Additionally, "listening" is seriously under-theorized and under-studied in the research world of education, despite how much of our educational schemas and schooling systems relies on students' and teachers' listening. This study begins to fill the knowledge gap around both of these major areas of song and listening (both in a group context and alone, both in a stationary setting and on the move). This study is a design-based research study, meaning that there is a design in place (the structure of Song Club) that we use to ask questions about the design itself (which can be iteratively refined in cycles) and about the phenomena that the design is meant to highlight (here, learning critical social ideas through conversation about song).

What’s Song Club about?

Participants in Song Club engage in reflective conversations based on close listening to lyrics, sounds, and the affective, imaginative, and moving/rhythmic qualities of song. The goal of this study is to examine the learning experience of participants in a Song Club, which, like a book club, aims to take seriously popular music submitted by participants for listening in the group setting. In Song Club activities, we expect participants’ understandings of and stance towards social or cultural issues proposed for club sessions will change over the course of their participation in Song Club activities. We will use brief surveys, interviews, and video recordings for a qualitative, thematic analysis of these changes through participation in Song Club.

Why a research study?

The data from the Song Club project will be used to better understand how people conceptualize songs and their meanings in relation to their daily lives and to the societies in which they live. The goal of this study is to examine the learning experience of participants in a Song Club, which, like a book club, aims to take seriously popular music submitted by participants for listening in the group setting. Research participants will leave the study with a better sense for how they use song to relate to their world, how diverse interpretations of songs provide us new avenues of thought (just like poems and novels have), and how the context in which we listen shapes our experience of that to which we listen. 

These are my two overarching research questions:

1. How is it different listening together than listening alone?

2. How does this session provide a pivot for us to understand how social change and music collaborate?

I have these questions, but this session is not about my questions, it’s about your experience. I’m designing this for people. You’re here for me in the sense that you’re helping me understand how to do this well. But really I’m also here for you: lyrics if you want them, instruments if you want them, and so on. Listening together is different. Now that we’re together, what can we do that we couldn’t otherwise? We’re animating the song, not just analyzing it.

What’s it like?

We meet up on either a Thursday or Friday evening, with snacks and drinks. We get started by going around the circle and having everyone share which song they contributed to that session’s themed playlist and why. Then, researchers reveal the focal song for the evening from that same playlist. We listen to the song in several rounds, making observations and building our understanding of what the song is doing and how. Curious?

What’s it like?

We meet up regularly with snacks and drinks. We get started by going around the circle and having everyone share which song they contributed to that session’s themed playlist and why. Then, researchers reveal the focal song for the evening from that same playlist. We listen to the song in several rounds, making observations and building our understanding of what the song is doing and how. Curious?