Time to update your facilities artwork with this collaborative Music History project
Let your participants take ownership of your music room by creating a full timeline of recorded music from the invention of the phonograph to the present day! Participants nominate and vote on the most influential or most iconic artist from each decade and assemble them into a chronological list. This is a great activity to expose teens to a ton of new artists; learn a lot about the history of music, and create some very cost effective artwork for your space
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How to…
Select artists from all eras of popular recorded music
Have listening parties
Read bios
Watch YouTube videos
Copy and paste pictures from the different websites into a Google spreadsheet
Research each artist beginning and ending career dates
Let the participants nominate and vote on the artists that they think should represent each era or genre
Print full list of pictures, artist names, and dates
Cut each element out and arrange them on a laminator sheet
Once laminated, have groups cut out each element and try to match, rearrange, and order the timeline on the floor
While your group is hanging the pictures, have a group of teens curate a playlist on Spotify or YouTube for each artist’s five most popular songs
Use the different colors of tapes to define each decade of artists
Find major music events throughout popular music to tape directly onto the middle of the timeline colored tape
Continually update the timeline
Optional – include your participants in the timeline as well as a fun and motivational bonus!
