The Give
and Take
between
Song Lyrics and
Canonical Texts
Helps Students Read
and Appreciate Classic Literary Works

By Christian Z. Goering

To Make Meaning
and Act Upon the World

The National Council of Teachers of English recommends music lyrics specifically in their 2004 Position on Adolescent and Young Adult Literacy.

Reading is not a technical skill acquired once and for all in the primary grades. Rather, reading is a developmental process that continues to grow through engagement with various types of texts for many purposes over a lifetime. Through a diverse array of literacy practices, young people make meaning and act upon their worlds. Adolescents read in multiple ways, both in and out of school, with texts ranging from clothing logos to music lyrics, from weblogs to comic books, from the Harry Potter series to The Scarlet Letter. (www.ncte.org)

As teachers search for new methods of reaching adolescents increasingly disengaged with the traditional sense of reading, tools such as music lyrics can pique the interest and allow students to connect with classroom texts. By modeling intertextuality with secondary school students, teachers can facilitate a broader acceptance of the literacy practices students embrace: song lyrics is but one example.

Six Connections
'tween Songs and Literature

I have identified six distinct types of connections between songs and literature:

1) a song is inspired by literature directly;

2) a song connects to a text thematically;

3) a song's setting connects to the setting of a literary work;

4) characters in a song mirror the characters in a classic work;

5) the tone of a song is similar to the tone of a piece of literature, and;

6) a song's plot structure or narrative follows that of a literary work.

Songs can connect on multiple levels. In this sense, students participate more actively when they read as they attempt to make connections to songs, movies, websites, poems, short stories, novels, or plays. Those valued connections reinforce a central skill in becoming expert readers.

Read, Compare, Discover
Meaning and Relationships

"The act of reading, theorists claim, plunges us into a network of textual relations. To interpret a text, to discover its meaning or meanings, is to trace those relationships"  (Allen 2000, 1). Chandler (2003) continues, "Texts provide contexts in which other texts can be created and interpreted. Texts are framed by other texts" (5). It is this process of reading one text while thinking of others that truly makes literature relevant to the students lives. Langer (1995) offers a key perspective on comparing different texts:

They never take their new ideas as they find them but probe beyond, rounding out their understandings by exploring feelings, intentions, and actions [...] New understandings to not lead to endpoints, but instead reveal further areas for examination. In this way an ongoing exploration of horizons of possibilities lies at the heart of a literary reading. (3)

This give and take between song lyrics and canonical texts is precisely what this project suggests needs to happen. Students will build from their interest in music towards discovering the layers of meaning in classic works. John Steinbeck discusses how readers matter in the scheme of understanding his classic text The Grapes of Wrath. "Throughout I tried to make the reader participate in the actuality, what he takes from it will be scaled entirely on his own depth or hollowness. There are five layers in this book and he won't find more than he has in himself" (1992, xiii).

As educators we have often been encouraged to use music and other forms of media effectively to motivate, inspire and engage our students. In fact, music is often used as a pre-reading activity to motivate students to engage the text and the ideas and themes presented within it. As an effective hook to capture attention, these texts can often serve as a bridge from material with which a student may be familiar or might easily understand to classic literature she might find more difficult and more challenging.

Song Lyrics Build a Scaffold
for Literary Terms and Concepts

As Morrell and Duncan-Andrade (2002) report, contemporary song lyrics are "literary texts and can be used to scaffold literary terms and concepts and ultimately foster literary interpretations. [These texts] are rich in imagery and metaphor and can be used to teach irony, tone, diction, point of view [...] theme, plot, motif, and character development" (89). Morrell and Duncan-Andrade continue and suggest that it "is possible to perform feminist, Marxist, structuralist, psychoanalytic, or postmodern critiques" (89) of contemporary music texts. Once learned, the skills and processes of the critical analysis of contemporary music can be applied to classic literature as well.

Bridging the critical analysis of canonical texts with the critical analysis of popular culture not only improves students' skills in analysis but also improves the quality of specific products of critical analysis as well. As Carol D. Lee (1993) argues, "The interplay between structures of knowledge constructed through social activity outside classrooms and structures of knowledge embedded in school learning is potentially powerful because the resulting network of associations is richer in both its specificity and generalizability" (8-9).

