| 12th November 2007 11:45 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Van Zandt rolls out plan for rock in schools
Nov 12,2007
By Mary Beth Marklein,
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Steven Van Zandt says rock 'n' roll saved his life. Now he wants to return the favor.
The E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos star began sowing the seeds five years ago with the launch of Little Steven's Underground Garage, an internationally broadcast weekly radio show that celebrates his favorite genre — garage rock, a sound that evokes images of teens practicing in somebody's parents' suburban garage.
Last year, he created the non-profit Rock and Roll Forever Foundation as a vehicle to preserve the music that so shaped his life.
Monday, he will unveil the foundation's first project: a middle- and high-school curriculum designed to introduce a new generation of teens to the music. He planned to make the announcement in the nation's capital, where he is playing two concerts with Bruce Springsteen and the other E Streeters.
Anyone attending the sold-out Springsteen shows might question the notion that rock 'n' roll is endangered. And never mind that The Sopranos skillfully wove rock music into its story line, right down to the last moments of the final episode.
But in a backstage interview before Sunday's show and in an earlier phone interview, Van Zandt said "traditional, straight-ahead rock 'n' roll" doesn't get the airplay or attention it did when he was coming of age in the 1960s.
"If the Rolling Stones came out today, there's nobody that would play them," except perhaps his own radio program.
Van Zandt, 56, says rock 'n' roll is "not informing the culture on an hourly basis as it did when we grew up. It just doesn't resonate with the same degree of depth." And, he says, "It's not so easy to hear new rock 'n' roll on a regular basis."
That's where Little Steven's Rock and Roll High School fits in. The project, being created in partnership with education publisher Scholastic's InSchool division, is still in development.
The plan is to distribute a 40-chapter curriculum, including teachers' guide, lesson plans, DVDs, CDs and Web-based resources, free, beginning with the 2008-09 academic year, to the nation's 30,000 or so middle and high schools.
With this effort, Van Zandt joins a long line of artists who are rallying to keep music education from falling through the cracks, a victim of school budget cuts and the national focus on math and reading. Paul McCartney, Quincy Jones and John Mayer, for example, in recent years have promoted efforts to put musical instruments into the hands of schoolchildren.
Van Zandt strikes a different note. He wants to explore the cultural and historic impact of rock, beginning with pioneers such as Little Richard and Elvis Presley, through soul music, early girl groups, the British invasion, the psychedelic period and ending with today's newer groups.
"We're trying to reach everybody, whether a musician, a rock 'n' roll fan or not. We're going to make a case that this art form is so interesting that you will be absolutely compelled to listen to it, and maybe even learn how to play it."
Van Zandt says he borrowed his title from the Ramones' 1979 movie Rock 'n' Roll High School, in part because "it suggests the eternal teenager in all of us."
Some might wonder whether teachers and principals will welcome a course that takes its name from a film in which a punk rock group blows up a high school. But it is endorsed by the National Association for Music Education, a non-profit whose 130,000 members include teachers, college faculty and researchers. Under a federal grant, the group developed national standards for music.
And he is working with Scholastic to ensure course materials meet national education standards, so it could be used not only in music classes but also for humanities or social studies courses.
Van Zandt "is committed to not only making this something that kids will be excited about but also making it something that teachers and administrators can get behind," says Ann Amstutz Hayes, a Scholastic vice president.
Van Zandt will create and edit the content, and he plans to ask rock journalists and musicians to contribute. A quick peek at topics he expects to address:
•Rock as social commentary. The lesson might begin with Woody Guthrie, include The Beatles' Taxman and Revolution, Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers, and today's hip-hop.
•Rock's influences. A discussion of Procol Harum, say, and The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man will lead to an exploration of works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
• Rock as "the great equalizer." Van Zandt says it is perhaps the only art form where races, classes and genders find common ground. "It's going to be a liberating thing for black kids to know they invented rock 'n' roll."
And, he says, "Only sports really equals it in terms of the empowerment of the typical blue-collar, working-class kid."
That was certainly the case for Van Zandt, who says he barely graduated high school. "Coming from the suburbs of New Jersey and getting famous seemed very much like an impossible dream" to him and his bandmates, he says. "And yet we did it."
