some of the kids from past classes, but many of them I have never met.
Peace
ps. The way to fix your blog back is to remove the video, then code to the code page, paste it back in and hit Publish immediately without going back to visual or doing anything else. If that doesn’t work, I got help from Sue Waters http://twitter.com/dswaters
This sounds really interesting. I would love to hear more about where your students take this. It is NZ Music month at the moment, as part of this I am looking at NZ music and elements or themes that feature in NZ music such as belonging and environment and how they motivate. I hope it goes well and I look forward to reading more!
Oh also.. another group is Dead Prez. They are a vegan hip hop group who musically spread the message of veganism/animal rights. They do a great track based on Orson Wells Animal Farm (called Animal Farm). You’ll need to check the lyrics before sharing with students though!