Music as Resistance

Grade Level: 11-12th grade

Technology Content Standard Addressed: Global Collaborator #7a: Students use digital tools
to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging with them in ways
that broaden mutual understanding and learning.
Other Content Addressed: Facilitator #6d: Model and nurture creativity and creative
expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.
Objective: Students will learn how music has played a part in cultural resistance and protest in
the United States. Students will then apply knowledge learned and be able to identify it in current
history.
Material Needed: Computer, YouTube Access, Headphones, Printed Lyrics of featured songs,
Student Access to Wi-Fi available devices (tablets and/or chrome books)
Suggested Group Size: Students in groups of 2 or 3
Procedures:
- Have a class discussion as to what they think “Music as Resistance.” (10-15 mins)
o If discussion stalls bring up the 60s – 70s protest era
- Show students the Vox video on “The Evolution of American Protest Music”
- Have student get in groups, provide electronic devices with musical content, and assign a
song to each group to analyze. 5 songs will be rotated (Please click here to be directed to
the YouTube Playlist)
o Freedom Is Free – Chicano Batman
o Just A Girl – No Doubt
o Wave of History – Downtown Boys
o Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday
o The Message – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
- Have group complete worksheet with short answers and present to class with their
findings.
o Here we will be able to see comprehension and critical thinking skills.
o This allows for further classroom instruction and discussion

Assessment: This will be graded on participation. This project is to barely cover the surface to a
bigger lesson plan where the educator will teach Social Justice Movements through music
specifically from 1940-now. Main priority with this lesson is to get the student to think about
how other methods might possibly be used to express resistance that they have not expected.
 Name:____________________
Date:_____________________
Class: ____________________

Music As Resistance
Song:

What are your thoughts on why this song was written?

How did this parallel what social issues were present in that time?

What songs have inspired you to think about social issues that have happened in the present or
future?

How do you feel about this platform being used for social change?
 And while I'm here on earth I'll rejoice in
Freedom Is Free this world
Chicano Batman
Cause

Nobody likes you Freedom is free

Nobody cares Freedom is free

Nobody wants you And you can't take that away from me

Nobody cares You got your guns up on display

To extend a greeting aid But you can't control how I feel, no way

Connecting lands Cause

Life is just a jaded game to them Freedom is free

They won't give it a chance And that's the way it's always gonna be

But you know when I know Freedom is free

That the galaxies are all around us Cause no amount of negativity can put a

And life will flow on as long as the grass dent in me

grows and the water runs Freedom is free

And while I'm here on earth I'll rejoice in Freedom is free

this world Freedom is free

Cause Freedom is free

Freedom is free Freedom is free

Freedom is free Freedom is free

And you can't take that away from me

Just a Girl
You got your guns up on display
No Doubt
But you can't control how I feel, no way
Cause
Freedom is free Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
Freedom is free I'm exposed and it's no big surprise
And you can't take that away from nobody
Don't you think I know exactly where I
Because the ocean is all around us
stand?
And life will flow on as long as there are
ripples on the waves and sunrays from the This world is forcing me to hold your hand
sun
'Cause I'm just a girl, oh, little old me
Well, don't let me out of your sight What I've succumbed to is making me numb

Oh, I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite Oh, I'm just a girl, my apologies

So don't let me have any rights What I've become is so burdensome

Oh, I've had it up to here Oh, I'm just a girl, lucky me

The moment that I step outside Twiddle-dum, there's no comparison

So many reasons for me to run and hide Oh, I've had it up to

I can't do the little things I hold so dear Oh, I've had it up to

'Cause it's all those little things that I fear Oh, I've had it up to here

'Cause I'm just a girl, I'd rather not be

'Cause they won't let me drive late at night

Oh, I'm just a girl, guess I'm some kind of

freak

'Cause they all sit and stare with their eyes

Oh, I'm just a girl, take a good look at me

Just your typical prototype

Oh, I've had it up to here

Oh, am I making myself clear?

I'm just a girl

I'm just a girl in the world

That's all that you'll let me be

Oh, I'm just a girl, living in captivity

Your rule of thumb makes me worrisome

Oh, I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?

Wave Of History
Downtown Boys

Coming in on a wave
A wave of history
Riding in on a wave
A wave of history

Do what we want
On our wave of history
Do what we want
On our wave of history

We are the surge

We are the surge

That's where we're at

I can't hear maybe
That's where we're at
I can't hear maybe

Necessity

Necessity

Not one step back

On our wave of history

I can't look back

On our wave of history

Necessity
Necessity
Necessity
Necessity
Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday

Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern
breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South

The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck

For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

The Message
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious
Five
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin'
under
Broken glass everywhere
People pissin' on the stairs, you know they
just don't care
I can't take the smell, can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no
choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far
Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed
my car
Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin'
under
Standin' on the front stoop hangin' out the
window
Watchin' all the cars go by, roarin' as the
breezes blow
Crazy lady, livin' in a bag
Eatin' outta garbage pails, used to be a fag
hag
Said she'll dance the tango, skip the light
fandango
A Zircon princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peep show watchin' all the
creeps
So she can tell her stories to the girls back
home
She went to the city and got so so seditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it
on her own
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin'
under
My brother's doin' bad, stole my mother's
TV
Says she watches too much, it's just not
healthy
All My Children in the daytime, Dallas at
night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray
fight
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike
at the station
Neon King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my
sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane
I swear I might hijack a plane!
(Time 2:30 min) (You can
stop here)
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin'
under
My son said, Daddy, I don't wanna go to
school
Cause the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm
a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be
cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street
sweeper
Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it's all about money, ain't a damn
thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk
and honey
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on
again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can't walk through the park cause it's crazy
after dark
Keep my hand on my gun cause they got me
on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say "You want some more?"
Livin' on a see-saw
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin'
under
A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows what you'll go
through
You'll grow in the ghetto livin' second-rate
And your eyes will sing a song called deep
hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alleyway
You'll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big
money-makers
Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens
And you'll wanna grow up to be just like
them, huh
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers
You say I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool
But then you wind up droppin' outta high
school
Now you're unemployed, all non-void
Walkin' round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done
did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a
Maytag
Spend the next two years as a undercover
fag
Bein' used and abused to serve like hell
Til one day, you was found hung dead in the
cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back
and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young
so
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin'
under