Music and Social
Studies Integration
Grade Level:
Target Concept:
National Standards:
 		 High school 
Social messages in music 
Listening to, analyzing, describing music; understanding music in relation to history and culture
Procedure:
  1. Question students about some of the purposes of music, particularly pop music. Students may suggest: to tell a story, to express romantic feelings for someone, to have something fun for dancing, and to make a movie or TV show more dramatic (soundtrack).
  2. Discuss with students music that intends to communicate a social message. That is, a song that gives a clear opinion about an issue that is important and even controversial to society.
  3. Play some recordings of pop music that have social messages. These examples should not be from students’ immediate generation, but should be fairly recent. Possible examples:
    • “In the Name of Love,” performed by U2 - references civil rights activism
    • “Greatest Love of All,” performed by Whitney Houston - promotes building self-esteem in children
    • “Papa Don’t Preach,” performed by Madonna - tells of a young unwed pregnant woman’s decision about her baby
  4. Before playing the examples, give students the task of determining the social message and writing down specific lyrics as their supporting evidence.
  5. Tell students that it has been suggested that pop music of today is much less socially oriented than that of previous generations. Solicit their opinions on this issue.
  6. Give students the following assignments for a subsequent class session: (1) Bring to class recordings of current pop music that can be analyzed by the class for social messages. (2) Informally interview their parents and grandparrents about the pop music of their generations, making note of the social issues that were commonly addressed in songs. If possible, students should bring recordings of their parents’ and grandparents’s music also.
  7. In that subsequent class session, listen to some of the recordings, again giving students the task of identifying the social messages in the music if there are such messages.
  8. Students can be further challenged to identify how musical elements other than lyrics (e.g., dynamics, timbres) support the communication of the social message.