By: Callie Copeland
In an article I wrote for the Central Chronicle’s first issue back for the school year, I investigated music enjoyed among our students over the summer months. I found out what sounds, artists, and albums flooded the May, June, and July days—I discovered the shows and concerts seen by our population, too. But I forgot to consider one major group—teachers. As I thought more about it, I realized how interesting it might be to speak to our staff about their musical interests. Many have lived through a lot of history concerning music and pop culture matters. So, this time, I’ve sought after five of Central’s teachers to see which sounds make up both their present and their pasts.
The first teacher I spoke to was Mr. Harper, Central’s AP Psychology, AP World History, and Anthropology teacher. While taking his psychology class last year, I found he’d speak of his interest in various medias. Because of this, I thought inquiring more into his specific music preferences would be interesting.
Q: What music do you generally like to listen to?
Mr. Harper: So, it depends on what I’m doing. I like 90’s alternative—that’s what I grew up with. I also grew up listening to a lot of hip hop and rap. That’s led me to like a lot of hip hop and rap now. I feel like that genre has changed a lot less than alternative. I like it when I’m working out, especially. I like listening to things like Chillstep. Chillstep is a subset of Dubstep, except it’s very mellow. I like artists like Black Milk because it’s very easy to listen to when I’m reading, or grading, or developing lesson plans.
Q: How has the kind of music you enjoy changed over time? Do you have any specific memories about music growing up?
Mr. Harper: It’s not changed a ton. I’d say my favorite artist of all time has got to be Tom Petty. I got out of him for a couple of years. Then, my grandfather died last January, and I started listening to him a lot again. That really helped me cope with all the feelings that came up as a result of that. That was like a Tom Petty renaissance for me, and that was pretty cool. My grandfather was a great guy—always was a great guy. That brought back a lot of memories of teenage life. As a little kid, I listened to a lot of country music. That’s what my mom listened to. So, a lot of 80’s, early 90’s country I still like.
Q: Are there any specific artists/bands you want to talk about that are notable/significant to you?
Mr. Harper: Anything by George Strait my wife and I listen to. We know most all the words to all his songs and we just sing along. His songs are phenomenal. I love George Strait, Tom Petty, I really like Pearl Jam, I like Nirvana. For modern stuff, I feel like there’s really not anyone better in hip hop and rap than Kendrick Lamar.
Q: Is there anything you find fascinating about the evolution of music in your lifetime? Any changes you like/don’t like?
Mr. Harper: I do listen to a decent amount of modern stuff. I have a playlist on my phone called ‘Kiddos’ which is stuff my kids have liked—so, that’s curated for them. That is all stuff from like the last 3, 4, 5 years. I really like Jonas Brothers. They’re really, really good. I like Lizzo a lot, because my kids like that music, so I’ve enjoyed listening to that kind of stuff. For changes in music—I think it’s standard. I’m a history teacher, so recognizing patterns—it’s what we do in history. I just recognize that music is going to change generationally, so my generation will look at your generation and be like, ‘What is this mess you’re listening to?’ the way my mom thought the same thing about me when I was listening to Pearl Jam and Nirvana [and] the way that her parents just really hated the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. There’s going to be a constant shift. One thing I really like is a recycling of ideas over time. If you pay attention to who’s writing or producing, there’s this sort of lineage.
Next, I went to interview Mr. Freeman, the high school art teacher here at Central. Having him as a teacher for a 2nd year this year, I’ve come to know Mr. Freeman’s love for music. He lets his students contribute to a joint playlist and will often comment on sounds or songs he likes or doesn’t quite like. However, I wanted to investigate—what tracks would he choose if it wasn’t all those picked by teenagers?
Q: What music do you generally like to listen to?
Mr. Freeman: I listen to everything, but probably my one that I go back to is old punk music, like hardcore music. I like how it’s fast and has a lot of energy. It tickles that part of my brain.
Q: How has the kind of music you enjoy changed over time? Do you have any specific memories about music growing up?
