School of Rock:

SON G ANALYSIS AS
AN EFFECTIVE
STRATEGY IN
LITERATURE

DR. TES lalaine

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pROFES ICO mat - e luza
SOR, EN nglish
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 roduction
Int

H P O P U LA R CU LT U R E AN D A V AR IE TY
O U R ST U DE N TS AR E IN U N DA TE D W IT E O F W HI CH IS M U SI C.
EI R DA IL Y LI V ES ; O N
O F P O P CU LT U R E TE XT S IN TH T AN D IN SP IR E U S. SO
CA N CO N N EC
M U SI C IS SO M ET HI N G U N IV ER SA L TH AT O P CU LT U R E TE XT S TO
R S U SE TH ES E P
TH E Q U ES TI O N IS , HO W CA N TE AC HE CR IT IC AL R EA DE R S O F
HO W CA N W E CR EA TE
HE LP O U R ST U DE N TS LE AR N ? TH AT AB IL IT Y B EY O N D
D TR AN SF ER
AL L TE XT S TH AT TH EY EN CO U N TE R AN
TH E CL AS SR O O M ?
SI C O F YO U R ST U DE N TS EN JO Y AN D SO M E O F
TH E AN SW ER : TA KE TH E M U TH EM IN TO YO U R
ES AN D IN FU SE
TH EI R O W N P ER SO N AL FA V O R IT U R E TE XT S AN D
G AP B ET W EE N P O P CU LT
CU R R IC U LU M , B R ID G IN G TH E IN G LE SS O N FO R
P R O V ID IN G A M O R E EN G AG
CL AS SR O O M TE XT S AN D DE D FO R CR IT IC AL
IN G TH E SK IL LS N EE
LE AR N ER S W HI LE ST IL L DE V EL O P D O U T O F SC HO O L
N B E U SE D B O TH IN AN
LI TE R AR Y AN AL YS IS TH AT CA
 oduction
intr

Music enhances the process of learning. The

systems they nourish, which include our
integrated sensory, attention, cognitive,
emotional and motor capacities, are shown to
be the driving forces behind all other
learning.
 Research has found that learning music
facilitates learning other subjects and
enhances skills that children inevitably
use in other areas. “A music-rich
experience for children of singing,
listening and moving is really bringing a
very serious benefit to children as they
progress into more formal learning,” says
Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the
National Association of Music Merchants
(NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit
association that promotes the benefits of
making music.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF
INCULCATING MUSIC

Music, as the ancients knew, is a balm that soothes the heart. Through the
power of suggestion, certain melodies and rhythms offer an antidote for
human passions.

For his students, Pythagoras developed and adapted what are referred to
as apparatus or devices, which are divinely created mixtures of certain
diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic melodies. Through these, he
postulated, it was easy to transfer or redirect the soul’s passions---
sadness, anger, pity, craving, pride, sloth and vehemence—provided they
had taken shape recently or in secret.
He righted each passion according to the rules of virtue, tempering them
with appropriate melodies, which could be likened to beneficial medicines.
Each night when his students went to sleep, Pythagoras performed
specific odes and songs to rid them of the diurnal disruptions and
turmoil. Purifying their intellect of the fluctuations of bodily nature,
he thus ensured for them a calm night’s sleep with pleasant, sometimes,
even prophetic dreams.
In ancient times, chanting or repetitive
renditions of mantras and shlokas was
a ubiquitous culture among the sages
and their disciples. In fact, ancient
Gurukul system was acculturated by
one of the only system -- rendering of
the “richayein” (Sholkas and mantras
converted into musical pieces are
‘richa’) present in the four Vedas and
Puran to learn them by hard and
transfer it to their students too.
There seemed to be an intense and
inevitable memorization through
rendering that they would grasp it for
their lifetime.
In the Vedic era, the priests composed hymns in praise
of the nature gods, which had to be sung or chanted
at religious sacrifices. This tradition led to the
composition of a sizable body of the religious
poetry, which we call Shruti Literature. The Vedic
hymns or Richās were not committed to written texts
but the hymns and the method of chanting them, was
handed down by word of mouth from one generation
to generation. So, the richās of the Vedas are
arranged as per the priestly families, who composed
and chanted them. The composition of Yajurveda and
Samveda followed the Rig-Veda.
 Ideas about song, and actual songs, inform literary
works in ways that go back to classical and to
biblical antiquity. Set apart from non-musical
language, song can indicate proximity to the divine,
intense emotion, or distance from the everyday. At
least from the early modern period, actual songs
compete with idealized songs in a body of lyric poetry
where song is sometimes scheme and sometimes trope.
Songs and singers in novels can do the work of plot
and of character, sometimes isolating songwriter or
singer, and sometimes linking them to a milieu beyond
what readers are shown. Accounts of song as poetry’s
inferior, as its other, or as its unreachable ideal—
while historically prominent—do not consider the
variety of literary uses in English that songs—
historically attested and fictional; popular,
vernacular, and “classical”— continue to find.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

