IT'S LIKE TRYING TO FIND GOLD IN A SILVER MINE: USING TOPICAL MUSIC TO CALM THE MINDS OF INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY STUDENTS

Music is a universal language and this presentation springs from an assignment in an introductory geology course where students were asked to find song lyrics that related to a certain aspect of presented material and write a short commentary on its relationship. As expected, many focused on some aspect of lyrics that included ROCK. However, some very interesting material was presented and is reported here.

Following this assignment, YouTube videos were played prior to the start of class during the settling down period and it was discovered that many of the songs could be categorized in the following manner. Here are a few selections for a variety of topics.

Geology in General: Brad Paisley - Geology.

Geologic Time: Rolling Stones – Time Is on My Side, Ratfish Wranglers – Ages of Rock and Science with Tom – Fossil Rock.

Minerals: Neil Young – Heart of Gold, Walter Egan - Magnet and Steel and Johnny Cash – I’m Just an Old Hunk of Coal.

Rocks: Queen – We Will Rock You, Bob Seger – Like a Rock and Simon and Garfunkel – I am a Rock.

Sediments: Jimmy Buffett – Stranded on a Sand Bar, Jim Reeves - Sand in my Shoes and Pete Seeger – One Grain of Sand.

Tectonics: Amoeba People – Continental Drift: Alfred Wegener Song, Carole King – I Feel the Earth Move Under my Feet, John Denver - Rocky Mountain High and Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

Volcanoes: Jimmy Buffett – Volcano, The Dead Milkmen – Born to Love Volcanoes and Billy Jonas – Old Mt. St. Helens.

Planetary Geology: Dan Fogelberg – Ever On and Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising.

Surficial Processes: Cat Stevens – The Wind, Fleetwood Mac – Landslide, America - Horse with No Name and Brad Paisley – Riverbank

Earthquakes: Doobie Brothers – Livin’ on a Fault Line and Cass Elliott – California Earthquake.

Environmental Concerns: John Anderson – Seminole Wind and John Prine – Paradise.

From the personal favorites category, songs were also used to commemorate significant events, such as Abraham, Martin and John on the anniversary of the assassination of M.L. King and the passing of Christine McVie with Everywhere. See the World by Brett Dennen was used early in the course to encourage students to go outside and Jack Johnson’s Calm Down was used prior to exams.

Conceptually, this worked very well and received high “marks” from the students and some of these were their suggestions and personal favorites! Complete playlist is available by request.