Mr. Freeman: When I was young, grunge and Pearl Jam and Nirvana were really big. Now I can’t listen to it at all because it’s cringey. It’s like torture for me. I don’t know why. I was in like a high school rock band, and we did a lot of covers of that kind of stuff. I just hate it and I can’t listen to it now because it makes me embarrassed. I was the singer in a grunge-y kind of band. I started it, and it turned into this grunge-y kind of band. It’s not really what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have much control over it. Something that I like now that I didn’t like then is more of pop music that you guys put on the playlist. I would’ve hated them as a high schooler. Like BTS or any of that, I would’ve been like ‘Nope!’, but now I have BTS on my like, casual playlist. For concerts, I saw Hootie and the Blowfish a long time ago at a college when they were nobodies. Edwin McCain opened, which was crazy. I went to a Bush concert. I saw Prince. I’ve seen a lot of really good bands. When I was younger, I lived in rural Alabama, so the only time we got to see concerts was when they came to Jacksonville State University, which wasn’t often.
Q: Are there any specific artists/bands you want to talk about that are notable/significant to you?
Mr. Freeman: The bands I like now are still a lot of the same stuff—Turnstile, Idols, Gojira, or just like hardcore, heavier stuff. I really do like a lot of stuff. I have a pretty weird, eclectic mix of stuff I listen to. It goes from like bluegrass, to Ukrainian folk songs, to like sacred heart music from Alabama, to hip and rap and whatever. I appreciate music—I was a music major. I’ve listened to all kinds of music all my life.
Q: Is there anything you find fascinating about the evolution of music in your lifetime? Any changes you like/don’t like?
Mr. Freeman: I like that newer music talks about a lot more different stuff. When I was really young, I hated music. When I was little, it was a lot of hair bands, like Def Leppard and Poison, all those crappy bands. And they always sang about the same stupid stuff like girls and all that. I didn’t want to know about any of that when I was like 10, so I didn’t like music. Until like ‘89, or ‘90, when like Nirvana and Pixies and all that stuff started making waves and killing stuff like Warrant and stupid bands like that. I think that’s something that happens in all music genres—popular rap right now is kind of in that stage where I don’t identify with it. Like the whole kind of money and cars brag. But it doesn’t matter what genre you’re in, there’s that rise and fall of different subject themes. There are rappers that aren’t doing that. It’s just funny how I see it from all the genres that I listen to. You can see trends that pop up in rock, or rap, or metal, or whatever. No matter where you’re from, human nature follows these patterns. I think it’s pretty cool to see it all happening.
In another interview, I spoke to Ms. Angel, who teaches French. I’d heard from many of my French-taking friends that Ms. Angel would be a great person to talk to in terms of music tastes and interests. When I walked in to hear hard rock music playing from her speaker, I knew they were exactly right.
Q: What music do you generally like to listen to?
Ms. Angel: So, I just had my Pandora on. It’s on shuffle constantly. I listen to pretty much anything except for jazz, modern country, and I don’t listen to a lot of pop. So, I listen to old school hip hop and rap, I listen to classic rock, I listen to metal, I listen to classical, that middle eastern kind of vibe, honestly, it’s all over the place. Some of that I think is because I just never know what I’m going to get next, and I enjoy that, being kind of surprised by things. I guess rock would be like, my number 1. In terms of shows that I go to, they tend to be rock shows more than anything else.
Q: How has the kind of music you enjoy changed over time? Do you have any specific memories about music growing up?
Ms. Angel: It’s really not changed much, actually. I kind of stopped listening to new music around 2000. I would listen to a lot of artists from before. So, I would say my junior high and high school years are really formative in terms of the music I still listen to. It’s very much the same. I’ve added a little bit—I can listen to stuff that’s a little bit mellower now. So, like I never used to listen to Mumford & Sons or the Avett Brothers, and now I can enjoy that. So, yeah, I’ve mellowed a little bit, but I really stick to stuff I’ve been listening to for 30 years.
