Pop music is notoriously ephemeral. In fact, many of the hottest chart toppers from recent years already have faded into the dusty annals of stardom.

Yet, get into a conversation with the average 15-year-old and he or she will happily rave about their favorite artists. Still, while these young people may have strong feelings about which artists truly matter and have staying power, can they support their claims using a strong argument backed by analysis?

That's exactly what a new project launched this year by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum asks students to do. "Voice Your Choice," a national project that invites students to create their own inductee class, aims to help teach students to make aesthetic judgments and learn history through music.

"We try to teach kids in the 7th-12th grades how to articulate their own aesthetic standards," says Lauren Onkey, Vice President for Education and Public Programs at the Rock Hall. "That's really hard to do, because a lot of the time when we're talking about music we love, we just love it. But why? This project is about developing our own criteria and describing them in detail."

The project garnered video and essay submissions from 25 schools around the country, as well as one in Canada and Australia. This week, as a flurry of Induction Week activities happen in Cleveland, the Rock Hall will host a group of educators for a teacher development workshop focused around "Voice Your Choice."

"One of the things that teachers struggle with are content standards in different disciplinary subjects," says Onkey, who adds that the Rock Hall's on site educational programs reach 20,000 students each year and thousands more through distance learning offerings and curricula it shares with teachers. "They tell us this is a really great teaching tool for getting at those standards."

Voice Your Choice is also a great tool for reaching students in their own milieu. "An artist from the 1950s might as well be from the 1850s for many young people. Yet if music is presented in the right way, they'll embrace it from all over the map."

Source: Lauren Onkey
Writer: Lee Chilcote