6. lipnja, zahvaljujući suradnji naše škole s Affiliate American Corner Zagreb, u našoj školi gostovao je američki profesor Mark Sawin, s fakulteta Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia. Učenici su saznali puno zanimljivih detalja o korijenima rock`n`roll glazbe u SAD-u te čuti i vidjeti originalnu glazbu iz tog vremena, instrumente i izvođače. Bilo je poučno i zabavno! 

Ovdje su i komentari nekolicine učenika koji su govore o tome koliko su znali o ovoj temi prije predavanje, što su naučili i kako su doživjeli predavanje i predavača.

Snježana Liović, prof.

On 6th June, thanks to the Affiliate American Corner Zagreb, our school hosted Mark Sawin, a US history professor from Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia. He talked about the roots of rock`n`roll in an interactive and really interesting lecture. Here are comments from some students who revealed what they knew about music beforehand and what they took home from this great event.

To be honest, I didn`t know much about the history of rock`n`roll. I knew about Sister Rosetta Tharape because when I was still attending music school , our teacher always mentioned her and how her skills amazed him. Also, the origins of Blues because my father talked about them once. I learned the fact that I didn’t know, that the United States of America was almost named the United States of Appalachia so that was interesting. Also, the term “Rock n’ Roll” has been traced back as far as the 1920 in black music. It intrigued me that black people quicky adapted  European instruments and started making music with them. It was funny when they mentioned the singer called “Big Momma”. I previously stated that I knew little about Sister Rosetta Tharpe but when I saw the video in which she was playing the guitar, I finally fully understood why my music teacher was so obsessed with her skills. I have to mention Elvis Presley because it was a shock  to me that people viewed him as evil as we all know how he changed the view of Rock n’ Roll. I listened to him and the moves he did always made me laugh and enjoy his music. I`ve always admired his talent. I liked the lecturer because he was relaxed and really enjoyed talking about Rock n’ Roll. While presenting, he made jokes to entertain us, which was also nice.
All in all, I really enjoyed the topic and the lecturers way of presenting it to us so I would rate the lecture a 10 out of 10.                                                                                           Dino, 17

I knew certain information about rock’n’roll beforehand. I knew about some bands and performers, but not much more than that so I learned many things from the lecture. I learned about where and how rock’n’roll started, I learned about the first forms of making music e.g. jazz and I learned about various performers. The lecture was very useful and calm! The presenter is very nice and funny and that had a huge impact on the lecture. I learned many things from this interesting lecture, maybe I will even listen to some rock’n’roll later.                                                                                                          Ana, 16

Before the lecture I only knew who Elvis Presley was but I did not know much about him. At the lecture I learned his whole background story, who Big Mama Tharpe was and much about the beginnings of rock n roll. The lecturer had quite a lot of knowledge on the subject and was also very comunicative. I liked him the most out of all the American Corner lectures that we participated in.                                                                                        Luka, 17

Before the lecture I honestly didn’t know much about the history of Rock ‘n’ roll. I only knew that they thought of Elvis as someone who was evil and inappropriate at that time. I learned many new things, for example, I learned that Rock ‘n’ roll was born by the people from different parts of the country. They made it by mixing their sounds. Also I learned that the term Rock ‘n’ roll was first used by the disc jockey Alan Freed in the early 1950’s. I really liked the lecture. I thought that professor Sawin did a really good job explaining everything, also I liked that he put music into the presentation so that we can get an idea how people from that time sounded.                                                          Jakov, 17

Before the presentation I knew some things about rock ‘n’ roll, such as some of the songs and artists. I knew about Elvis Presley, some of his songs and a few facts about him that were said because I watched a movie based on his life. The presentation was full of new and interesting facts about rock ‘n’ roll. The most interesting things I’ve learned were about women in rock ‘n’ roll. This is my favorite presentation. I liked video examples of the songs and live performances.                                                                                      Dora, 16