GAConf22: Vinyl Revival: using a retro resource in the modern classroom - #14 of many

The latest in a series of posts showcasing sessions which are included in the programme for the GA Conference in April 2022.

One of the stand out sessions for me from last year's virtual conference was by John Wilkinson, who talked about geographies of sport, with reference to a number of books, including one on the surprise success of the Icelandic Football team which I then had to purchase to add to my growing range of books.

This year's session from John is about music, and particularly LPs.

As someone who had a very large collection of vinyl and remembers the joy of a purchase, reading the sleeve notes and then placing the needle in the spiral and hearing the crackle and hiss, this sounds a little nostalgic as well as, inevitably, adding some depth to some curriculum thinking I've been doing around music that never quite got finished.

I used to take albums out of the Rotherham Public Library (although the middle 'l' was often 'Tipp-Exed' out of the cardboard carriers that were used to take the LPs home) 

Here's a description of the session:

From the Beatles to David Bowie, Bjork to Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds, music always offers socio-economic commentary capturing the zeitgeist. 

Vinyl records’ music, lyrics and artwork offer a cache of invaluable qualitative information representing sense of place, lived experience and cultural identity. 

This lecture considers techniques, strategies and examples of integrating music into lessons focussing on Changing Places. 

John Wilkinson, Head of Geography, St Edwards College, Liverpool, Honorary Lecturer, Geography Department, University of Liverpool 

Lecture Plus 

KS3-P16

Image: Former National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield (now part of Sheffield Hallam Students Union) - image shared under CC license by Alan Parkinson