Need help SUGGESTING MUSIC TO kids

[countertext]

I’m teaching elementary music for the first time this year, after many years of general classroom teaching. I’m including short presentations of musicians that I consider to be historically important in my lessons for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (8-11 years old, mostly).

Nearly every day, a couple of kids will ask if I will cover Twenty One Pilots or Imagine Dragons in class. I won’t link to their music because I haven’t the stomach for it, but I will say that Twenty One Pilots is a hip-hop and island influenced pop group with emo lyrics, and Imagine Dragons is a shouty hip-hop and soft-metal influenced pop group with, uh, emo lyrics. (Okay, fuck it , here’s TOP and ID.) They’re extremely studio-processed and the songs are off-the-shelf generic.

These two bands seem to have a total lock on that age range in this part of the world for whatever marketing reasons I’m not privy to. One eleven-year-old I’ve known for three years has been talking about them since the day I met him. Those bands don’t (and won’t ever) meet my criteria for inclusion in my lessons, but I’d like to offer a way forward to the kids who are stuck in that hole. If they were hooked on Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus, I could chart a path out of the desert, but these bands are too far out of my frame of reference.

MY PLEA: Does anyone here have suggestions for quality music that is a step away from these bands in a positive direction? I need to find something that has some stylistic ties to those bands but will help the students begin their recovery.

Doesn’t have to be the best bands ever, just something related, but with some value rather than none.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

[panoramic]

sex pistols, the clash, led zep, sonic youth, the cure, radiohead

try to start with the Clash

[Trout]

Get over it granddaddy and let the kids pick what to play. Or you will destroy their lust to play. My two cents.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I'd say it's the kids who need the help if a teacher is trying to "deprogramme" them. At best you should maybe be hoping to inspire them.

[panoramic]

Get over it granddaddy and let the kids pick what to play. Or you will destroy their lust to play. My two cents.

[countertext]

I guess my language does not accurately reflect my intent.

What groups do you like that sound kinda like those two bands that I mentioned?

[panoramic]

I guess my language does not accurately reflect my intent.

What groups do you like that sound kinda like those two bands that I mentioned?

i don't know of any bands that sound like that, do selena gomez tracks

[Trout]

I’m glad it Said BOOBS under that, or else I’d still be going ”wtf?”

[NickD]

sex pistols, the clash, led zep, sonic youth, the cure, radiohead

try to start with the Clash

The music of their Dads and Granddads, quite possibly. I can see why that might not excite them.

[Maggieo]

Go with first-gen hip hop! Grandmaster Flash and the lot!

[panoramic]

future islands, the national

[countertext]

Go with first-gen hip hop! Grandmaster Flash and the lot!

Yes. Added to the list.

[rumfoord]

Maybe:
Look for interviews where the band members talk about their influences. Then cover those bands, or bands that those bands say influenced them, or bands that you hear influencing them. Even if it's a stretch, you might get some mileage out of asking the kids to recognize similarities between different groups.

You could also jump around the world with influences between groups that were geographically far apart, or just far apart in time.

Or, maybe you don't want to "lead" them to very traditional landmarks since you just might not be able to escape the eyerolls from leading them back to the Beatles (or something). Instead you could just take a journey of crazy and fun music---expand their horizons, and just practice investigating the musical elements of strange and interesting pieces.

Here's some things I think are fun:

https://youtu.be/r-qhj3sJ5qs
https://youtu.be/0gYTf8GHjoU
https://youtu.be/QWIwFEGNynQ
https://youtu.be/Kmjf_ol_3yo
https://youtu.be/mxzgwJ8tSE0
https://youtu.be/1ymVncglUEw

[panoramic]

wolf alice
https://youtu.be/WqxE-zppu30?list=RD-5Ae-LhMIG0

[countertext]

Keep the ideas coming. I’m reformulating lesson plans as we speak.