Mix CDs for Russian Students (a tale of hipster lesson planning)
Last week my teacher asked me to give a lesson in our English class about entertainment and music in America. More speficially (and surprisingly) she asked me if I listened to indie music and if I knew what that was. I took a quick moment to look down at my plaid shirt and skinny jeans and realized that either:
a. she was a fan of Look At That Fucking Hipster
b. somehow divined fromt the celestial spheres that I would be the person to do this.
c. guessed
Of course I agreed, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about the lesson. I found it impossible to find any sort of legitimate (well written or grammatically correct) article about the history of indie music, or what it is (an idea not a genre).
I ended up composing what I think is an okay introduction to the ideas behind independent music. But I felt that wasn’t enough, that I needed to give the students more than just words on paper.
So I decided to make them a Mix CD. I thought that the ideas of independent music are obvious enough, but ultimately it is the product that is important, the result of unrestricted creative freedom (or at least not limited by the record company).
But what to do with this mix CD, and what to put on it? I felt it was necessary to show the diversity of independent music, from the extremely popular (like the bands that are now on major labels) to the up and coming, as well as the more straight-forward to the more esoteric. Did I want to scare them with weird sounds, or soothe them with pop rock with a twist? After much thought, I decided on the following tracklist:
1. The Dodos -Red and Purple
2. Animal Collective - My Girls
3. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Sun Lips
4. Blitzen Trapper - Summer Twin
5. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
6. Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body
7. Deerhoof - Chandelier Searchlight
8. The Decemberists - O Valencia!
9. The Bird and The Bee - Do It Again
10. MGMT - Electric Feel
11. Of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger
12. Beach House - Wedding Bell
13. The National - Fake Empire
Of course I smirked in the typical condenscending way we youngsters have when I put Death Cab and the Decemberists on there, but I wanted to use those as examples of indie music that had entered the mainstream. I also tried to keep it relatively current (aka within the past few years).
What are they supposed to do with this mix CD? Pick a song and write about it, either as a review or as a personal reaction. I am also asking them to describe the music as accurately as they can (with their recently learned musical vocabulary of course). I’m excited to teach this lesson (in an hour) and even more excited to see how the students will react to the music when I meet them again next week.
