Last week, I taught my first History of Rock and Roll class at my former high school. About a month beforehand, I submitted the syllabus I devised and offered to do this because, as I’m sure the majority of other music-lovers feel, I think music education is extremely important. The first week was introductory in nature- I especially wanted to find out about what music my students already enjoyed and knew about, through class discussion and surveys I passed around.

Being 19 myself, there are, of course, still many more important recordings I have not heard and artists that I don’t know about, and definitely music students can introduce me to along the way! Dedicating each week to about one or two genres, with an just an hour and a half to discuss, play music, and watch videos of performances, it is more like a crash course than the in-depth experience a listener gets through individual appreciation, which I hope to lead my students towards.

Hey, wait a second! What gives a 19 year-old any right to be teaching rock history, you may ask? Whether one is streaming legally, downloading through iTunes, or accessing songs through more spurious sources, you have access to music in unprecedented volumes, thanks to the Internet, also a primary tool of the younger generation. It also helps if you were raised by parents who love and listen to a diverse array of music themselves, my mom being a fan of artists like Echo & the Bunnymen, Beastie Boys, Public Image, The Cars, and Jimi Hendrix, and my dad listening to the Residents, Funkadelic, Ween, Throbbing Gristle, Black Sabbath, and Syd Barrett. If you want to know about my taste, have a look at my Last.fm page. Plus, I’m trying to listen to the big 1,001 (600 down, 401 to go)!

In weekly installments, I will be covering at A Future in Noise what we are discussing and listening to in class.

Topics, artists/bands, and genres discussed and played included: the Delta Blues of the 30’s, 40’s blues players such as Muddy Waters, classic blues (Bessie Smith), early R&B, jazz (Miles Davis, John Coltrane), and blues-based 50’s rock like Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, and their influence on the 60’s British blues music revival (with bands like The Rolling Stones, Animals, Cream, etc.) and the American blues music revival (Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix). Students are assigned a compilation to listen to and write a commentary on the song of their choice.

Comments are much appreciated, especially to share suggestions for topics, artists to cover, and potential homework assignments!

Sample of Performances…
Billie Holiday - The Blues Are Brewin’
Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill

Miles Davis - Walkin’

John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom

Crossroads (Robert Johnson Cover) - Cream

Killing Floor - Jimi Hendrix


Note: I also plan on covering later blues-influenced artists like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, The White Stripes, and the Black Keys crossing into next week- stay tuned!