History Singing Battle

Gallery: Students in Justin Vantassel’s History Class Make Creative Music Videos and Rewrite Songs of their Choice to be History-Relevant

Rap Battle - Sophomores Montana Whitehurst, Anna Brooks and Tessa Cooper rewrite the song “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea, featuring Charli xcx. They rewrote the song to be a rap about England and Spain.

Reason Back - Sophomores Molly Burton, Lily Money and Kayleigh Mitchell rewrote the song “Sexyback” by Justin Timberlane. They renamed it “Reason back” and wrote it about Enlightenment thinkers. The photo shows John Locke, an Enlightenment thinker, talking about his belief of Natural Rights.

Absolutism - Sophomores Brant Bolyard and Bennet Gluesenkamp rewrite the song “Chicken fried” by Zac Brown Band about Absolutism. They sing about how an Absolutism king enjoys ruling over all his citizens and the power he holds.

Monopoly - Sophomores Christopher Foos, William Beaty and Ford Hogges chose the song “In da club” by Ice Cube to rewrite about Imperialism. In this part of their video, they decided to add a picture of Monopoly cards.

Shake It off - Sophomores Sadie Dixon and Mackenzie Kittrell recreate Taylor Swift's song “Shake it Off” to be about the famous explorer, Christopher Colombus.

Enlightenment - Sophomores Lluna Miro, Madison Wainwright and Jose Aguilar agreed on the topic “Enlightenment and Revolution” for their project. They chose to do the song “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield.

California Girls - Sophomores Jediah Stewart, Nathan Main and Austin Vanlandingham remake Katy Perry’s hit song “California Girls” to be about the Industrial Revolution. They turn their project into a music video featuring many of their friends. Pictured is Shaw Sembler and Jediah Stewart.

Industrial Revolution - Sophomores Bailey Thomsen and Kennedy Land rewrite “Poker face” by Lady Gaga. They decided on the topic: Industrial Revolution and Napoleon.

Imperialism - Sophomores Lilly Bell, Addison Liepshutz and Halle Hercule write about imperialism and colonialism using the song “Got money” by Lil Wayne.

Josephine - Sophomores Julian Seiler, David Morris and Zach Revell chose to rewrite the song “Billie Jean” by Micheal Jackson. They chose Napoleon Bonaparte as their topic and renamed the song “Josephine,” the name of Napoleon’s former wife.

Photos by Kayleigh Mitchell/Maclay Andalusian