LibGuides: On the Road: 4-8/9-12 Great Moments in Rock and Roll: Popular Music Through Decades

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Great Moments in Rock and Roll: Popular Music Through Decades

Suggested Grade Level: 4-8 / 9-12

This research guide serves as a resource for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Education Department course, Great Moments in Rock and Roll: Popular Music Through the Decades . For additional information on the course and for more teacher resources, see http://rockhall.com/education/distance-learning/courses/GMIR/

Take a journey through the second half of the twentieth century by exploring some of the great moments in rock and roll history. Students will actively participate in discussions about shifting cultural values, conceptions of equality, and political activism. Students in grades 4-8 will enjoy historical moments such as Elvis Presley’s first national television appearance in 1956, the Beatles first American performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, and the birth of MTV in 1981. Students in grades 9-12 enjoy Jimi Hendrix at the 1969 Woodstock music and arts festival, a Blondie performance at the legendary Studio 54 in New York City, and the fusion of rock and hip-hop in the 1986 video “Walk This Way.”

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Databases

These research databases can be accessed within the Library and Archives.

Academic Search Complete
This scholarly collection offers full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic and multicultural studies, food science and technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields.
African American Music Reference
African American Music Reference brings together 50,000 pages of text reference, biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner notes, and discographies which chronicle the diverse history and culture of the African American experience through music. The database is constantly expanding to include comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.
American Song
Hear and feel the music from America's past right up to recent additions including Motown, Jimi Hendrix, the Mamas and the Papas, and other artists from the rock era. There are songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys; songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War; and every great American genre is here—from folk and blues to country, gospel, and rock.
Newspaper Source
Selected full text for 28 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Toronto Star, etc. Also contains selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, The San Jose Mercury News, etc. In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
Popular Culture explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. The resource offers thousands of color images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera, and memorabilia from this exciting period in our recent history. The Library and Archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum contributed over 7,000 items from its collections to the project. The database allows you to explore an interactive chronology to learn a wealth of fascinating facts, take a tour of the site's visual resources, and watch video footage to experience the spectacular sights and sounds of the period for yourself.

For Your Students

Aerosmith by Ethan Schlesinger
Call Number: ML421.A37 S35 2008
Here you'll read about the group's formation, its members, and its near self-destruction.
The History of American Pop by Stuart A. Kallen (Editor)
Call Number: ML3477 .K35 2012
Examines the rich history of the American pop genre of music and discusses innovators who shaped the style, form, and content of the music
Jimi Hendrix by Rita J. Markel
Call Number: ML420.H46 M37 2001
Discusses the childhood, young adulthood, musical career, and death of Jimi Hendrix, considered by many to be the world's greatest rock-and-roll guitarist
Play It Loud! by Sara Gilbert; Kathleen Baxter (Consultant Editor); Alexa L. Sandmann (Consultant Editor)
Call Number: ML3916 .G55 2010
Describes the history of music, focusing on 20th and 21st century movements in popular music, groundbreaking musicians of the time period, and how music has influenced social, political, and cultural change
Rock 'n Roll by Hal Marcovitz
Call Number: ML3534 .M369 2003
Traces the evolution of rock music, from Les Paul in the 1950s through the Beatles and Beach Boys to MTV and Live-Aid concerts
Shake, Rattle and Turn That Noise Down! by Mark Alan Stamaty
Call Number: ML429.S73 A3 2010
Recounts the author's childhood determination to emulate Elvis Presley after being inspired by the iconic artist's music, describing how he drove his mother crazy while perfecting his Elvis-style dancing and singing before performing in a talent show
The story of rock music by Steve Rosen
Call Number: ML3534 .R674S8 2009
Turn it up and play it loud in this thrilling book about rock music! Read all about your favorite rock ‘n’ roll bands and musicians in this brand new title, complete with full color photographs and in-depth reviews of the rock heroes of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The Woodstock Story Book by Barry Z. Levine (Photographer); Linanne G. Sackett; Wavy Gravy (Foreword by)
Call Number: ML38.W66 S23 2009
Along with 240 full-color photographs, the text by Linanne G. Sacket presents a chronological account of this historical event, capturing the performers, personalities, audience, excitement, mood, and actions.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! by Bob Spitz
Call Number: ML421.B438 S6945Y4 2007
In Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!, Spitz recreates the thrills, tears and magic of his New York Times bestselling adult biography, but in a style and format that's accesible for young readers. This book includes photos, sidebars and graphic elements. It's a book about teens who changed the world.

Objectives

These resources, pulled from class discussion and selected from the Library and Archives' collections, will help you to:

Grade Level 4-8

Give examples of how rock and roll music reflects and/or shapes important historical changes that
impacted American society in each decade from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Identify the similarities and differences in rock and roll’s great moments through the decades
Analyze basic musical characteristics in various styles of popular music.

