A Little Background

 

 

 

 

I have always felt it is important to use a "hook" to help secondary students make connections between the music they experience outside the classroom to the music we are talking about in class.  This is especially true when covering classical music.  I cannot tell you how many times I have started a school year with my secondary general music students informing me they HATE classical music.  There is lots of research on this topic, but it all boils down to this: secondary students perceive the music they study in school (like classical music) to be very different to the music they prefer to listen to outside of school (popular music), and their attitudes (or bad attitudes) reflect this.  However, every time a student tells me they hate classical music, I just say "No, you don't... and let me prove it to you".

 

That's where using classical music found it pop culture can be really helpful.  Classical music is everywhere.  We hear it on tv, in movie soundtracks, in the grocery store... really, the list of places where we hear classical music is endless.  However, while students are exposed to hearing this music all the time, they don't always listen to the music.  Because of this, students are often surprised by the amount of classical music they have heard in pop culture - especially when it is pointed out to them.  A great example of this is the Nightcrawler scene in X-Men 2, which uses Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem.   

 

Of course, none of what I have written above is new - music educators have been using hooks and transfers for a very long time.  However, if you have ever tried to find just the right tv commercial or movie clip to compliment your lesson plan, you know that it can take a long time to find these resources (even with YouTube).  Therefore, the above list contains just a few examples of classical music used in pop culture.  To see videos of this music, click on the individual composer's portrait. I have also included other resources within the Resource Page that have been very helpful to me.