Angsty Music Appreciation Social Club

Popular music is the soundtrack of our lives, as well as the lives of countless others who share life experiences both alike and different than our own.  This is the timelessness of music: timeless since it connects the listener to the shared human condition across history, culture, and circumstance.  Listening and appreciation of music thereby gives us a chance to experience a shared humanity.  This is what this social club is all about.

This class aims to showcase famous (and not-so-famous hidden gem) songs in popular music history, bringing forward their history and uniqueness for students to know and enjoy.  

A major focus will be angsty teenage classics (think emo, but not exclusively), but all music and genres are welcome!

Class structure: 

This class will be, in part, learner-led.  Each week, students will be invited to bring songs and artists to my attention, which I will research (and check to ensure the lyrics and themes are safe for young learners) and bring to the class for everyone to enjoy and share their impressions in a safe and supporting space.

Each class will begin with a welcome and presentation by me of a song and artist, together with the history and significance of that genre, song, artist, and themes.  The class then moves to an open discussion with myself, and all the students with each other.  Next, a student recommended song and artist will be showcased, and that student will be invited to initiate that class discussion of what that song means to them.  I will moderate that discussion.  Finally, recommendations for songs for next week will be gathered from all the students, for which I will research and bring to class the following week.

Every session will be unique, shaped by the interests of that day and student requests from previous weeks. That means your young learner will always have something exciting to look forward to each week!

Content Preview:

Some of the songs for this class include:

My Chemical Romance – “Helena” (a song about grief) 

Will Wood – “White Noise” (a song about the triumph over depression and the celebration of difference and uniqueness) 

Twenty-One Pilots – “Stressed Out” (a song about the transition from childhood to adulthood and the anxiety that comes with it)

Chrissy Zebby Tembo – “I’m not made of Iron” (1970s African ‘Zamrock’ classic)

Fall Out Boy – “Sugar, We're Goin Down” (heartbreak drama)

Talk Talk – “It’s My Life” (The music video the band tried to sabotage, but became an accidental environmental action anthem)

July Talk – “Beck + Call” (with aboriginal Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq)

Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle” (a song about feeling left out, misunderstood, and struggling to find one’s place in the world)

Fanny – “Blind Alley” (1970s all female rock band that inspired a new generation of female rockers in the 1980s and 1990s)

Paramore – “Misery Business” (a song of jealousy and revenge)

Palaye Royale – “Debilitate” (with Nadya Tolokonnikova)

Radiohead – “Street Spirit / Fade Out” (a mysterious and hopeless song, devoid of resolve or redemption, yet exquisitely beautiful)

Joy Division – “Warsaw” (breakout debut punk rock anthem from 1978) 

Death Cab For Cutie – “transatlanticism” (long distance heartbreak)

A Perfect Circle – “So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish” (song of apocalyptic fear and a tribute to Douglas Adam’s classic satiric novel, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) 

Steam Powered Giraffe – “Diamonds” (a cover of a Rihanna classic written by Sia)

Green Day – “American Idiot” (a protest song over emptiness and superficiality of modern American society)

Tricky – “Black Steel” (Trip-hop cover of a Public Enemy classic)

Propellerheads – “History Repeating” (featuring Shirley Bassey, jazz and hip-hop mashup)

Panic! at the Disco – “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” (breakup after betrayal anthem)

And many, many more to be added as the course progresses … all based on student recommendations!