On a day you played one of your classes favorite songs, did you see their faces light up with excitement? Have you ever stopped to think about why? Some kids don’t associate the music they learn in school with what they listen to outside of school. There’s “music class music” and “other types of music” according to some of your students. Honestly, I didn’t try to bring popular music into my classroom for the first couple of years because I wasn’t ever told this is something I could do. In all my years of college prep and student teaching, no one ever talked about actually using music your students connect with.
Maybe you can relate to this. You know your students will respond to popular music, but you’re just not sure how to do that. If so, this blog post (and podcast episode 197) will help you to get started.
How to Incorporate Popular Music
When you sit down to lesson plan, you might focus on the concepts or objectives first. If so, after looking at what you want to teach, you then choose songs and activities to teach these concepts to your students. If you’re working on steady beat, for example, you can easily add in any popular song and have students pat their legs or use rhythm sticks. When students are working on creative movement, along with teaching folk dances, have them learn (or even teach you) a popular hip-hop dance. Honestly, any of the concepts that are taught in the elementary music classroom can easily be taught by using popular music. Get creative with it and have fun!
What Songs to Choose
Choosing popular music to use in the music classroom can be a bit overwhelming. You may not know where to start, what’s school appropriate, or are just not familiar with some of the music the kids are listening to these days. The first step is to do your research. On my drive to and from school, I would intentionally have the radio turned to various stations, so I could listen to and learn a variety of songs. If it’s a song that stood out to me, I would leave myself a voice memo and jot that song down when I got to school. Then, I would think about what concept that song would pair well with and when to incorporate it.
Do you want to know the best way to choose popular songs is? Ask your students. Listen to what they’re singing. Ask to listen to what’s coming through their headphones after school. Hear what musical artist they’re talking about. Your students really do make the best teachers. It all goes back to forming relationships and connections and having ongoing conversations with them.
Why it Matters to Your Students
Your students want to feel seen, valued, and heard. They want to know that you care about them, not just for being a student in your music room, but as a person. When you show an interest in what they’re interested in, you’ll see a heck of a lot more buy in happening in your music classroom. Popular music means pop, country, hip-hop, blues, songs from various cultures, etc. But, it can also be songs from your generation and even decades before that.
While asking students what they like, also have them do an interview with their parents and grandparents about the music they liked listening to as kids. This is a great opportunity to help students form a connection with music of past generations.
Getting Out of Your Own Head
One of my favorite memories of all time is learning and then teaching the song “Get Me Bodied” by Beyonce. On field day, every student in my school and I surprised the parents and other teachers by doing this dance together and it was a blast! If you had ever asked me while I was in college if I would have ever been comfortable enough to do this, it would have been a hard no.
But, it’s about shifting the focus from ourselves, being embarrassed of what we’ll look like if we dance, or the discomfort of bringing in music that isn’t as familiar to us. The focus goes to the students. Once you keep that in mind, honestly bringing popular music into the music room won’t be as uncomfortable a year from now. Just start somewhere.
How do you bring popular music into your music classroom? What has worked well for you? Tell me about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post. I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it too.
P.S. Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher? Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!
Also…I wrote a book called “Make A Note: What You Really Need To Know About Teaching Elementary Music” to help music teachers move forward in your teaching career. You can get your copy here.
