Pop Icons: The Osmonds and Jackson 5

I chose The Osmonds and Jackson 5 as my popular music “artifacts” mainly because I grew up watching them on television as a young girl and their impact on American teens. As a refresher, the Osmonds and the Jackson 5 were famous American pop family icons in the late 60’s, 70’s and beyond. My mother, aunts, and uncles have often shared stories about growing up next door to a European-American family in St. Paul in the 60’s and 70’s which had its ups and downs. While they do not recollect interacting with them much socially, they do remember getting together occasionally to share their latest Osmond and Jackson 5 albums, an example of how pop culture can bring folks together. My mother remembers these moments as valuable, particularly in the 60’s and 70’s when families mainly socialized within their own ethnic and cultural groups.

From my perspective (although born in 1973) the 70’s was a time of societal transformation as we were integrated racially and culturally as a country, not necessarily because we were forced, but it was the right thing to do. Given my limited knowledge of the timeframe “clues” I can identify is that of American trying to “brand” or recreate the image of the American family via the use of television and other forms of popular culture. This new image was informed by and a reflection of what was going in society at large—politics, education, technology, etc and sought to create an updated successful, hip image. A shift from early attempts like the sitcom Leave it to Beaver in 1957. The reality was many American families at this time did not quite fit into the suburban family thing.

One question I ponder is: was it of coincidence that one family was of European-American and the other African-American descent Television was a major appeal in the 70’s with both families appearing regularly on well known variety shows were viewed by many American households. The Jackson’s were the first African-American teen idols to appeal equally to white audiences. In light of integration and ideas highlighted in the McDonald article on high and mass culture, their placement and timing was manipulated from “above” creating mass appeal while modeling integration. In this case a win, win situation.

Other clue pointing to popular culture status is both groups were eventually made into cartoons and aired on Saturday morning. Not only an indicator of star status, but appealing to America’s youth. The notion of “teenager” (at this time) was only about 50 years old. Teens were being viewed as consumers and contributor to our society as opposed to a threat to American morality. Adults, one can speculate, were equally lured by the music of these groups as well which may have contributed to better relationships among adults and teens.

I think my approach to incorporating popular culture in history education would be to begin were the learner are by allowing them to choose groups/bands they enjoy and are familiar with. One problem I may face is finding groups with lyrics to serve an educational purpose. I would then allow them to delve deeply into a song that we both can agree to on in search of social, political, environmental theme and articulate what it meant for this timeframe. I really enjoy the idea presented by White, allowing them to then re-create and share the lyrics the broader class. Next, I would introduce the above groups by playing one of their popular hits, or a taping of them on one of the variety shows, then allow reflection and dialogue in their interpretations. I would repeat the previously shared activity of delving into lyrics. To bring this full circle, each student would create a written response comparing and contrast issues found during each time and its implication to today’s world.