1. Better Memorization:
Musical training boost memory and the power of
retention in a large manner. Your child memorizes
more effectively through rhythm and rhyme. Chants
and raps improve memory of details and help the
retrieval of information later, says Brewer.
Encourage her to take a favorite song and change
the words to fit information she is learning. If she
has a lesson on ecosystems, for example, change the
tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” to
“Mountains, Oceans, Forests, Plains.” She can sing this
version before her test to retain facts.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

2. Improved Focus and Concentration:

Subjects tested in environments with background
music were found to get better results than those
tested against background noise. Therefore, taking
along an iPod and a set of headphones may come in
handy if you’re looking to avoid being distracted by
any ambient sounds.

 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

3. Fine-tuned auditory skills:

Listening to the repetitive instrumental music
or rhythms, plays a vital role in the
enhancement of auditory organs. Music
encourages and imbibe the will and strength
to listen and accept people and their views.
Music in other cultures is especially
composed and intervened for ear training and
auditory skills.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

4. Enhances ability to reasoning and language

.
“The development of language over time tends to enhance
parts of the brain that help process music,” says Dr. Kyle
Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School
of Medicine and a practicing musician. “Language competence is
at the root of social competence. Musical experience
strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.”
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music
5. Clarity in Communication –
Students and adults having stammering problems
and other speech disorders are usually treated
through music. People who cannot speak a word
without stammering can sing a full song without a
single pause or jerk. Reason being speaking involves
left brain which is analytical and involves brain
filters and beliefs; whereas speaking with music
involves right brain which is creative which makes
one prevent all analysis and reasoning while
speaking.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

6. Students become more creative & productive:

Pleasant sounds or music acts as stimuli that
generate a thought process and liberate the
energies stored in the subconscious. It makes the
mind free from rules and filters and opens up the
chances of possibilities so that one thinks out of
the box.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

7. Less competitiveness, more hard work-

Research indicates the brain of a musician, even a young one,
works differently than that of a non-musician. “There’s some
good neuroscience research that children involved in music
have larger growth of neural activity than people not in
music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an
instrument, you have to be using more of your brain,” says
Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music
Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns
Hopkins University, where he teaches a specialized music
curriculum for children aged two months to nine years
 A. Major Developments B. C.
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

8. Better Self-confidence and self-acceptance:

Enjoyable music activities are designed to be success-oriented
and make children feel better about themselves. Peer pressure,
competition, and self-built race to go ahead of others results
in the lack of self-esteem and acceptance. Music stimulates all
the senses and cells and involves the child at many levels.
Music can encourage socialization, self-expression and motor
development.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

9. Students learn to improve their work:

According to Gardiner and Fox Knowles, Students of lower
socioeconomic status who took music lessons in grades 8-12
increased their math scores significantly as compared to non-
music students. But just as important, reading, history,
geography and even social skills soared by 40%.
 Major Developments
while Studying
Subjects (Literature)
with Music

10. Preparation for the creative economy

Investing in creative education can prepare students for the
21st century workforce. The new economy has created more
artistic careers, and these jobs may grow faster than others
in the future.

 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

11. Rhythmic intervention increases cognition and

discipline –
Research made between music and intelligence concluded
that music training is far greater than computer
instruction in improving children’s abstract reasoning
skills.


Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music
.
12. Music develops relaxation and calmness among STUDENTS :
According to R.R Konrad, “With music instruction in schools,
teachers found that students were less aggressive.” Quality
learning and maximum participation occur when children are
permitted to experience the joy of play and studies. Music is
highest tool for relaxation as the relaxed and pacified mind
works better for accomplishing in studies.
 Major Developments
while Studying Subjects
(Literature) with Music

13. Music is helpful in alleviating negative &

waste thoughts and direct students towards
positivity and creativity:
Listening to music has been shown to cause the
release of dopamine, which is the pleasure
hormone, meaning that it is a pleasurable,
rewarding experience which can relax an
individual.
 U SI N G S O N G S/ M U S I C
R Y A NA L Y S I S
F O R L I T ER A

Incorporating music into selected reading units can

transform and channel that strong sense of individuality
and autonomy into excitement for literature and
developing critical thinking skills.
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Many great lyrics have actually been inspired by works

of literature. It shows you how a word, or a line from
poetry, can inspire a creative work.
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds‘ by The Beatles

Inspired by: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Popular Lyric: “Picture yourself in a boat on a river/With
tangerine trees and marmalade skies/Somebody calls you, you
answer quite slowly/A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Moon Over Bourbon Street‘ by Sting

Inspired by Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Popular Lyric: “Now I can never show my face at noon/And
you’ll only see me walking by the light of the moon/The brim
of my hat hides the eye of a beast/I’ve the face of a sinner but
the hands of a priest/Oh you’ll never see my shade or hear the
sound of my feet/While there’s a moon over bourbon street.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Wuthering Heights‘ by Kate Bush

Inspired by: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Popular Lyric: “Bad dreams in the night. They told me I
was going to lose the fight, Leave behind my wuthering,
wuthering Wuthering Heights.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘ by Elton John

Inspired by: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Popular Lyric: ‘So goodbye yellow brick road/Where the
dogs of society howl/You can’t plant me in your
penthouse/I’m going back to my plough.’
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Frankenstein’ by Iced Earth

Inspired by: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Popular Lyric: “The Doctor’s work is now obsession/What is life?
What’s beyond?/He wants to know what it’s like to be
God/Creating life with his own hands.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me‘ by The Police

Inspired by: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Popular Lyric: “It’s no use he sees her He starts to shake and cough Just
like the old man in That book by Nabokov.”

Song: ‘Clocks‘ by Coldplay

Inspired by: William Tell by Friedrich von Schiller
Popular Lyric: “Singin’, come out if things aren’t said Shoot an apple off
my head And a, trouble that can’t be named Tigers waitin’ to be tamed”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Catcher In The Rye‘ by Guns N’ Roses

Inspired by: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Rye Again Won’t let ya get away
Popular Lyric: “Oooh, the Catcher In
from him (Tomorrow never comes) It’s just another day… Like today”

Song: ‘All Along the Watchtower‘ by Bob Dylan

Inspired by: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Popular Lyric: “No reason to get excited The thief, he kindly spoke There
are many here among us Who feel that life is but a joke”

 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Album: ‘Animals‘ by Pink Floyd

Inspired by: Animal Farm by George Orwell
Popular Lyric: “With your head down in
the pig bin, Saying ‘Keep on digging.’ Pig
stain on your fat chin. What do you hope to find. When you’re down in the pig mine.”

Song: ‘Golden Slumbers‘ by The Beatles

Inspired by: The poem Cradle Song by Thomas Dekker from his play Patient Grissel
Popular Lyric: “Golden slumbers fill your eyes Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep pretty darling do not cry And I will sing a lullabye”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘All I Wanna Do‘ by Sheryl Crow

Inspired by: The poem Fun by Wyn Cooper

Popular Lyric: “‘All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die,’ Says the
man next to me out of nowhere It’s apropos Of nothing”

Album: ‘Ramble On‘ by Led Zeppelin

Inspired by: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Popular Lyric: “Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up And slipped away with her.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song:‘White Rabbit‘ by Jefferson Airplane

Inspired by: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Popular Lyric: “And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you’re going to fall/Tell ’em a hookah-
smoking caterpillar has given you the call/And call Alice, when she was just small.”

