so what is the class…

is it to see the effect of richard marx or michael bolton on virgin ears?

will it be a parlor game where they have to make up conversation stringing songs together?

is it to see if 45 minutes of pop music will make them more “loose” by the end of class?

by hermit x—Mar 30, 10:05 PM

tomorrow is about the circumstances under which a minority group can pull a majority’s attitudes closer to their own. my most interesting examples include kurt cobain (as an exemplar of “alternative” music) and terrorists.

i am also just kind of curious w/ respect to how they will respond to color me badd et al. unfortunately, the music bit only takes about five minutes…leaving me 45 to fill with research studies and crap like that.

by chris—Mar 30, 10:13 PM

well, you’re just proving boyz ii men right baby

bust out the harmonies, ‘cuz it’s hard to say goodbye to yesterday, so you keep coming back and can’t let go

by hermit x—Mar 30, 10:29 PM

My initial reaction was that I remembered only a handful of these songs, but having read through to the end of the list and comments, my frosh year of high school started to come back in all its lackluster glory—or rather sophomore year, now that I look at the date more closely, just days short of my 16th birthday.

That, of course, doesn’t help spin out your class, except perhaps to say that a good deal of this music penetrated into lily-white Iowa. Do let us know how the young people react.

by Laura—Mar 31, 07:33 AM

Tevin Campbell is in a Broadway production of Hairspray, now. In case you wondered. I saw his name and suddenly remembered that scene in Graffiti Bridge, in which he dances on some Brooklyn steps while singing “Round and Round.” Talk about memories you don’t expect to have permanently engrained…

by greg—Mar 31, 08:50 AM

my favorite part of this lesson plan is the album covers. and the realization that 1991 was fifteen years ago.

by mary—Mar 31, 08:52 AM

I had forgotten that “Black or White” and “Mysterious Ways” debuted within weeks of each other. The Michael Jackson album was rolled out with a huge marketing blitz—probably U2, as well, but my high school memory is of MJ first—that made much ado about the technology used in the video to morph MJ into all the children and baaaaaby animals of the world.

by greg—Mar 31, 09:03 AM

awww. Mariah, before “Glitter” (and before she lost her mind).

“You’re all I know
I can’t let you go
Even though I try
I can’t let go of something I need so badly
You’re all I know
I can’t let go”

Sing it, girl.

by Gay Restorationist—Mar 31, 10:48 AM

below is my sense of the students’ responses to the mp3-&-photo combinations of the following…

Hammer: They laughed (a lot) at both his appearance and his rhymes.

Color Me Badd: They asked if it was really guys singing. I think they could somewhat relate to them as a primitive “boy band”—but one in which the boys were not really teenager-types.

Michael Bolton: The picture of Mike w/ perm and chest hair overwhelmed them.

Boyz II Men: They liked this song and seemed dismayed that I would include them among these other performers.

P.M. Dawn: [insert sound of crickets.]

Michael Jackson: They thought it was hilarious when I pointed out that the Home Alone kid appeared in this video and we discussed (re: his picture) how MJ is one of the few men willing to wear something that so obviously snaps under the crotch.

Kurt Cobain: One girl said to the girl beside her that she had never heard of him. (Later, in a moment of what I thought was inspiration, I uttered, for the first time in my life, the phrase, “before he sucked on a shotgun.” according to google, 66 people have used this phrase before me—and some of them used it to refer to Kurt Cobain. This renders me not only crass but also unoriginal.)

Do keep in mind that these students were 3- to 8-years-old in 1991.

by chris—Mar 31, 11:56 AM

I suspect, too, given a school where the students come pre-converted, many also cut their teeth on the of the Christian-pop/rock alterna-culture “movement”? That also would limit their exposure to Cobain.

by greg—Mar 31, 02:17 PM

Poor Kurt. Forgotten so soon. Otherwise, for the most part, though, I’d have to say their reactions were not inappropriate.

by Laura—Mar 31, 04:12 PM

Alright, here’s a tough question: 15 years later, what are the best songs of the lot?

by greg—Mar 31, 04:41 PM

(in no particular order, and leaving out the ones I don’t remember) I say: “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Cream,” “Finally,” and “Mysterious Ways,” and I’m on the line with “Don’t Cry.”

by greg—Mar 31, 04:47 PM

i would say the U2, Nirvana, and G n’ R…but those are the same ones I liked in 1991, so maybe I am biased.

by chris—Mar 31, 09:30 PM

I wouldn’t have included CeCe nor Nirvana in 1991 (1992/3, definitely N) and maybe not GNR; sadly, I would have included MJ—in fact, I did include it: I bought that album, and only after too long did I realize it was treacle.

by greg—Mar 31, 10:27 PM

i was out of the country…

well, i’d just moved to california to live under the staircase in my aunt and uncle’s student housing (they were back from the mission field and he was doing a phd in latin american history)

i first knew of nirvana from a crazy cousin who lived in LA, whose mother didn’t want me upstairs lest i see the jewlry…

who knows what a missionary kid would do with it.

i was big into the beatles, cream, and early dylan back then

by hermit x—Apr 1, 12:47 PM

You lived under a staircase, like HP?

by greg—Apr 1, 09:08 PM

That’s just what I was wondering!

Beatles, yes; early Dylan, yes; Cream only in a small way, because a group of seniors did “Sunshine of Your Love” at a school concert once, and I had a crush on one of them. Also Simon & Garfunkel and Cat Stevens (do you notice a trend here?). And whatever was in heavy rotation on KRUI.

by Laura—Apr 1, 10:35 PM

yes, as in HP.

they lived in UCSB student housing and there was a crawl space under the stairs.

i would slide in behind the T.V. and i kept my clothes in a bag at the foot of my bed.

i worked as a cashier at an organic foodstand and as the front gate attendant doing the grave-yard shift at an r.v. camper park up in the santa inez mountains.

and i loved harold and maude, ergo cat stevens… the zombies and the yardbirds (thus, also cream… i had their double album, wheels of fire) and i was getting into the police.

by hermit x—Apr 3, 07:22 AM

I was about to say Cat Stevens was adored by the homeschool kids at church, but that was Ray Stevens. Wasn’t Cat arrested as a terrorist a few year back? Indeed, he was.

When it comes time, tell Evie that when you were a kid and lived under the stairs, you really believed you’d get your letter for Hogwart’s, but it never came, and you were terribly disappointed.

by greg—Apr 3, 07:30 AM