Disastrous Playlist (Redux)

Pursuant to my posting from last week concerning My Disastrous Playlist, I am posting the whole list of songs that I have put together for use during the breaks in my Natural Hazards class. I have added a couple of the suggestions provided by commentators, too – thanks!

James, I’m saving your suggestions for my Environmental Science playlist – stay tuned for that, or maybe you can post yours…? But I also like the idea of using songs to introduce specific lecture topics. How about this one for your insolation lecture: Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) by They Might Be Giants, which I discovered while researching one of the other suggestions. I haven’t actually listened to it yet, but the lyrics start out:

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, it’s hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on earth there’d be no life
Without the light it gives

Again my disclaimer for using the playlist – you need to actually LISTEN to all of these before you play any of them in your classroom. I have vetted them fairly thoroughly for overtly objectionable language, but everyone has different levels of tolerance. The range of musical styles represented here is very broad – everything from punk to alternative, hip-hop, reggae, inspirational, jazz, and traditional music. You have to decide what to play based on your own level of comfort and your students’ sensibilities.

But they’re all fun! So here’s my complete Disastrous Playlist – so far – along with the name of the album in parentheses; it’s in some kind of semi-alphabetical order, as per iTunes. By the way, so far Bob Dylan and Sufjan Stevens are tied for the most songs on the list:

1. Volcano by The Akkademiks (The Akkademiks….ROCK! And by the way, this is an entire album of geologically-themed songs. They have other-themed science albums, too, hence the band’s nerdy name.)
2. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) by The Arcade Fire (Funeral)
3. Los Angeles Is Burning by Bad Religion (The Empire Strikes First)
4. Volcano by Blues Machine (The Blues Tribute to Jimmy Buffett)
5. Shelter From The Storm by Bob Dylan (The Essential Bob Dylan – Disc 2)
6. Hurricane by Bob Dylan (The Essential Bob Dylan – Disc 2)
7. The Levee’s Gonna Break by Bob Dylan (Modern Times)
8. Black Diamond Bay by Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan: The Collection)
9. I Feel The Earth Move by Carole King (Tapestry)
10. 20 Year Flood by Chris Velan (Twitter, Buzz, Howl)
11. Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
12. London Calling by The Clash (London Calling)
13. Volcano by Count Basie & His Orchestra (The Classic Swing Collection)
14. Landslide by The Dixie Chicks (Home)
15. Riders on the Storm by The Doors (L.A. Woman)
16. Flood by Eleven Fingered Charlie (Owl Hollow Acoustic Sessions)
17. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac (The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac)
18. The Lightning Storm by Flogging Molly (Float)
19. End Of The World by Great Big Sea (Rant And Roar)
20. Warning by Green Day International Superhits)
21. Storm by Gregory Isaacs (One Man Against the World: The Best of Gregory Issacs)
22. Volcano by Jamaican Steel Band (Steel Drums of the Caribbean, Vol. 2)
23. Fire And Rain by James Taylor (Sweet Baby James)
24. Flood by Jars of Clay (Jars of Clay)
25. Willow by Joan Armatrading (Love and Affection: Joan Armatrading Classics 1975-1983)
26. Electrical Storm by Joseph Arthur (Nuclear Daydream)
27. Down In the Flood by Mark Selby (Mark Otis Selby…And the Horse He Rode In On)
28. Red River Flood by Murray McLauchlan (Songs from the Street: The Best of Murray McLauchlan)
29. Volcanoes by Povi (Life In Volcanoes)
30. End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. (Document)
31. Riders On the Storm by Snoop Dogg featuring The Doors (Riders On the Storm – Fredwreck Remix)
32. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step-Mother! by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise – and yes, I know that’s not how it is spelled – you’ll have to talk to Sujan Stevens about it…)
33. Prairie Fire That Wanders About by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise)
34. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise)
35. The Avalanche by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise – who would have guessed that Sufjan Stevens would have so many disaster-themed songs…?)
36. Galveston Flood by Tom Rush (Take a Little Walk With Me)
37. Wasn’t That a Might Storm by Tom Rush (New Year)
38. New Orleans Is Sinking by The Tragically Hip (Yer Favourites – Disc 1)
39. Electrical Storm (William Orbit Mix) by U2 (The Best of 1990-2000)
40. Volcano Girls by Veruca Salt (Eight Arms to Hold You)
41. Deluge by Wayne Shorter (Juju)

Barbara Murck is a Geologist and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of Toronto, Mississauga as well as a Wiley author.

My Disastrous Playlist

In my Geography course GGR378 Natural Disasters: Risk and Vulnerability, I have started using music to welcome students at the beginning of the class, and during the lecture breaks (it is a two-hour class session with a 10- to 15-minute break).

A fair bit of research has been done on the use of music in the classroom. Most of the published research is in educational/pedagogical and psychological journals. Much of it focuses on children, adolescents, and special-needs learners (see, for example, Hallam and Price, 1998). The adult-centered research tends to focus on the role of music in memory, skills acquisition, or test performance (see, for example, Furnham and Bradley, 1997). Another area of interest, for both children and adults, has been the use of music to create a setting that is conducive to learning, and to establish the mood of the classroom.

To that end, I started to keep my eye out for “disaster-themed” songs – earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, storms, floods, fires, even pest infestations – to fit the themes of my course. I was surprised to discover how many disaster songs there are out there. I’ve been collecting them on a separate playlist on my iPod.

Some disaster songs are obvious right from the title: “New Orleans is Sinking” by The Tragically Hip, or “Los Angeles is Burning” by Bad Religion, for example. Some are obvious, but metaphorical: “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan, “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King, or “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac or the Dixie Chicks (I’ve got both versions on my playlist). Others are more subtle; can you find the disaster references in songs like “Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)” by Arcade Fire, “Warning” by Green Day, or “Decatur (or, Round of Applause for Your Step-Mother)” by Sufjan Stevens?

You need to use a bit of caution and set ground rules for the language and even the type of music you want to permit in the classroom; these are adults, but it is an academic setting, after all. I also find that you either need to present a wide diversity of music or be prepared for students to be somewhat disdainful of your choices. If you are going to play the Spice Girls, for example, you should probably do it with a certain amount of irony, or students will find you hopelessly out of date. You can expect that students will come up with suggestions to add to your playlist, once you tell them what you are up to.

Does anyone have any disaster-themed songs I could add to my playlist?

References:

Hallam, S., and Price, J. (1998) Can the use of background music improve the behavior and academic performance of children with emotional and behavioral difficulties? British Journal of Special Education 25, 2:88-91.

Furnham, A., and Bradley, A., (1997) Music while you work: The differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11:445-455.

Barbara Murck is a Geologist and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of Toronto, Mississauga as well as a Wiley author.