The Teaching History Her Way Podcast · CherylAnne Amendola

Teaching with Rock and Roll: Using Music to Bring History to Life with Drew Fortune

·33 min·2 clips

Drew names “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” as classroom staples.

Sherrilyn Amendola opens with a familiar idea: history should tell a fuller human story. She brings on Drew Fortune, who teaches world history and a rock and roll history course in North Carolina, because he has a knack for turning music into an entry point for social studies. The conversation starts with Bob Dylan. From there, Drew explains how songs can help students notice social movements, identity, and culture without turning those ideas into empty vocabulary. He keeps bringing it back to the classroom. That focus matters, because the episode is interested in music as a teaching tool, not just as trivia. Old media comes up next. Records, cassettes, Walkmans, and eight tracks become part of the lesson, not because nostalgia is the point, but because the format changes how students understand listening. The host leans in. That back and forth makes the conversation feel like two teachers working through what happens when students can see, touch, and compare the technologies that carried songs across generations. The episode also makes room for practical classroom resources. Drew points to materials teachers can use instead of starting from scratch, including examples that pair blues and jazz with Great Depression study. The tone stays warm. Even as the discussion moves across examples and details, it keeps circling the same point: music can make history feel immediate and socially legible. The throughline is clear. The show treats music as a bridge between content knowledge and student curiosity, which fits its larger interest in story, critical thinking, and connecting the past to the present. Teachers looking for ways to bring rock and roll, format history, and cultural analysis into social studies will find an episode that is practical and easy to use.

As heard by us

Rock and roll becomes a practical way to connect history, culture, and classroom attention.

This episode treats rock and roll less as background and more as a teaching tool. Drew Fortune makes the case that music can help students approach history, social movements, identity, and culture without reducing the lesson to a pile of dates.

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Why you'd press play

Use music to make history feel audible, concrete, and classroom-ready.

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