Music educators, get ready to amplify your classrooms for Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) 2025! The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) has announced the inspiring theme: “United Through Music.” To help you and your students dive deep into this theme, we’re excited to share a creative and engaging activity centered around exploring diverse music songs.
This year’s theme, “United Through Music,” is a call to celebrate the unifying power of music song in our schools and communities. What better way to explore this than through a “musical March madness”-style song bracket? This fun, interactive approach encourages students to listen critically and vote for their favorite music songs, fostering engagement and musical discovery.
For several years, educators have successfully used song brackets to celebrate MIOSM®. To align with the “United Through Music” theme, the 2025 song bracket will spotlight music songs that beautifully blend two or more genres or musical styles. This fusion of genres perfectly embodies the idea of unity and diversity within music.
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United through Music. Music In Our Schools Month song bracket 2025](Celebrate Music In Our Schools Month® 2025 with a song bracket activity focused on genre fusion.)
Initially, the theme might seem similar to 2023’s “Music Is All of Us,” which focused on unity through lyrics. A fantastic playlist from that year is still available here if you prefer to explore lyrical themes of unity. However, the 2025 theme offers a fresh perspective: unity through musical blending. This approach opens up a world of exciting music song discoveries, showcasing how different musical traditions can come together to create something new and vibrant. Exploring genre fusion provides a unique lens through which to understand and appreciate the unifying nature of music songs.
To make implementation easy, ready-made Google Slides files are available. These slides are designed to embed music songs for each day of your MIOSM® celebration. This setup allows classes to vote conveniently in their homerooms, regardless of their music class schedule. For a detailed guide on setting up daily voting logistics, refer to this 2021 MIOSM post. The Google Slides approach simplifies vote collection for homeroom teachers, eliminating the need for daily emails.
While song files cannot be directly shared due to copyright, you can easily make a copy of the slide templates and add your own audio files. Click on the image below to access the template and create your copy. For step-by-step instructions on setting up the slides, a helpful tutorial is available here.
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which song do you love more? Move the music note to the song your class picks. United Through Music logo.](Utilize this Google Slides template to create an interactive song bracket for Music In Our Schools Month® 2025.)
Diversity is key to a rich music song bracket experience. The suggested playlist includes music songs from various genres, time periods, and cultural backgrounds. It represents artists from diverse communities and incorporates different languages. Within the slide template, you’ll find blank slides perfect for displaying lyrics in their original language alongside English translations for music songs not in English. This feature enhances understanding and appreciation of global music songs.
Here is the curated list of music songs for the 2025 “United Through Music” bracket, presented in no particular order:
- The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Flogging Molly – Celtic Punk
- Reclamation by Brandee Younger – Classical/ Hip-Hop/ Jazz/ Funk
- Eso Que Tu Haces by Lido Pimienta – Afro-Colombian/ electronic
- Freedom by 12 Girls Band – Chinese/ Turkish/ Pop
- Storm by OTYKEN – Indigenous Siberian/ Pop
- Stomping Grounds by Bela Fleck and The Flecktones – Bluegrass/ Jazz
- Sally in the Garden/ Molly Put the Kettle On by Abigail Washburn and Friends – Chinese/ Indian/ Appalachian
- Upside Down by Funmilayo Afrobeat Orquestra – Afrobeats (West African/ Jazz/ Funk)
- Blue Flame by Simon Shaheen – Arab/ Western Classical
- Colour War by Ayanna Witter-Johnson – Classical/ Jazz/ Pop
- Living in the Past by Jethro Tull – Classical/ Rock
- Samba Em Preludio by Esperanza Spalding – Samba/ Jazz
- Inion by Afro Celt Sound System – Colombian/ Korean/ Hindustani/ Campeta
- Legends in the Making by Black Violin – Classical/ Pop
- Indigo by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Jazz/ Funk
- Saraiman by LADANIVA – Armenian/ Romanian/ Jazz
- Heyran by Mehdi Khosravi – Iranian/ Classical/ Rock
- MORENICA by Light in Babylon – Israeli/ Turkish/ Iranian Alternative Ethnic Folk
- LongMa by Nini Music – Taiwanese Folk Metal
- Brighter Days Come by Patty Gurdy – Hurdy-Gurdy Folk-Pop
- Járbă, máré járbă by Baba Yaga – Romani/ Klezmer
- Frantic Feathers by Archy J – Celtic/ Bhangra
- Mežā by Tautumeitas – Latvian Folk/ Electronic
- Compañera by MËSTIZA – Spanish Folk/ Electronic
This diverse playlist promises to spark student interest and expose them to a wide range of musical styles. The fusion of genres within each music song will highlight the “United Through Music” theme in an engaging and accessible way.
We are eager to see how your students respond to this year’s playlist and which music song emerges as the favorite! What exciting plans do you have for Music In Our Schools Month® this year? Are there other music songs that perfectly embody the theme of genre fusion and unity? Share your suggestions and ideas in the comments on the original blog post here. For more MIOSM inspiration, explore all posts on this topic. Let’s make Music In Our Schools Month® 2025 a resounding success, celebrating unity through the power of music songs!
About the Author:
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Meet the author Elizabeth Caldwell. Elizabeth is a mom to twin girls, elementary music teacher, and planner lover with a cross-cultural upbringing who loves giving music teachers the freedom to embrace the chaos of creativity through purposeful organization. Click here to learn more.](Learn more about Elizabeth Caldwell, an experienced music educator and author of Organized Chaos Music.)
Elizabeth Caldwell, a NAfME member, brings over a decade of experience teaching elementary general music and choir. She is the creator of Organized Chaos Music, a website offering valuable resources for music educators, including organization strategies and lesson plans. Elizabeth holds degrees from Wheaton College and Boston University and was recognized as Teacher of the Year in 2018. She is a frequent presenter at music education conferences and offers an e-course on lesson planning through her website.
Connect with Elizabeth Caldwell on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the official positions of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).
