Throughout the entire span of human history we as a species have communicated in story and song.
From hunter-gatherers sitting around camp fires to the classical music recordings loaded aboard the Voyager spacecraft, music has been a key component of how we communicate ideas and concepts.
As historians, music, song and lyrics represent a vast treasure trove into which we can delve.
Music provides history teachers with an opportunity to do everything from setting mood and growing a little cultural capital through to providing intriguing interpretations around which we can build entire historical enquiries.
Getting started
Let’s start with some entry level ideas.
Perhaps you are teaching lessons on the medieval church and would like to start your lesson with some mood setting.
While candles and a thurible of incense might be a health and safety nightmare, there are lots of examples of medieval plainsong available online. Or perhaps you wish to enliven your study of recruitment in World War One with some authentic marching songs.
Maybe you have been inspired by previous articles about embracing archaeology and you’ve crafted an enquiry around life during the Paleolithic.
Perhaps you have been inspired by Ian Dawson’s work looking at what was important to people in the past and your students have brought up their own love of music.
This might lead to discussions of the existence of such things in prehistory.
At this point you could investigate the work of experimental archaeologists such as Dr Ivan Turk who has recorded sounds from a Neanderthal bone flute from 60,000 years ago.
The point is that music allows us to connect with the past, a bit like an echo. It reminds us that the people, even of the deep past are just that, people.
They liked things that we liked. They communicated ideas in music and they sought out music as everything from entertainment to spiritual communion.
Songs as historical interpretations
Let’s consider next how songs can be incorporated into bigger enquiries.
I once watched the great Ian Luff use the song Between the Wars, by Billy Bragg as an interpretation of life in 1930s Depression-era Britain.
He used the song with its mention of dockers and miners alongside images from the Depression to give students a partial picture of the past.
This was then used as a launch pad for students interviewing Ian as a Jarrow marcher.
The pictures and lyrics had whet their appetites and they were primed to ask better questions during the teacher-in-role segment as a result.
In my own work I have used lyrical interpretations of past events as the cornerstone of historical enquiries. Any example of this uses the song Trumpets of Jericho by Ronan MacManus.
This song outlines his father’s recollections of living on the Wirral as a child during World War Two and introduces the listener to a host of characters through whom the story is told.
What I did was then work with a local archivist in order to build profiles on (almost) all of the people mentioned in the song.
The focus for the enquiry became “Did Ronan do his homework?” and had students cross referencing the song against the details in the profiles.
This process allowed students to see how the song had been constructed from historical material – as well as memory – but also through up the conundrum of characters from whom no historical record exists.
This then allowed for exploration of the role of imagination in song writing and the fallibility of relying upon songs as historical source material.
Songs as entry methods to bigger enquiries
Many of us in the history teaching world will be used to using rather oblique stimulus material in order to set up enquiry questions. Rob Phillips wrote about such initial stimulus material in his seminal article published over 20 years ago.
Slow reveals of interesting photographs or propaganda posters, for example.
Songs can perform a similar role. In our work on the rise of fascism we examine some competing historical interpretations on the Battle of Cable Street.
As part of our set up for this we start by raising some questions based upon photographs from the riot and then seek to locate Cable Street geographically in the East End of London.
From there we use the classic song, Ghosts of Cable Street by folk-punk legends, The Men they Couldn’t Hang to explore events further.
The song reveals new details; such as the date, the existence of the British Union of Fascists and the character of Oswald Mosley.
What it also does is allow students to pose further questions. For example, why do the lyrics speak of a flag of black and red? What is the connection to Berlin and Madrid? Who is Jack Spot and did he really attack Mosley with a chair leg made of lead?
The point is not the song itself. The point is that the song represents another interpretation of a historical event; an interpretation that seeks to cement the events of 4 October 1936 as a milestone in the fight against fascism.
The remainder of the enquiry allows students to test this interpretation and arrive at their own conclusions.
This is only one example of where a piece of music can be our entry point into much bigger enquiries.
A unit on the impact of the British empire in Australia could, for example be introduced via the song Thou Shalt Not Steal by the Indigenous Australian folk singer Kev Carmody.
Enriching the Curriculum
The use of first nation folk singers reminds us as well that songs and music can enrich your curriculum with links to art, music and culture.
Richard McFahn’s excellent enquiry on the Windrush generation, for example starts with a Pathe News reel showing Lord Kitchener, the king of Calypso singing entertaining news crews and fellow passengers at Tilbury Docks from the deck of the SS Windrush.
The song, London is the place for me gives rose tinted depiction of the welcome Lord Kitchener hoped to receive.
This launch an enquiry that culminates in students re-writing the lyrics to make them more accurate after they have analysed source material describing peoples’ lived experiences.
The song also reminds pupils of the existence of a deep tradition of Caribbean music and its influence on the British music scene. If you wanted to find out more about the history of Black British music, it is well worth visiting this exhibition.
You can enrich your curriculum in many different ways. Who does a better job of transmitting the horrors of World War One; German artist Otto Dix or the protest song Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire?
How accurately is the reality of Thatcher’s Britain portrayed in the Specials, Ghost Town?
Does any song sum up the reality of being a teenager better that My Generation by the Who?
Comparative judgements
Finally, the idea of music as the soundtrack to teenage rebellion opens up the idea of using songs as sources for comparative judgements.
This could allow us to ask question such as Which band was really the soundtrack to the Sixties: The Beatles or the Stones?
How about an enquiry which asks; if you could only choose one song to sum up the experience of the US in the Vietnam War which would you choose? Is it 19 by Paul Hardcastle?, The Fixin to Die Rag by Country Joe and the Fish? Note: Avoid the live one from Woodstock as it’s sweary at the start! or Credence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son?
Similarly, is Nina Hagen’s Ninety Nine Red Balloons a better reflection of the Cold War fear of nuclear war that Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes or Bob Dylan’s Masters of War?
Final Thoughts
Don’t expect your students to think your choice of music is cool. They won’t.
They aren’t supposed to.
However, you can use this cultural treasure trove to enrich your curriculum, ask some big questions and maybe make a few pennies for a band when there’s a weird spike in the Spotify algorithm.
Lead History Teacher at Harrow Way Community School, Andover, Hampshire.
- Tags: Curriculum planning, Enquiry, ISMs, Source Analysis