Q: Are there any specific artists/bands you want to talk about that are notable/significant to you?
Ms. Angel: I’m actually going this Saturday to see a band called Clutch. I love Clutch—I’ve seen them several times. A lot of people don’t know about them because they don’t get a lot of radio play. I’ve seen Nine Inch Nails several times, I’ve seen Marilyn Manson several times. I’ve seen Poison several times. Clutch I definitely go see whenever they’re around. I’ve seen Ice Cube a couple times. Back to your first question, If I was to give you some of my tops—Clutch, Oasis, Beastie Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Adam Ant. There’s a band that some people don’t know from the 80’s and 90’s called Concrete Blonde. It’s a 3-piece but it’s a woman who fronts the band. So those are some things I’d want to put on people’s radar. I would definitely recommend anybody that can go to live shows go to live shows. Live music is so much cooler than recorded music.
Q: Is there anything you find fascinating about the evolution of music in your lifetime? Any changes you like/don’t like?
Ms. Angel: I’ve been paying attention to pop culture since I was young so it’s an everyday thing, around me all the time. I’ve stayed with that older kind of sound. I have a sign, [she gestures to it] “It’s Not That I’m Old Your Music Really Does Suck”. I think the same probably what my parents thought about my music. I think there’s a lot of really excellent music out there today. But I also think there’s a lot of nonsense. I sound like an old woman when I say that. But when I think about hip hop and stuff, when I used to listen to NWA or Public Enemy it was very political, it was very social commentary. You still get that from like the Weeknd or Kendrick Lamar, but I feel like there’s so much pop-y stuff that’s just fluff. A lot of modern music has sacrificed substance for success. And so I don’t like that. Do I think there’s still great music that comes out from modern bands? Yeah. But I think to some extent, especially with social media, it’s like just because you’re cute and you put a soundtrack behind you people think you suddenly have talent. I think that’s one of the reasons I stay with what I know. I feel that there’s a little more either musical depth, or lyrical depth than some of the things that are coming out these days.
Heading to my next interview, I realized what a great band and theatre department we have at Central. What greater candidates to speak to than those who teach music and theatre? First, I spoke to Mr. Click, one of the band teachers. Having been in a band, teaching band, as well as teaching a music history class, he certainly knows his way around music culture.
Q: What music do you generally like to listen to?
Mr. Click: It’s kind of all over the place. I’ll get in to these spells where I’ll get really in to one genre or era times where I’ll be really into rock from the 70’s, or I often times find myself going back to 90’s music overall just because that was my “young person” music. But yeah, I’ll listen to 70’s rock; I’ll listen to a lot of kind of 90’s and 2000’s hip-hop. Lately I’ve been into Japanese Jazz from the 70’s. I just am kind of always trying to find new stuff. But I always end up going back to 90’s music—that’s home base for me.
Q: How has the kind of music you enjoy changed over time? Do you have any specific memories about music growing up?
Mr. Click: I wouldn’t say that it’s necessarily changed. I do want to continue to like, expand my horizons. I just feel like there’s so much to know about and experience that I’m always trying to find new stuff. But you know, just 90’s grunge, 90’s hip-hop—when I don’t know what to do, that’s where I go.
Q: Are there any specific artists/bands you want to talk about that are notable/significant to you?
Mr. Click: I’ve been to a lot of concerts. For a really long time it was a big part of my life, I was in a band that toured a lot. So, like, playing concerts was the thing that I did. I’ve seen the band Nine Inch Nails a bunch. I think I’ve seen them 10 times now. There’s a movie director named John Carpenter that does his own music. We flew to Iceland to see him—and to go to Iceland, it was pretty sweet—and then he cancelled. As we flew back into New York he was playing a show that night and we saw him there. That felt really cool. I like seeing live music, experiencing music. There aren’t too many people that you can see live that won’t have something to offer or show you. From being in one, there’s a cool communication that goes on from being in a band that you can’t find anywhere else.
