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\nFor those of you who are readers of the JuiceBar, the following essay is part of a Web 2.0 exercise in presenting a popular culture artifact for the graduate course Teaching & Learning Historical Thinking<\/i><\/span>, part of the <\/i><\/span>George Mason University College of Education and Human Development Secondary Education (SEED) Program. The requirement is a Web 2.0 exercise that could be used in a high school history course. In this case, I\u2019m using this blog post to engage students on how music can provide insight into history. I hope you enjoy it. And feel free to pretend you are in my high school history class and offer your thoughts on current songs that give insight on what is going on in today\u2019s social, economic and political culture.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Folks, the topic today is popular culture. Specifically, what you can learn about history and a historical period through popular culture. By popular culture, I thinking about things like movies, fashion, and music.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In this case, let\u2019s take a look at music.<\/span><\/p>\n Music is often both a reflection of and reaction to the political, economic, and social trends in a given period. Take the issue of war and conflict. In American history, we have songs of the American Revolution, Civil War, World War II and the Vietnam War. If you’re interested, just try “Googling” any of those wars and “music.” You’ll get some interesting lists. Most of the songs of earlier wars were written to support the cause. But there were others that gave voice to the opposition to war.Others oppose it. If you\u2019re looking for something that typifies the latter, listen to my favorite anti-Vietnam anthem, Edwin Star\u2019s \u201cWar<\/span><\/a>\u201d which was popular protest song during Vietnam. It is a classic.<\/span><\/p>\n But music isn’t just reflective of or a reaction to conflict.\u00a0 When you think about American history in general, you can identify music that is reflective of social movements in everything from the suffragette movement (it even has a Spotify channel!) to desegregation in the 60s to the LGBT movement and Katy Perry\u2019s song \u201cI kissed a girl.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n [Hold on to that thought because a bit later I\u2019m going to ask you to identify a song in popular culture today that, in your opinion, is reflective in some way of what is going on in today\u2019s society.]<\/span><\/p>\n In this case, we’re going to focus on songs that reflect the economic developments. This was particularly true of the songs of the 30s and the Great Depression. The depth and scope of the Great Depression are hard to appreciate today.\u00a0 <\/span>At its height nearly a quarter of Americans were unemployed. Amidst these dark times emerged a lot of upbeat music (most notably, swing music). In that case, one can interpret music as a reaction to the downbeat mood. There were a lot of those \u2013 upbeat tunes and lyrics, that is. Hard to imagine that one of the most popular titles during those years was a 1933 tune called \u201cWe\u2019re in the Money<\/a>.\u201d Ironic since most people weren\u2019t (in the money, that is) but sociologist speculate that tunes like this gave people who otherwise had no hope, hope.<\/span><\/p>\n