Pop Culture: Music Roots Review & Country Vs. Hip-Hop

Music Roots.

Last week we used our time together to explore the roots of music. I  sketchnoted on the board while folks researched and we dug into musical etymology or the history of where contemporary music comes from.

Here are some of our sketchnotes from that experience.

Essentially we established that the rhythms and beats of contemporary western music originated mostly in the music of African and indigenous Latin and South American peoples, with melodies and instrumentation largely influenced by northern and eastern Europeans.

Out of Class Work from Last Week.

The homework for the weekend was to investigate the roots of a contemporary musical artist or band you enjoy and trace those roots back three generations -- not just three decades or three influences -- but three generations of sounds/styles/artists.  For example, we were able to trace Taylor Swift back to Tim McGraw (half-a-one) to Dolly Parton (two) to Hank Williams Sr (three) to Robert Johnson (four).   Create a playlist of those roots, embed that playlist on your blog and write or record an explanation of your findings.  Include links to any research you did -- Wikipedia articles, websites, conversations you had with fans, etc.

Pop Culture Lineage Project Shares.

We'll start our classes this week with a project share or two.  The one's I've seen so far are fantastic.

Country Vs. Hip Hop.

This week we'll take a look at two genres that seem -- at first glance -- to have more dissimilar than common. We'll look under the hoods of both and see if the branches of hip-hop and country are too far from their roots to be united again.

The graphic organizer for this work is in the Pop Culture 2016 Out folder in Google Drive and linked here as well.

Country vs. Hip-Hop


When you complete the graphic organizer, it should go in your Pop Culture IN folder on Google Drive so I can check out your rad thinking.

Out of Class Work.

To Be Announced.

It very much depends on how things go on Monday.  I have an idea and need to keep thinking.

Expect that there will be a blog post due by Friday and it will require creating something.