Grade Level 9-12

Analyze basic characteristics in the lyrics, instrumentation, and formal aspects of various styles of
popular music.
Give examples of how rock and roll music reflects and/or shapes important historical changes that
impacted American society in each decade from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Identify the similarities and differences in rock and roll’s great moments through the decades

Books

'60's People by Jane Stern
Call Number: E169.12 S74S59 1990
The 1960s left an indelible mark on all who lived through them - and lots who didn't. By looking beyond the front-page headlines, the Sterns give us a brave new slant on a time that was as comical as it was consequential.
The Fifties by David Halberstam
Call Number: E169.Z8 .H35 1993
The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the ten years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today.
I Want My MTV by Craig Marks; Rob Tannenbaum
Call Number: PN1992.8.M87 M37 2011
In their 2011 book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, authors Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum revisit the “golden age” of music videos, from 1981 to 1992, based on interviews with more than 400 people.
In the Seventies by Barry Miles
Call Number: HM647 .M55 2011
In The Seventies tells the story of London and New York during the decade that is often written off as one long hangover after the exuberance of the sixties.
Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
Call Number: E185.615 .K87 2013
Can a song change a nation? In 1964, Marvin Gaye, record producer William "Mickey" Stevenson, and Motown songwriter Ivy Jo Hunter wrote "Dancing in the Street." The song was recorded at Motown's Hitsville USA Studio by Martha and the Vandellas. Released on July 31, the song was supposed to be an upbeat dance recording--a precursor to disco, a song about the joyousness of dance, the song of a summer. But events overtook it, and the song became one of the anthems of American pop culture.
Rock and Roll Year by Year by Luke Crampton; Dafydd Rees
Call Number: ML3534 .C73 2005
From Abba to ZZ Top, from the birth of rock and roll in the 50's to the hybrid music of the present day, Rock & Roll Year By Year is the definitive guide to the music that influenced generations and helped shaped history.
The Rockin' Fifties by Arnold Shaw
Call Number: ML3534 .S53 1987
The decade that transformed the pop scene, the 1950s, are here recreated in an authoritative history.
The Seventies by Ashley Kahn (Editor); Holly George-Warren (Editor); Shawn Dahl (Editor)
Call Number: E169.12 .R655 1998
"Rolling Stone - the magazine that defined the Seventies has reassessed the important events, people and ideas of that decade with intriguing eyewitness reports and analysis in seventy insightful essays, one hundred evocative photos and a comprehensive ten-year timeline."

Audio

Aerosmith's greatest hits by Aerosmith
Call Number: CD AERO AERO-G 1986
Autoamerican by Blondie
Call Number: CD BLOND AUTO 2001
Elvis, the king of rock 'n' roll: the complete 50's masters by Elvis Presley
Call Number: CDB PRES-E ELVI-KI 1992
Live at Woodstock by Jimi Hendrix
Call Number: CD HENDR LIVE-WO 1999
Please please me by the Beatles
Call Number: CD BEAT PLEA 2009
Raising hell by Run-DMC
Call Number: CD RUN-D RAIS 2005

Video

The 4 complete Ed Sullivan shows starring the Beatles: and other artists, including original commercials and more by Tim Kiley
Call Number: DVD BEAT FOUR 2010
1968 with Tom Brokaw by History Channel
Call Number: DVD VAR NINETE 2008
Blondie 1978
Call Number: DVD BLOND BLOND-1978 2006
Elvis '56 by Alan Raymond
Call Number: DVD PRES-E ELVI-F 1999
1956 was Elvis Presley's breakthrough year, and this program takes you back, including his early television performances on the Dorsey Brothers Show and the Ed Sullivan show, and an entire hour of rare footage and performances captured during the amazing year when Elvis Presley became not only a star, but a phenomenon
Run-DMC: together forever : greatest hits 1983-2000
Call Number: DVD RUND TOGE 2000
Woodstock : 3 days of peace and music by Michael Wadleigh
Call Number: DVD COLL WOOD 2009
The entire performance of every artist was filmed at Woodstock. This footage has been archived since that history-making weekend and has only recently been re-discovered. Never before has the complete performance been shown, before now

Archival Resources

New to Archives? Check out:

Beatles 1964
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this artist.
Blondie
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this artist.
Elvis Presley
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this artist.
Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this artist.
MTV
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this company.
Run-D.M.C.
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this group.
VH1
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this company.
ARC-0221 MTV Networks VH1 Video
MTV Networks VH1 Video span the years 1993 to 2002 and contains over 300 Betacam SP videocassette copies of television shows featured on the MTV Network channel VH1. Programs represented in the collection include 20 to 1, All Access, Behind the Music, Duets, Fan Club, Legends, One to One, Presents the 70’s, RockStory, Storytellers, and Video Timeline. The videos provide rich insight into VH1's attempts to expand its programming during the 1990s, and offer a glimpse into the documentation of rock and pop music history during time.

Online Resources

Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music
Pop music scholar Reebee Garofalo developed a chart that visually demonstrates the roots of rock and roll through the 1970s.
Rock Hall Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll
This app allows you to explore the history of rock, starting with the 1920s through 2000 by decade, artist, and song title.