Song:‘Brave New World‘ by Iron Maiden

Inspired by: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Popular Lyric:”Dragon kings dying queens, where is salvation now/Lost my life lost my dreams, rip the
bones from my flesh/Silent screams laughing here, dying to tell you the truth/You are planned and you
are damned in this brave new world.”

Song: ‘Rivendell‘ by Rush

Inspired by: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Popular Lyric: “Elfin songs and endless nights/Sweet wine and soft relaxing lights/Time will never touch
you/Here in this enchanted place.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls‘ by Metallica

Inspired by For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Popular Lyric: “Take a look to the sky just

before you die/It is the last time you
will/Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky/Shattered goal fills
his soul with a ruthless cry.”

Song: ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ by Bruce Springsteen

Inspired by The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Popular Lyric: “The highway is alive tonight/But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about
where it goes/I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light/Searchin’ for the ghost
of Tom Joad.”
 F AM O U S S O N G S
I N S P I R E D B Y
L I T ER A T U R E

Song: ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses‘ by Cream

Inspired by: The Odyssey by Homer
Popular Lyric: “Her name is Aphrodite and
she rides a crimson shell,/ And you know
you cannot leave her for you touched the distant sands/With tales of brave
Ulysses, how his naked ears were tortured/By the sirens sweetly singing.”

Song: ‘Blood and Thunder‘ by Mastodon

Inspired by: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Popular lyric: “This ivory leg is what propels me/Harpoons thrust in the sky/Aim
directly for his crooked brow/And look him straight in the eye.”
 examples

Playlists, Playlists, Playlists!

You’ve probably heard your students discussing their playlists, whether

they’re talking about the songs they love, exchanging customized collections
as gifts, or ribbing each other about their respective musical guilty pleasures.
Siphon that passionate energy and self-driven creativity into classroom
assignments using that very medium!
 examples

Projects and presentations which require students to create playlists for whatever you
happen to be reading in class will allow kids to fit literary content into the context of
something they understand and relate to.

These projects can be individual assignments or group projects. Also, consider assigning an
accompanying paper or annotations for each song, explaining how contents of the playlist
correspond to the book. Because the literary themes and character analysis will be seen
(or perhaps, heard) through the lens of music, this will provide students with an
opportunity to write about a subject they are no doubt eager to discuss.

Most importantly, it will spawn work that students will enjoy doing and a finished
product that they will be proud of.
 examples

A Soundtrack
One way to teach narrative structure is to have students create a soundtrack for
your novel as if it were a film. If you’re looking for an involved group project
for the end of the semester, this one is for you! This project would involve
students mapping out the book’s story arc, from exposition to resolution, and
deciding which chapters fall into which unit of the arc. From there, each student
should take responsibility for one section of the plot, and then choose one song
for each chapter or pivotal scene in their section. This assignment can have as
much or as little detail as you want, but evaluation should be dependent on
whether or not the students have sufficiently accounted for their choices about
the book’s plot and themes.
 examples

Set the Scene

An incarnation of the above, this project takes the idea of creating a
soundtrack for the entire overarching plot and puts it on a much
smaller scale. Instead of having students map out the narrative
structure of a whole book, have them create a playlist for a single
chapter that holds a lot of significance to the story or even a single
scene if you feel it has enough meat to it. This makes a fabulous
individual assignment, and it is especially helpful for directing
students’ focus and analysis of specific, dense sections of text.
 examples

Mixtapes: A Character Study

One of the most powerful feelings is hearing a song that
perfectly describes someone you know, or at least reminds you of
them. Using music as a tool for character analysis may be just the
thing to help students genuinely understand literary characters
who so often seem inaccessible or unrealistic to the modern teen
or tween. Assigning your students a character from your selected
work and having them make a playlist they think that character
would enjoy is a fun exercise in imagination that will connect
students to the book on a deeper level. This assignment can be
small for extra-credit or something more fleshed out if you are
working with an unusually character-driven work.
 examples

