How was a womans place in society altered as a result of World War II?
• Ask student groups to prepare PowerPoint presentations on issues related to jazz and World War II. Some possibilities are the effect of the war experience on musicians, the shift in popularity from swing to bebop, the symbolism associated with World War II era popular songs, and the issue of race in jazz and in World War II. • Ask students to prepare song lyric analyses of World War II era popular songs. They can access song lyrics to all the most popular songs at Lyrics World. Have them try to find recordings of the songs they selected and present the song and their analyses to the class. Possible ideas for analysis could include the following: ways in which women are portrayed; stereotypes which appear in the lyrics; and reinforcement or challenges to American values of the period.
