Motown Lip- Sync+Dance-Black History Month

I don’t know about you, but listening to Motown Music can always brighten my day. Me and my 5 month old son, Ezra, often have kitchen dance parties where we jam out to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, or “Respect”. Not only is Motown music so fun to listen to, but it is rooted in such rich history of empowerment for African-American artists during the Civil Rights Movement. I’m going to share with you a couple of Motown songs I taught my students for the Black History Month program last year. They are great for in-person or online, because you can have the students lip-sync the songs! Let’s dive in.

Before we get into the songs, I like to teach my students a brief background. If your school has access to “BrainPop” there is an extremely informative video about Motown & how it intersects with the Civil Rights Era. Motown music has such a rich history and it surprised me to learn that it started out as a record label founded by Berry Gordy Jr. The Motown label was founded in 1959, which was in the Civil Rights Era. It was a record label that gave talented African-American musicians such as The Temptations, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder, a place to record their music and rise to the top of the music charts.

The Motown Sound:

• Call & Response Vocals-taken from church singing
• Shimmering percussions brought to the forefront
• Horns & Strings
• Lyrics with simple, stripped-down melodies
• A style of soul music with a distinct pop influence

“Do You Love Me” by The Contours

I always show my students the original version of the song first and introduce the artists. Then we learned the dance in the second video. This song is so fun to lip sync to. I picked one student from each class to do the talking part at the beginning. Even if you don’t end up doing this song for a program, it’s great way to get all the wiggles out.

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

For this song, I picked a couple of students to lip-sync the main parts and the rest of the students did the dance in the background. This would be a great song to show your students and then maybe ignite a lip-sync battle.

There are so more Motown lip-sync ideas from Baldwin Hills Elementary on Youtube for songs like “Uptight” by Stevie Wonder, “My Girl” by The Temptations, and “Dancing in the Street” by Martha & The Vandellas. The videos from this school definitely inspired me! You could even have each of your classes learn a different song and then do a lip-sync battle between classes.

I hope that this post has given you some inspiration! Motown music is such a great way to highlight African-American musicians while teaching the importance of the Civil Rights Movement. Also, I’d love to hear what you are teaching for Black History Month this year! So please reach out and let me know! You can find me on Instagram or Facebook. If you’re interested in teaching ukulele this month, check out my blog post called “Black History Month Ukulele Songs.”

Keepin’ it simple,

Paige