Song Lyrics Activity

(developed for use at RMC, I presented this in CAHA 502 today)

The purpose of this activity is to introduce students to poetry through the most popular modern version of poetry today: music. The assignment works particularly well in multi-cultural settings. First, popular culture serves as a bit of a leveler: we all like music, so it’s a common ground upon which to start. From there, we learn about others because so much of who we are and what we value is reflected in the popular music we enjoy.

Instruct students to choose a song they like, one that has some meaning to them. It’s important that the lyrics have some textual content to them, so that there are some words to analyze and interpret and discuss.

Homework
Visit a website like www.lyricsfreak.com to download the lyrics, or search Google.
Bring two copies of the lyrics to class

In-class activity (20 minutes)
Break students up into groups of four
Ask them to share and discuss their lyrics with one another
In particular, they should choose specific lines and discuss the meaning or significance.
Also, the groups should compare and contrast their choices. What do their songs have in common? How are they different?

Presentations (10-15 minutes each)
Groups present their songs together in front of the class
First, they talk one-by-one about what they chose and why
Instructor facilitates the discussion between presenters and audience
Themes, meanings, interpretations are discussed.

Debriefing
The results of this assignment were extraordinary in the multicultural classroom. First, the activity demystified poetry a little bit. Through the discussion we were able to identify lyrics that echoed the types of lines one would see in poems. Beyond that though, students’ choices represented rap, gospel, R&B, alternative, country, etc. Out of these diverse choices, we were able to identify universal themes. For example, we made a connection between a country song from a mother to a child and a song by Tupac Shakur called “Dear Mama.”

But it went much deeper than that. Students felt empowered to share their personal stories about what these songs meant to them and why, which led to a greater understanding of one another as individuals. Students talked about conquering drug addictions, leaving abusive relationships, honoring happy ones, and overall sharing the music that served as “the soundtrack of their lives” (to paraphrase Dick Clark). As a group, we were laughing, crying, debating and celebrating by the end of the activity. Not only did we learn about different types of music, we got to hear about different people’s experiences through the medium of music.