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 12th November 2007 01:11 PM |
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| Sioux |
Ok now, I think that is really cool! And yes, rock has been
a part of the American {and world} culture for over half
a century now. I'd say it's pretty ingrained into society
by now. And the kids of today need to know how it started
and why it started and why it didn't die out {to the
chagrin of most of the baby boomers parents out there.  } |
| 12th November 2007 08:21 PM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
i say not cool - rock and roll belongs in the garage not the class room (recall mick's recent comments on the same topic)
this is all about nuetering the sprit of rock and roll (see Hall of Fame) - not nurturing it |
| 12th November 2007 10:36 PM |
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| Sioux |
Well, I guess it's all in the way it's taught. If Van
Zandt could be the teacher...{and others of his ilk}... Jack Black's "Rock School". Well, not exactly...
Yeah, maybe better in theory than in practice. Who knows?
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| 12th November 2007 11:03 PM |
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| pdog |
You might be missing the point, or maybe not... BUT!!! if you ask most people who claim to love rock and roll, they'll tell you there's no good new bands. The truth is, there's no good bands on rock radio, except fpor the UG Garage. Who is really missing out? Kids. Kids who think Good Charlotte is rock and roll and are reluctant to listen band more than 5 years old b/c rock history isn't taught or shown, and if you guy by even half the people you know, it is ridiculed. I had my iPpod on shuffle earlier. A few random bands played. Stones, Who ,Fleshtones, Cash, Buzzcocks, Rancid. It all went erfect together. My iPod pics good song orders to on shuffle. None of these songs get any historical attention or perspective in today music world. Radio, TV and print are crap when it comes to this.
You can draw a family tree from Cash, Stones, Who, Clash and Rancid and many others. Showing how styles and writing and topics are all connected and one band carries on after another. And music is important, it influences and guides and keeps many people happy or gets them through hard times. It sometimes explains a feeling of the masses that nothing else can. It shapes us and defines us.... and one day, when we are gone, it will be our legacy. One thing I do know... and history of rock has proven this, that what sells now is often forgotten fluff crap. Things that were shocking, cutting edge and so new it was misunderstood, stands the test of time. Just look at how many songs that were commercially unviable 20 or 30 years ago, are now soundtracks to commecials and movies. And you know what, that in itself, is worth studying and teaching. When overlooked, it creates apathy... Regardless, the cool kids now the deal, and there will always be cool kids who know what sucks now, and what was cool then, and pick up a guitar and say fuck you! FUCK YOU lame hipster fags, who listen to crap and wear your sisters pants. |
| 12th November 2007 11:34 PM |
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| Dino37 |
quote:
pdog wrote:
You might be missing the point, or maybe not... BUT!!! if you ask most people who claim to love rock and roll, they'll tell you there's no good new bands. The truth is, there's no good bands on rock radio, except fpor the UG Garage. Who is really missing out? Kids. Kids who think Good Charlotte is rock and roll and are reluctant to listen band more than 5 years old b/c rock history isn't taught or shown, and if you guy by even half the people you know, it is ridiculed. I had my iPpod on shuffle earlier. A few random bands played. Stones, Who ,Fleshtones, Cash, Buzzcocks, Rancid. It all went erfect together. My iPod pics good song orders to on shuffle. None of these songs get any historical attention or perspective in today music world. Radio, TV and print are crap when it comes to this.
You can draw a family tree from Cash, Stones, Who, Clash and Rancid and many others. Showing how styles and writing and topics are all connected and one band carries on after another. And music is important, it influences and guides and keeps many people happy or gets them through hard times. It sometimes explains a feeling of the masses that nothing else can. It shapes us and defines us.... and one day, when we are gone, it will be our legacy. One thing I do know... and history of rock has proven this, that what sells now is often forgotten fluff crap. Things that were shocking, cutting edge and so new it was misunderstood, stands the test of time. Just look at how many songs that were commercially unviable 20 or 30 years ago, are now soundtracks to commecials and movies. And you know what, that in itself, is worth studying and teaching. When overlooked, it creates apathy... Regardless, the cool kids now the deal, and there will always be cool kids who know what sucks now, and what was cool then, and pick up a guitar and say fuck you! FUCK YOU lame hipster fags, who listen to crap and wear your sisters pants.
Bless you for that post. Perfectly said.
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| 14th November 2007 02:37 PM |
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| Child of the Moon |
I just suddenly kind of wish I was back in school for this stuff. I'm pretty sure I'd ace that class. |
| 14th November 2007 03:55 PM |
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| steel driving hammer |
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