Music Class

In China, I often hear the same music played to the point of exhaustion. I know the words to many of the Chinese songs and to make matters worse, the English songs are almost exclusively horrible boy band pop or cheesy love ballads. Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, and a hundred other similar-sounding groups are extremely popular. So, last week in class I decided to teach the students a little bit about other genres, including country, rap, rock, oldies, and 80's music. I read a short passage about each type of music and then played several examples:

Country: Chattahoochie (Alan Jackson), Song of the South (Alabama), It's Your Love (Tim McGraw and Faith Hill)

Rap: Get Low (Lil John and the East Side Boys), Dirt Off Your Shoulder (Jay-Z)

80's: It's Raining Men (The Weather Girls), Video Killed the Radio Star (Buggles)

Oldies: Blue Moon (Dean Martin), The Twist (Chubby Checker)

Rock: I Can't Get No Satisfaction (Rolling Stones), We Will Rock You (Queen)

The most popular songs were It's Your Love, Video Killed the Radio Star, It's Raining Men, and -surprisingly- Get Low, which had almost every student dancing in her seat! I just hope they didn't listen too closely to the lyrics...

I gave them some download suggestions at the end of class; my sweet little students may be spending the May Day holiday listening to Timbaland, Jay-Z & 50 Cent!