The start for classes this quarter was a bit later than usual because I had a work meeting on the Thursday we were to re-start.
I was curious to see how many students from last quarter would continue this quarter. In the event, I had 5 students, all new! After my usual introduction of the class it was time to get as sense of what kind of music my students like.
The first song was "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" (
video, lyrics in comments) by Andy Williams (
bio).
As I write this I can't remember how I made the leap from that song to "Uprising" (
video,
lyrics) by Muse (
bio), but for some reason I played it next.
The group didn't seem to be very into this song so I asked a student for another suggestion. The song chosen was "Dancing Queen" (
video,
lyrics) by Abba (
bio). The student told me he chose this song because the song just makes him happy when he hears it and he loves the musical Mama Mia (
info).
At this point I was very surprised at the choices of "old" music -- usually my students are into the latest songs and it is through them that I learn what is current.
The next song chosen was "Long Distance Call" (
video,
lyrics) by French band Phoenix (
bio). I had never heard of this band before, though according to their biography they have won a Grammy!
That song reminded me of another band that is very popular these days, MGMT (
bio). I played the song "Kids" (
video,
lyrics). Again, my students seemed unimpressed. I was not doing well in predicting my students' musical taste!
The next song chosen was "Need You Now" (
video,
lyrics) by Lady Antebellum (
bio).
Next up was "Just The Way You Are" (
video,
lyrics) by Bruno Mars (
bio). I like that in this video they use the cassette tape for drawing the pictures. Most of my students are young and probably never even owned a cassette -- it's become a cool "retro" item.
In our introductions, one of the students said his favorite band is The Beatles (
bio). He chose the song "Revolution" (
video,
lyrics). One reason he likes Beatles songs is because the lyrics are easy to understand. He said his favorite Beatles song is actually "Let It Be" (
video,
lyrics).
This Beatles theme reminded me of a video a student played last quarter by the Korean band Dynamic Duo (
bio) where the band pretends to be like the Beatles. The song is "Let's Go" (
video). However, the student who like The Beatles didn't like this song: it's too loud.
The last song of the say was "The End Of The World" (
video,
lyrics) by Skeeter Davis (
bio).
With that time was gone and we parted. This group of students have a very different taste of music from my usual groups -- this will be an interesting quarter!
