American Music Genres
| | Purpose: | As a result of this activity, students will understand the origins, distinctive musical elements, and musicians associated with American music genres and how American music genres are different and similar. | | Related Standard & Benchmarks: | | Music | | | Standard 7. | Understands the relationship between music and history and culture | | | | | Level IV [Grade 9-12] | | | | | Benchmark 2. Knows sources of American music genres (e.g., swing, Broadway musical, blues), the evolution of these genres, and musicians associated with them |
| | Language Arts | | | Standard 4. | Gathers and uses information for research purposes | | | | | Level IV [Grade 9-12] | | | | | Benchmark 2. Uses a variety of print and electronic sources to gather information for research topics (e.g., news sources such as magazines, radio, television, and newspapers; government publications and microfiche; databases; field studies; speeches; technical documents; periodicals; Internet sources, such as web sites, podcasts, blogs, and electronic bullentin boards) |
| | Language Arts | | | Standard 1. | Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process | | | | | Level IV [Grade 9-12] | | | | | Benchmark 7. Writes expository compositions (e.g., synthesizes and organizes information from first- and second-hand sources, including books, magazines, computer data banks, and the community; uses a variety of techniques to develop the main idea [names, describes, or differentiates parts; compares or contrasts; examines the history of a subject; cites an anecdote to provide an example; illustrates through a scenario; provides interesting facts about the subject]; distinguishes relative importance of facts, data, and ideas; uses appropriate technical terms and notations) |
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| | Student Product: | An expository composition | | Material & Resources: | The following websites contain information about different music genres and might be helpful in completing this task:
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/music/web/
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http://www.music.indiana.edu/muslib.html | | Teacher's Note: | Teachers should provide audio examples of different American music genres for students. | | Activity | | Students compile a list of American music genres (e.g., swing, Broadway musical, blues, jazz). After listening to representative examples of each style, students will choose three genres and compare them in terms of their origins, and their distinctive musical elements (e.g., pitch, rhythm, harmony, dynamics [degree of loudness], timbre [the quality of a sound that distinguishes one instrument, voice or sound source from another], texture [the result of combining individual instruments and/or their sounds], form [structural organization such as AB, ABA]). Students compare these genres in terms of the representative musicians associated with them as well. Using a variety of sources, students prepare a written composition in which they discuss the similarities and differences among these musical genres. | |
