I would like to bring in some music for some English lessons but I feel like the songs I used to do in class are not really connecting.
I am teaching 18-20 year olds in university. I remember even 7 or 8 years back students liked listening to Taylor Swift, Chainsmokers, Bruno Mars etc. But these days all of my students only seem to be into Korean pop idols or Nogizaka 46, etc. Am I just hopelessly out of date or have young Japanese people stopped listening to English music?
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Just ask them what English music they know! I found that was easier.
Bring in Eminem , everyone loves Eminem 🎉🎉
Nope. No one listens to English music.
Ariana grande, Ed Sheeran, and Justin Bieber. Never heard anyone in that age group mention anything else (aside from diehard western music fans)
Young people have stopped listening to music period, or at least in the way that older people used to listen to it, as a stand-alone art. Music’s listened to in conjunction with, say, Tik-Tok videos or games; as background music in You Tube videos; or as a streaming experience curated on whatever algorithm happens to be in play.
Billie Eilish or Clario might ring some bells with students, or see if some Bandcamp top artists might work.
I just finished a project with senior high school students about music.
Some popular artists they mentioned were Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, etc.
BTS, TWICE, and a few other kpop bands are popular and have songs with lyrics in English.
Edit: Japanese artists One Ok Rock, Man With a Mission, and Sekai no Owari have recent hits in English.
even if they know it they might not go mad for it.
Listen to the front page of tik tok and pick out the famous English songs. That wellerman sea shanty is popular here now.
In my Swedish class in university my prof made it an assignment. The first few times she provided the songs and lyrics sheets but after that we formed groups, found the music on our own and made fill in the lyrics sheets for everyone and presented it. She was a fun prof
Disney songs even in English work pretty well
The artists I hear mentioned most often from my students are Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, and One Direction.
Go on spotify and check the Japanese charts. You will see plenty of English music that most of them know
Billie Eilish seems popular.
I think it is hard to say. I am that age range but I have always been interested in English culture.
I think maybe because the internet is used by most people, it has meant that exposure to English culture is not as special as it was before, so it does not have the same excitement as something new because it is already known.
I am not sure if this is relevant, but I will still type. When I was younger, I would often see people talking about European stereotypes being attractive (blonde hair and blue eyes), but at the moment, I see more people talking the same thing about Korean idols, so perhaps this is the reason that there has been a change.
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It’s a tough one. If you give them a simple activity to do while watching the video it can make a huge difference. A lot of my English majors are still into pop music.
I try to find videos that tie into the theme of the lesson. OK Go Needing/Getting has the Super Bowl car commercial which most of my students think is nuts. Boston Dynamics released a video of their dog robots dancing to The Rolling Stones Start Me Up. Those two are usually hits.
Thats the problem with groupthink, once something is the new IN thing, everyone shifts over to that thing i.e. Korean pop music. That said, I had a student come and talk to me about UK hip-hop the other day. It was refreshing.
Hell i dont even listen to english music these days. Kpop all the way and occasionally some artists from the 88 rising crew
Let me help you: Justin Bieber, Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes, and Ed Sheeran
I found that since most kids don’t listen to as much music as previous generations the benefit of English songs in class is better than in the past.
Want to play a song from the 50s? They love it.
Want to play a commercial jingle from the 70s? Great. They love it.
Want to play a song from Ed Sheeran? They love it.
In the past, the attitude toward old was a greater barrier to entry for young students. Today, kids don’t have a strong opinion about modern English language music and so they don’t have generational bias against older music. Choosing songs that match the grammar point or vocabulary area is far far easier as a result
I just play some of the weirdest stuff I can find. It’s great to get them talking about new music.
My junior high school students like One Direction and English K-pop songs. Maybe you can try those.
When I first came (nearly two decades ago), English language music and film was the popular music and film; now it’s niche. But, I guess popular music has become more generic overall in the past decade.
Browse TikTok
Seriously all the English songs they know come from there
Bruno mars just did a show in Osaka and in Tokyo and it was wildly popular.
It’s way, way less than when I first came in 2003. I think better j-pop and the arrival of k-pop is why. But a lot of my uni students still know, say Ariana Grande.
TikTok has re-exposed so many students to Western music again. K-pop and J-pop might be what they know the most about, but I have a “Popular TikTok Songs” playlist that I use during class, and 12 ~ 18 year olds are bobbing up and down. I ask them how they know the song and their response is always “I heard it on TikTok!”
Start a conversation, and make a connection to English music that’s similar. Spotify etcm gives you access to any music you’d want to use at a moment’s notice.
A ton of elementary school kids here in Inaka, are exposed to Man with a Mission through their parents.
So I show them Four Year Strong’s Rise or Die Trying album, and. . .
. . . they can’t get enough of it.
Obviously FYS and MWAM are very different bands, but there’s overlap that can spark an interesting conversation.
My older teacher friends were fans of Mr. Children, and some YouTube Japanese Ska/Punk/Reggae. . .
. . . but had yet to hear Goldfinger, Sublime or RX Bandits.
It’s hard for people to discover the music overlap when it comes to what countries are putting out.
There’s tons of amazing local Japanese bands that fit my aesthetic, but unless I know where to look, I’m missing out.
I’m sure it’s the same for alot of Japanese people with English music.
I’m not seeing any love for Olivia Rodrigo in this thread. She was the break-out artist of 2022, with at least 4 singles hitting Top 40.