Professor Cheryl Foster designed an innovative assignment for her political theory class (PSC 341), asking students to find songs that thematically match sections of the Magna Carta.
 
Students were tasked (in groups during class) with selecting a specific piece of music to mirror the preoccupations/major themes of an assigned section from the Magna Carta primary document, which they had read and annotated for homework.
 
Some of the songs included were “Steal My Girl” by One Direction, which described the protections against immoral abuse of women by those in power; “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan, which described the protections against the random use of land seizures and taxation by a monarch; and “Karma Police” by Radiohead, which described the need for clear rules and a fair justice system to protect people’s rights, especially after King John treated people unfairly and abused his power.
 
A link to the playlist and the complete list of songs and descriptions can be found below:
 
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FFsGYboJzuBamHzhTcico?si=56107509734e4e80&pt=5c18f5ca33b8cd76c18d76fcc430b00d
 
Hurricane: resistance to and invocation of a pattern of wrongful imprisonment
 
Taxman: indiscriminate and irresponsible taxation by the sovereign
 
Steal My Girl: safeguards against immoral abuse of wives, widows, and women by monarchs or those in power
 
Bad Boys: rebuke to illegal use of royally-appointed sheriffs and accountability for other ill-behaved local administrators
 
Dirty Work: Baronetcy safeguards against ill-gotten and indiscriminate use of conscription, taxation, and land seizures by the monarch
 
The Hanging Tree: appeal to solidarity and habeas corpus in the wake of arbitrary, inconsistent, and abusive trial/civic practices by the sovereign
 
Riot: naturally-felt injustice and a cry for change in the face of persistent abuses by monarch
 
Karma Police: Appeal to structural regulations based on rights and replacement system of justice in the wake of King John’s abuses