Going beyond aspects of basic language acquisition to the topics of cultural awareness and idiomatic language use, B. Lee Cooper argues that studying song lyrics can help American students’ understanding of their own popular culture and history in “Learning from Popular Music” (1991). Song lyrics can be used as topics for discussion in advanced classes in language and literature at the secondary and university levels. For example, lyrics from folk songs of the 1960s criticized prevailing political and philosophical opinions and beliefs, such as Country Joe McDonald’s satirical anti-Vietnam War protest song “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” (1967) (“Well it’s one-two-three what are we fighting for?/don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn/next stop is Vietnam/well it’s five-six-seven open up the Pearly Gates/ain’t no need to wonder why/Whoopee! We’re all going to die”), while other songs were written in support of mainstream positions, such as Merle Haggard’s country music hit “Okie from Muskogee” (Burris and Haggard 1969) (“I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee/a place where even squares can have a ball/they still fly Old Glory down by the courthouse/and white lightning’s still the biggest thrill of all”), and Sgt. Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Berets” (Moore and Sadler 1966) (“Silver wings upon their chest/These are men, America’s best”), which ignored the political aspects of the war and focused instead on a “support our troops” theme.
Nursery rhymes such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella,” like Biblical parables, inculcate in young children the mores and norms of society. For example, the theme of “Little Red Riding Hood” is that it is dangerous for young girls to go out into the woods (symbolizing the wide world) alone. If they do they are likely to run into danger, but if they are lucky, a strong man will come along to save them; similarly, in “Cinderella,” a pretty young girl can only rise in society if she is able to attract a man from a higher class. However, this is so unusual, it requires some form of magic to work. These overt messages in stories from an older, patriarchal time still pervade the early conditioning of children. Commercial adaptations of these stories build on their basic mores and norms, using them implicitly to impart a different message. Sometimes, these mores and norms become items of propaganda in the culture wars, as in Disney movies and other Hollywood films such as Clint
Eastwood westerns and the Rambo series. Discussion and analysis of the overt
and covert messages in such songs and films can help students develop both their understanding of their own and other cultures, and hone their analytical skills in identifying and decoding hidden messages and agendas. This kind of analysis is the basis of much of late twentieth century philosophical and literary scholarship, such as the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida and the cultural analysis of writers like Roland Barthes. Young children learn how to read the multiple meanings in commercial entertainment; class discussion can help them sharpen their critical skills, and avoid jumping to conclusions and mistaking opinion for fact.