Comparing Cultures through Pop Music
Grade: 9 – 12
Class: Geography
You can tell a lot about a person by the music that they listen to. In this lesson students will compare the 10 ten songs in the United States (according to http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Albums&f=The+Billboard+200) to the top 10 songs in Europe (according to http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Albums&f=European+Top+100+Albums). This will help students see the similarities and differences in cultures between the United States and Europe. Hey, maybe were not so different.
Activity:
Go to www.billboard.com and look up the top 10 songs in the United States for that week. Have students go through the top ten songs and write do for each song if they have heard it before and a summary of what it means. After students have had time to write about each song, talk about the songs as a whole together as a class. Talk about patterns in the music (ie. Are all ten songs in the same genre? Or are they from different genres? Are the songs sexual in nature? Violent? Peaceful?). You may choose to listen to some of the songs in class.
After looking at the top ten in the United States, once again go to www.billboard.com and look up the top ten songs in Europe. Have the students once again go through the songs one by one and write down whether or not they have heard the song and a summary of what it is about. If many of the songs are different that in the US it may be a good idea for students to listen to them before talking about patterns. Once again talk about the patterns in the European top 10.
After analyzing both top ten songs. Compare the two. What do they have in common? How are they different? What do the similarities and differences tell us about the cultures of the US and Europe? End the lesson with students writing a personal reflection on what they have learned in this lesson. Were they surprised by anything?