Mixtapes: A Character Study

One of the most powerful feelings is hearing a song that
perfectly describes someone you know, or at least reminds you of
them. Using music as a tool for character analysis may be just the
thing to help students genuinely understand literary characters
who so often seem inaccessible or unrealistic to the modern teen
or tween. Assigning your students a character from your selected
work and having them make a playlist they think that character
would enjoy is a fun exercise in imagination that will connect
students to the book on a deeper level. This assignment can be
small for extra-credit or something more fleshed out if you are
working with an unusually character-driven work.
 examples

Mixtapes: A Character Study

One of the most powerful feelings is hearing a song that
perfectly describes someone you know, or at least reminds you of
them. Using music as a tool for character analysis may be just the
thing to help students genuinely understand literary characters
who so often seem inaccessible or unrealistic to the modern teen
or tween. Assigning your students a character from your selected
work and having them make a playlist they think that character
would enjoy is a fun exercise in imagination that will connect
students to the book on a deeper level. This assignment can be
small for extra-credit or something more fleshed out if you are
working with an unusually character-driven work.
 Figurative languages are words and expressions used in poems and
songs to convey various meanings and interpretations from the
literal meaning. Figurative devices play major while writing.
Appropriate use of figurative devices can enhance the work and
create a deep level of meaning that a listener can enjoy while
decoding. It is effective to communicate an idea that is not easy to
understand because of its abstract nature or complexity.
Songwriters use figurative language to stimulate emotion, help
listeners to form mental images. One of the main reasons for using
these devices is to make a connection with the listeners so that
they can sink deep into the sea of the writer’s thoughts.
 My heart will go on – Celine Dion

Every night in my dreams

I see you, I feel you…
Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime…
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
The above lines use hyperbole in the line ‘near far, wherever
you are…’. The songwriter exaggerates the way to illustrate
the main character’s presence to the listeners. At the
beginning of the song ‘Every night in my dream I see you I feel
you’, the writer uses imagery to create a visual impact of the
singer’s dream and her beloved. ‘Love’ is personified in the
lines ‘love can touch us one time’.
 Let It Go – Idina Menzel

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight

Not a footprint to be seen…
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I’ve tried…
Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore.
At the beginning of the song, the singer has used hyperbole. For
example, ‘The snow glows white on the mountain tonight’. In
reality, snow doesn’t glow. We can see the personification and
simile in the following lines ‘The wind is howling like the
swirling storm inside’. Here the wind is personified and it is
compared by a wolf’s howl.
 Fire Work – Katy Perry

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag…

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin

Like a house of cards..

Come on let your colors burst…

You’re original, cannot be replaced

If you only knew what the future holds
The song is filled with many figurative devices and known
as one of the best to learn them. In the first line, ‘Do you
ever feel like a plastic bag’, there is a simile. Here the
singer compares a person to a plastic bag which used to
store things or perhaps a garbage cover. Later in line,
there is a metaphor, ‘Do you ever feel, feel so paper
thin’. Here the singer is trying to compare the weak-
minded persons to a thin paper or a tissue paper. There’s
another simile, in line ‘just own the night, like the
fourth of July’. In the line, “Come on let your colors
burst”, the sound of /r/ is a consonance.
 Grenade – Bruno Mars

Easy come, easy go, that’s just how you live, oh

Take, take, take it all, but you never give
Shoulda known you was trouble from the first kiss
Had your eyes wide open; why were they open? (Ooh)

Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash

You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever ask
‘Cause what you don’t understand is
 The 2nd and 4th lines have alliteration. The sounds of /t/ in
‘Take, take, take it all, but you never give’ and the sound of /w/
in ‘Had your eyes wide open; why were they open?’ Line 1, ‘Easy
come, easy go’ is an idiom to tell about a person who doesn’t
take the relationship seriously. In the 5th line, ‘Gave you all I
had’ is hyperbole as no person can give ‘all’ their possessions
to someone even if they are close.
 REFERENCES:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED606278.pdf

https://literarydevices.net/examples-of-figurative-
language-in-popular-songs/

https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9
780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-1093