LibGuides: On the Road: 7-12 Land of Confusion: Rock Music & Social Change in the 1980s

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Land of Confusion: Rock Music & Social Change in the 1980s

Suggested Grade Level: 7-12

This research guide serves as a resource for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Education Department course, Land of Confusion: Rock Music & Social Change in the 1980s. For additional information on the course and for more teacher resources, see: http://rockhall.com/education/distance-learning/courses/LOC/

The history of rock and roll reflects diverse American experiences, protesting political problems and encouraging new visions for progress in our nation and around the world. This class studies social change in the United States in the 1980s, building upon the legacy of the 1960s counterculture, as exemplified in the 1986 song “Land of Confusion” performed by Genesis. Songs and music videos by artists such as Sting, Bruce Springsteen, USA for Africa, and Public Enemy will allow students to explore how musicians have questioned society and effected change with rock, pop, and hip-hop. Discussion topics, including the Cold War, fighting famine in Eastern African, and facing rising homelessness, allow students to understand how complicated problems often impact society.

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African American Music Reference
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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.
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For Your Students

Bruce Springsteen by Rae Simons
Call Number: ML420.S675 S56 2008
Bruce Springsteen's music deals with the plight of ordinary working people, whether they are cops and firefighters or road builders and steelworkers. His rock ballads give voice to ordinary people's triumphs and tragedies
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

Objectives

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

Give examples of ways musicians have used popular music to pose questions about society and suggest avenues for change.
Analyze the lyrics of songs that respond to social debates within the context of the Cold War, international responses to Ethiopian famine, and concerns about social class and race relations.
Explain how music and musicians both influence and are influenced by society and culture.

Books

1989 : Bob Dylan didn't have this to sing about by Joshua Clover
Call Number: ML3470 .C56 2009
In a tour de force of lyrical theory, Joshua Clover boldly reimagines how we understand both pop music and its social context in a vibrant exploration of a year famously described as “the end of history.” Amid the historic overturnings of 1989, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, pop music also experienced striking changes.
Hip Hop Movement: from R&B and the civil rights movement to rap and the hip hop generation by Reiland Rabaka
Call Number: ML3479 .R33 2013
The Hip Hop Movement offers a critical theory and alternative history of rap music and hip hop culture by examining their roots in the popular musics and popular cultures of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement.
Live Aid by Peter Hillmore; Bob Geldof
Call Number: ML36.L58 H55 1985
ISBN: 9780881010244
Story Behind the Protest Song by Hardeep Phull
Call Number: ML3551.5 .P48 2008
Story Behind the Protest Song features 50 of the most influential musical protests and statements recorded to date, providing pop-culture viewpoints on some of the most tumultuous times in modern history. Among the featured: songs about the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the most recent upheaval over policy in the Middle East, as well as teenage rebellion, animal rights, criticisms of mass media, and even protest songs that lambaste other protest songs
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution by Dick Weissman
Call Number: ML3917.U6 W45 2010
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution is a comprehensive guide to the relationship between American music and politics
When the Music's Over by Robin Denselow
Call Number: ML3916 .D46 1990
This book sets out to examine the history of post-war political pop from the McCarthy era to Live Aid and from Ewan MacColl to Red Wedge. The story includes the anti-communist witch-hunts of the 50s, the Civil Rights and Vietnam campaigns of the 60s, the Rock against Racism Movement of the 70s and the close connection between pop and politics in the Caribbean, Africa, Greece and Russia - areas where the authorities have often made it clear that they regard music as a potentially subversive force.

Audio

Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen
Call Number: CD SPRIN BORN 1984
Every breath you take; The singles by Police
Call Number: CD POLI EVER 1986
Fear of a Black Planet by Public Enemy
Call Number: CD PUBL-E FEAR 1990
Genesis, 1983-1998 by Genesis
Call Number: CDB GENE NINE-98 2007

Video

Under African Skies by Joe Berlinger
Call Number: BRD SIMO-P UNDE 2012
The gun is loaded by Merrill Aldighieri, Joe Tripician
Call Number: DVD LUNC GUN 2011
Rock Montreal and Live Aid by Queen
Call Number: DVD QUEE ROCK 2007

Online Resources

Music2Life - Music For Social Change Database
A moderated wiki tool for
exploring and sharing
music for social change
Music of Social Change

Archival Resources

New to Archives? Check out:

Amnesty International Tour
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this event.
Band Aid
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this group.
Concert for Bangladesh
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this event.
Farm Aid
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this group and annual event.
Free South Africa
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this movement and series of events.
Live Aid
This catalog search provides links to a variety of archival materials in our collections on this event.
ARC-0155 Rona Elliot Papers
The Rona Elliot Papers span the years 1963 to 2008. The collection consists of two series. Beyond research material, clippings, and notes used by Elliot during her career as music correspondent on the Today Show, featuring artists such as Joan Baez, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison; there is also a substantial amount of material on the Amnesty International "A Conspiracy of Hope" benefit concerts of 1986.
ARC-0493 Ken Regan Photographs
The Ken Regan Photographs consist of 375 black-and-white images of a variety of musical performers and events from 1960 to 2002, with the bulk of the photographs dating from 1968 to 1986. Ken Regan covered riots and demonstrations in the United States and abroad; created photo essays about gold mining in Brazil and poverty in Harlem; documented famine in Ethiopia and the social conditions in South Africa. He also did a great deal of work in politics, covering political conventions and campaigns for Newsweek and Time, and working extensively with the Kennedy family. Regan also toured with some of the most renowned musicians in rock and roll history. He was the official photographer George Harrison’s Benefit for Bangladesh and worked closely with renowned concert promoter Bill Graham and was the main photographer for Amnesty International and Live Aid.

YouTube Videos

Public Enemy, "Fight The Power"

Genesis, "Land of Confusion"

Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the USA"

Sting and Bruce Springsteen, "Every Breath You Take," live at Amnesty International, 1988

USA for Africa, "We Are the World" original music video, 1985

Free South Africa Hip-Hop Against Apartheid, "Ndodemnyama"