Our students need exposure and experience in deciphering and assessing those messages, and practice in making meaning from the complex, multi-faceted world around them. Elizabeth Thoman (2003) offers: "In a world that begs to be interconnected, our participation and understanding of worldwide media through media literacy is one exciting new way to contribute to the building of world peace, ethnic harmony and sustainability for all of humankind."

Natural, Thematic, and Relevant

I am not suggesting that we replace John Steinbeck with the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, or replace William Shakespeare with the Blue Oyster Cult. I am not suggesting that we replace traditional texts with contemporary music and popular culture in the secondary English classroom. What I am suggesting is that we pair pieces of classic literature with contemporary music, allowing some of the natural, thematic connections to come to the surface and allowing our students to see these connections and their relevance to their own lives. As Steven Luebke (2005) writes:

We can perform the same close textual analysis on many song lyrics that literature classes have traditionally done for our canonical texts. We can discuss the social or political implications of songs in the same way we now do with standard literary texts. We can illuminate and make relevant what may appear to our students as the cryptic experiences of obscure humans in ancient times. (11)

Further, Weinberger (1998) connects the use of music to brain research: "Music offers great opportunities for communication and expression, for creativity and group cooperation-plus, it's good for the brain and can enhance learning and intellectual development" (39). Jensen (2000) agrees, "Music, when used as a carrier (or accompaniment) to content learning, provides a powerful superhighway straight to the brain. The value of embedding lyrics in music is that learning this way activates emotional responses, as well as memory in the auditory cortex" (84).

Fayetteville, Arkansas
November 11, 2007

References

Allen, Graham. (2000). Intertextuality: The new critical idiom. New York: Routledge.

Alvermann, D.E. (2001). Effective literacy instruction for adolescents. Executive Summary and Paper Commissioned by the National Reading Conference. Chicago, IL: National Reading Conference.

Caswell, R. (2005). A musical journey through John Steinbeck's The Pearl: Emotion, engagement, and comprehension. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. International Reading Association.

Chandler, Daniel. (2003). "Semiotics for beginners." See www.aber.ac.uk/ media/ Documents/ S4B/ sem09.html. Accessed November 5, 2003.

Copeland, M. D. (2005). Socratic circles: Fostering critical and creative thinking in middle and high school. Stenhouse.

Goering, C. Z. (2004) Music and the personal narrative: The dual track to meaningful writing. The Quarterly, 26:4.

Jensen, E. (2000). Music with the brain in mind. San Diego, CA: The Brain Store.

Langer, J. A. & Close, E. (2001). Improving literacy understanding through classroom conversation. Albany, NY: National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement.

Langer, J. A. (1995). Envisioning literature: Literary understanding and literature instruction. Columbia: Teachers College Press.

Lee, Carol D. Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African American Discourse Genre. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1993.

Luebke, S. R. (2005). In defense of popular music. Paper presented at the annual joint meetings of the Popular Culture/American Culture Association (Philadelphia, PA, April 12-15, 1995). 10 June 2005 .

Morrell, E. & Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R. (July, 2002). Promoting academic literacy with urban youth through hip-hop culture. English Journal 91.6, 88-92.

Sturtevant, E.G.& Linek, W.M. (2003). The instructional beliefs and decisions of middle and secondary teachers who successfully blend literacy and content. Reading Research & Instruction, 43 (1), 74-90.

Thoman, Elizabeth. Media are the world; media literacy is the guidebook." Media & Values 61 (Winter 1993). 1 June 2003

Weinberger, N.M. (1998). The music in our minds. Educational leadership, 56:3, pp. 36-40.

LitTunes was launched on November 12, 2007.
We invite you to come back often as LitTunes
grows and develops. We also invite you to participate.
Contact Dr. Christian Z. Goering by E-mail at
chrisgoering@gmail.com

LitTunes is an educational outreach directed by Dr. Christian Z. Goering, Assistant Professor of Secondary English/Literacy Education at the University of Arkansas. LitTunes is a part of the CornDancer family of developmental websites. CornDancer has participated in the World Wide Web since the summer of 2000. Submissions are invited. Contact webmaster at threadspinner@corndancer.com