Q: Is there anything you find fascinating about the evolution of music in your lifetime? Any changes you like/don’t like?
Mr. Click: I don’t think it’s for me to like or not like. There are things I can identify with better than other things. But I think it’s important for music to keep changing and I think it’s important for each generation to have music that they feel like they can identify with and defines them. And, like, the fact that I don’t get some elements of the music that high school students listen to now is kind of how it’s supposed to work. They should be making their own identity and telling their own stories and presenting it in a way that speaks to them. And that inherently will mean that it will speak a little bit less to me. I do think it’s really interesting to see how important of a role hip-hop has continued to play in popular music. I do still continue to find that really interesting. It often centers itself in a lifestyle or a mindset that aren’t really the goals of the country at large. The fact that it can continue to be fresh and interesting, tell new stories that everyone can connect with, is interesting.
And finally, I spoke to the drama teacher, Ms. Sweet. Experiencing and immersing herself into music and theatrics on a day-to-day basis, I thought it would prove to be insightful to inquire what music she might enjoy.
Q: What music do you generally like to listen to?
Ms. Sweet: I don’t really tend to focus on one genre. Strangely enough, as a theatre person, I don’t listen to musicals. I don’t. I don’t listen to musicals unless I’m going to be in a show or I’m trying to figure out a show. It depends on my mood. I do like to listen to like 70’s. Like Steve Miller band kind of genre radio. I also like to listen to Lo-Fi when I’m trying to like, slow down from anxiety or something like that. I do like country music. Not as much lately because of the way it’s shifted. Pop music—not necessarily all the songs that are coming out now. It really just depends on my mood.
Q: How has the kind of music you enjoy changed over time? Do you have any specific memories about music growing up?
Ms. Sweet: 90’s music was when I was a younger—like 90’s grunge, or Britney Spears, boybands, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys. And then, moving into the 2000’s as I became a teenager, pop music especially as technology has advanced and people are trying to look for new sounds, I feel like it’s become more so about what it sounds like than necessarily of the content of what they’re saying. I feel like that’s how pop music has changed. Country music has kind of changed like that too. Some people still hold on to that storytelling element of country music, but it’s gotten more like “bro country” and a popularity contest of image.
Q: Are there any specific artists/bands you want to talk about that are notable/significant to you? Why?
Ms. Sweet: Not really, what I listen to just depends on my mood like I said. I have a very wide variety of what I like. Like Steve Miller band, and then there’s also rock stations and stuff like Def Leppard, or White Stink or Motley Crue. Or I also like NSYNC. Or Rihanna, or Beyoncé. Or Kacey Musgraves. I don’t know, I feel like it’s not just one artist I focus on. It’s so sporadic and random.
Q: Is there anything you find fascinating about the evolution of music in your lifetime? Any changes you like/don’t like?
Ms. Sweet: I do wonder a lot if my child will look at music the way that I look at like 70’s or rock and roll. I’m curious as to what my child will think of the music that I listened to when I was a teenager. He’s a toddler right now, so I don’t know. As for musicals—they’ve become more pop-driven. That contemporary style started in the early 2000’s, so it’s not like it’s gotten that much different. Theatre nowadays isn’t so much the sound that’s gotten so much different. It’s more been about spectacle. The set design and everything has gotten more a wow factor because of technology and everything. It’s like this big, crazy production based on what it used to be.
Before I left in meeting with these teachers, I asked if there were any other points or tips they wanted to make sure to include. Ms. Sweet’s final line stuck with me quite a bit. She said, “I think music has the power to influence people heavily.”
As speaking with these faculty members, each with different interests and passions, it was intriguing to compare similarities and differences in music tastes with that of the others, or even that of my own likeness. There are some timeless tunes, and some melodies in each new age that older crowds may just not get. Music, as Ms. Sweet and the other teachers have been privileged to experience throughout different generations, has the power to influence us. We can decide in which way it does so.
The Central Chronicle 