Compared to music today, the music of the past is often looked at fondly by older generations but also disliked by their kids. The same goes vice-versa. Kids often think of the new music that’s releasing today as the best music of all time, and their parents don’t like it. However, one thing that’s commonly unknown is what kind of music our teachers like. 

After conducting many interviews with numerous Ipswich High School teachers, it’s been decided that there is no correlation between teachers and taste in music, everybody likes something different. Our answers ranged from jazz music to disco, and Taylor Swift to Radiohead. Every song and artist changed from teacher to teacher.

In our first interview, we learned of the more classy taste of everyone’s favorite physics teacher Mr. Poranski. When asked about his favorite genre of music, he quickly replied that his music taste “really depends on my mood; however, I prefer jazz and blues music. Depending on how I’m feeling, sometimes I like to switch it up to classical and country music as well.” Despite having a more refined taste in music, Mr. Poranski also stated that he loved the late 60s to the early 80s as well: “Everything from The Grateful Dead to the Police.” 

In our second interview, we met with perhaps one of the most musical teachers in the school who’s not in the music department, Mr. Hughes. As many of his students know, Mr. Hughes has quite the impressive record collection that he keeps in his classroom. When asked about his favorite record, Mr. Hughes quickly replied with In Rainbows by Radiohead despite his favorite song, “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead, being off of a different album.

As the generation gap narrows between teachers and students, some of the music becomes more familiar. When we interviewed Mrs. Hayoz, she was interested in “current music but I like 90s music as well.” Mostly, her interests lie in the late nineties and early 2000’s pop, with her favorite album being Spice by the Spice Girls. Although she likes older pop music, she also has a soft spot for more modern pop with her favorite song being “July” by Noah Cyrus.

In our fourth interview, we spoke with Mrs. Eliard who has quite a unique taste in music as she doesn’t really have a specific “taste.” When asked about her favorite genre, Mrs. Eliard replied that she didn’t “really have a favorite, I like everything. Although, I hate ‘Butt Rock’ which is basically Nickelback.” Although she loves everything, her favorite era of music comes from the 1940s swing era of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday being the standouts.

Finally, perhaps with the best responses, is Mr. Ames. Many people assume Mr. Ames to be a man of rock music, but nobody expects him to be a huge disco and pop music fan. This love for disco is apparent when he states that he“ loves the 70’s and 80’s the most for what music came out of those decades, and would much rather listen to those eras than the 60’s.” His favorite song is “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson, and his favorite bands include the Bee Gees, Beatles, and the Eagles. He’s a man of many genres.

In conclusion, determining a teacher’s music taste based on what they seem like they listen to is practically impossible. In some cases, like the case of Mr. Hughes, it’s a bit easier to see what he likes as he has the records in his classroom. However, with teachers like Mr. Ames, I would never suspect him to be a Kelly Clarkson fan. But in the end, everyone’s taste in music is different, and there’s no changing that.