Lyrical Wizardry – Celia Warrick

Pythagoras may be satisfied with melody as a carrier for spirituality and the soul, but I think that modern music definitely has another string to its bow – lyrics, in all their complex or banal glory. Songs of almost any type can be a goldmine of philosophical stimuli, and some of them may well surprise you. From the sugary chart-toppers to the obscure and pretentious, music and lyrics are just sitting there waiting to be used to excite young minds. I think that there are too many ‘categories’ of lyrical genius to explore all of them here, so I have settled for the four that I think are most useful and that I have used myself in a dedicated scheme of work:

Girls Aloud are looking for God

The epitome of trashy pop music that says nothing at all, Girls Aloud have had a string of hits discussing their (rather varied) love lives. This subject matter is so widely used as to almost fade into the background – so many chart songs are about ‘love’ that the word ceases to mean as much as perhaps it should. The reason I’m going on about love songs is because the theologian Kelton Cobb has asserted that they can act as a ‘call to the divine,’ and I think this brings out some great ideas for use in the classroom. Cobb was specifically talking about Elvis when he wrote about love being a placeholder for an intangible ‘something’, but it can easily be applied to a plethora of other artists. I used this idea at school by first holding a class discussion on the meaning of the word ‘love’, then linking to the passage in Corinthians that directly calls God love and finally delving into some situation ethics to find the most ‘loving’ thing to do in classical ethical dilemmas. Year 8 loved it, although they weren’t so impressed with Cobb, as they thought it was unfair to say someone was singing about God if they weren’t religious.

Brand New are Bonhoeffer in disguise

Perhaps one for high ability GCSE or A-level, Brand New are a particularly sophisticated band whose opinions on theology spill out through their music and lyrics. They come across as particularly Bonhoefferian and may serve as an illustration of how a ‘real’ person’s belief can follow the ideas of an eminent theologian. The song The Archers’ Bows Have Broken is a song about a sort of hollow faith, with the lines “beating with a book everyone the book tells you to love” and “the God I believe in never worked on a campaign trail” getting straight to the heart of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ideas on religiosity and real faith. The song Jesus Christ contain many allusions to the afterlife and a doubting brand of faith that can be used to discuss real engagement with faith, and how an individual’s faith may waver throughout their life – very useful when discussing definitions of the agnostic spectrum!

David Bazan makes a good case for atheism

If we’re discussing disillusioned faith, David Bazan is the poster child for the de-converted – a former Assemblies of God member who led the Christian rock band Pedro The Lion, Bazan turned away from his faith and wrote a solo album that he described as a ‘break-up letter with God.’ As may be expected, it’s full of reasons not to believe and can provide a great stimulus for classes to draw out more nuanced ideas for atheism. I have had a very successful lesson with the song Hard To Be: this song talks primarily about the creation myth and through its language draws parallels with children’s stories which made it a brilliant start to a lesson on the dialogue between religion and science. There is also some mention of his family’s reaction to his atheism, which may be useful for older classes. I found that the students responded really well to having the lyrics on the board and picking through them for themselves, asking questions and arguing against each other’s interpretations. Of course, depending on the group’s ability the amount of teacher input and explanation may vary somewhat, but even my lwoest ability year 8 were able to do this to some degree.

Basshunter and religious language

If Bazan and Brand New are a bit too alternative for the average teenager, then perhaps we should look to the cheesiest of chart music for our theological fix – I have had great success using the Basshunter track Angel in the Night to discuss religious and secular culture (although beware the scantily-clad ladies in the official video…). As a class we discussed who the ‘angel’ in the song was, the actual meaning of the word and then moved on to talking about how religious ideas found their way into secular culture. We finished on the deliberately provocative question “should non-Christians celebrate Christmas?” to bring together all the ideas about the links between religious and secular ways of life. Of course, this can be done with any track containing a word with religious origin – Bryan Adams’ Heaven, Robbie Williams’ Angels, Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer…

Using lyrics as a stimulus may seem like a bit of a risk – what if the students miss the point? What if they can’t interpret them at all? What if the link is too tenuous? – but I think it’s definitely worth it. After all, you can always steer the students towards the ‘correct’ interpretation, although often their own ideas can be very revealing too. A final tip would be to select specific lines to focus on after a general discussion about the lyrics and to put these up on the board. You can keep drawing attention back to the focus, and any other ideas can be written down for another time.

Celia Warrick

Summer 2012