{"id":3923,"date":"2016-12-30T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/?p=3923"},"modified":"2016-12-30T16:00:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T13:00:58","slug":"50-essential-songs-for-the-history-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/uncategorized\/50-essential-songs-for-the-history-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Essential Songs for the History Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a big fan of music in the history classroom and I have created a number of\u00a0Spotify Playlists<\/a>\u00a0for this purpose. Often this is merely to help create a calm and purposeful working atmosphere, when a bit of Chopin or Debussy sets the tone perfectly. Occasionally it’s even possible to have calming instrumental music directly related to the topic in question: for example,\u00a0Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor<\/strong>, which was inspired by the composer watching British troop ships heading off to France in 1914.<\/p>\n

However, some songs are better used to stoke up some energy during lessons, whilst the very best of all are historical sources in themselves, combining musical feeling with powerful lyrical content. What follows is a list of songs I regularly use in class, organised in broadly chronological order in terms of the topics they relate to, with a brief explanation of how you could make use of them with your own students.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What follows is a list of 25 principal songs, but with links to others on similar themes or by similar artists, bringing the total up to over 50. If you have any other suggestions, please contact me (@russeltarr<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0@activehistory<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter) and I’d be delighted to add them to the list (as long as it isn’t\u00a0“We didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel<\/strong>. Which I admit is superb, but we all know this one, surely?).<\/p>\n

View the full list of songs here.<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a big fan of music in the history classroom and I have created a number of\u00a0Spotify Playlists\u00a0for this purpose. Often this is merely to help create a calm and purposeful working atmosphere, when a bit of Chopin or Debussy sets the tone perfectly. Occasionally it’s even possible to have calming instrumental music directly… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[696,236,697,183,698],"class_list":["post-3923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-696","tag-classroom","tag-essential","tag-history","tag-songs"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4030,"url":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/uncategorized\/spotify-jukebox-songs-for-the-history-classroom\/","url_meta":{"origin":3923,"position":0},"title":"Spotify Jukebox – Songs for the History Classroom","author":"Russel Tarr","date":"July 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Spotify Jukebox for the History Classroom I have updated this resources with several new playlists and lots of new songs.\u00a0If you already have Spotify, open it up before trying to play tracks. If you don't have Spotify you will be prompted to install it on your system.\u00a0See also: Blogpost -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"classroom\"","block_context":{"text":"classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/tag\/classroom\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":786,"url":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/uncategorized\/songs-history-classroom-british-empire-slavery-civil-rights\/","url_meta":{"origin":3923,"position":1},"title":"Songs for the History Classroom: British Empire, Slavery and Civil Rights","author":"Russel Tarr","date":"September 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just having a play with Grooveshark.com to see if I can create some playlists for use in the classroom...!","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5414,"url":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/key-stage\/ib-history\/interactive-decision-making-simulation-how-successfully-did-castro-rule-cuba-1959-1980\/","url_meta":{"origin":3923,"position":2},"title":"Interactive Decision-Making Simulation: How successfully did Castro rule Cuba, 1959-1980?","author":"Russel Tarr","date":"December 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Interactive Decision-Making Simulation: How successfully did Castro rule Cuba, 1959-1980? This standalone interactive simulation, which takes 2-3 hours to complete thoroughly, provides students with essential information about Castro's rule and demands that they analyse various policies in terms of success and failure. It can be set as a self-study classroom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1900-2000 (GCSE History)"","block_context":{"text":"1900-2000 (GCSE History)","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/category\/historical-periods\/20th-century\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3139,"url":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/uncategorized\/history-the-story-of-everything-classroom-poster\/","url_meta":{"origin":3923,"position":3},"title":"History: The Story of Everything! Classroom Poster","author":"Russel Tarr","date":"September 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"History: the Story of Everything!\" A new A3 classroom poster showing the connection between History and a whole range of other classroom subjects.","rel":"","context":"In "History Teachers"","block_context":{"text":"History Teachers","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/category\/history-teachers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screen Shot 2014-09-14 at 21.35.10","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen-Shot-2014-09-14-at-21.35.10-213x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3070,"url":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/history-teachers\/recommended-reading-for-the-history-classroom\/","url_meta":{"origin":3923,"position":4},"title":"Recommended Reading for the History Classroom","author":"Russel Tarr","date":"July 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This collection of books for the history classroom can be searched by topic, period or theme.","rel":"","context":"In "History Teachers"","block_context":{"text":"History Teachers","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/category\/history-teachers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ajp","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ajp.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4032,"url":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/uncategorized\/recommended-films-for-the-history-classroom-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3923,"position":5},"title":"Recommended Films for the History Classroom","author":"Russel Tarr","date":"July 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Recommended History VIDEO | (see also podcasts and books) I have updated this searchable directory of useful films for the history classroom with 50 new entries based on some of the most recent feature films released in the past couple of years.","rel":"","context":"In \"classroom\"","block_context":{"text":"classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/tag\/classroom\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3925,"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions\/3925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}