School of Rock
Most of the music in this film is rock that the kids play themselves or put on right there on screen. From trading riffs in the classroom to an original song on the contest stage, the songs build up one by one, like a lesson plan moving forward.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people behind it ⏳🌊
- ComposerCraig Wedren
A former Shudder to Think vocalist who wrote the score and the contest songs.
- DirectorRichard Linklater
Sought out kids who could really play, and secured permission to use Led Zeppelin's songs.
- ScreenplayMike White
Wrote the script with neighbor Jack Black in mind, played Ned, and helped write the lyrics to the theme song.
- StarringJack Black
He played Dewey Finn, the fake substitute teacher, and personally filmed the plea video sent to Zeppelin.
- StarringJoan Cusack
Playing the strict principal Mullins, she revealed another side of the character in the scene where she listens to Stevie Nicks.
- StarringMiranda Cosgrove
She played Summer, the band manager.
I. The script a neighbor wrote
(Origins) School of Rock is an American comedy released by Paramount in October 2003. It was written by Mike White, directed by Richard Linklater, and produced by Scott Rudin. White was Jack Black's neighbor; after writing him a part in Orange County, he went further and conceived a whole film with Black as its lead. The seed was The Langley Schools Music Project, an album of pop songs that a Canadian music teacher recorded with elementary schoolchildren in the 1970s. Reissued after 25 years, the record caused a stir. Taking its cue from there, the film became the story of a rock-obsessed grown-up playing music with kids. (The composer) The man music supervisor Randall Poster brought in was Craig Wedren, the singer of Shudder to Think, a band that got its start on the Washington, D.C., punk label Dischord. His first commission was a single song for the climactic battle of the bands. Linklater liked it, and after shooting wrapped, Wedren was called back to write the instrumental score. (The principle) Most of the music in this film is actually played or put on within the frame. Linklater is said to have weighed heavily whether the children could really play when he cast them. The casting director testified that not a single child had their playing dubbed or merely mimed it. Wedren's score stays within short instrumental cues bridging the scenes, and only one track on the official soundtrack bears his name. So the music cards in this piece are filled with the rock numbers that actually sound in the film. (Lineage) It is interesting to set this film beside the earlier installments of this series on classrooms and music. If Whiplash is the story of a student driven to the edge by a teacher's pressure, this film does the opposite, teaching loud liberation in a school of strict discipline. Its setup of clever children standing up to a strict school also overlaps with Matilda.
II. The fired guitarist
(The stage) The film opens in a club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Dewey Finn (Jack Black) is the guitarist of the band No Vacancy. Where the song should end, he stretches out a solo on his own, strips off his shirt and hurls himself into the crowd, but the audience does not catch him. Black built the scene from the memory of watching Ian Astbury of The Cult botch a stage dive. (Fired) The band finally kicks him out and brings in a new guitarist. Behind on rent, Dewey is crashing at the apartment of his friend Ned (Mike White), and Ned's girlfriend Patty (Sarah Silverman) presses Ned to throw him out. A song by The Clash plays as Dewey heads out to sell his guitar. Just then a call comes from Horace Green, an elite private elementary school, looking for a substitute teacher, and Dewey takes the job by pretending to be Ned. (The school) The Gothic exterior of Horace Green is the main hall of Wagner College on Staten Island. The classroom interiors were shot at a private school in Roslyn, Long Island. Principal Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack) guards the school with rules and appearances, and the fifth graders have been tamed by grades and a merit system. On the first day Dewey teaches nothing at all and declares recess. (Discovery) The turning point comes in music class. Spying on the children as they play Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in neat order, Dewey notices the fingerwork of Zack, who plays guitar among them. At the moment the film first lets us hear music that isn't rock, Dewey's plan begins as well. The orchestra class's orderly classical ensemble pairs with the shambolic club gig of the opening scene. In the very next scene, as Dewey runs to fetch his guitar over a Cream riff, the two worlds touch for the first time.
The first song No Vacancy plays at the Brooklyn club. The scene in which Dewey stretches a solo on his own and then leaps into the crowd unfolds over this song.
- Written together by screenwriter Mike White and Warren Fitzgerald, guitarist of the punk band The Vandals. Though made for a fictional band, it sounds as raw as a real club band.
- The band tries to end the song, but Dewey alone keeps the solo going. His playing, which ignores the song's frame (its structure), tells us who he is without a word of dialogue.
- The No Vacancy of this scene will face Dewey again in the final competition. The first song already foreshadows the closing showdown (foreshadowing).
III. A classroom trading riffs
(Showdown) Dewey hauls his own guitar and amp into the classroom. When he plays guitar riffs by Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and AC/DC one after another, Zack answers each without missing a note. In this scene of short riffs asked and answered, the film uses music like dialogue for the first time. They recognize each other through playing rather than words. (Casting the band) Lawrence, who plays piano, takes the keyboard line of the Doors' “Touch Me,” and Katie, who played cello, picks up the bass. Freddy, who was drumming on his desk with his hands, becomes the drummer. The singers show their skill with “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie and the hymn “Amazing Grace,” and the rest of the children are each given a job such as lighting, sound, costumes or security. Summer, who appoints herself manager, sings “Memory” from Cats deliberately off-key. Miranda Cosgrove, who in fact sings well, had to learn separately how to sing badly for this scene. (Logic) Linklater wanted this world to hold together. He pressed Black on whether the classroom wouldn't need soundproofing for the children to rehearse without being caught, and from that question came the scene in which Dewey orders the classroom soundproofed. Dewey calls all of this the band project, an official course. It is a class that began with a lie, but the way it finds a use for each child is rather like a real teacher. (Homework) Dewey hands out rock albums as homework and draws the lineage of rock on the blackboard. Instead of textbooks, Blondie, Yes and Rush are the homework. The film's music thus becomes the curriculum, and Dewey's class becomes a clumsy but earnest lecture in music history. The crew filled in the blackboard chart together, and Jim O'Rourke, the music consultant, even added one name himself.
It plays in the passage where Dewey hands Lawrence the keyboard and the band first plays together. It is the moment the piano-class model student turns into a rock keyboardist.
- A song written by Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. Though a rock band number, it is famous for its lavish brass and string arrangement.
- The heart of the original is Ray Manzarek's keyboard. Giving this song to a child who was studying piano sounds like a choice to show that classical keys and rock keys are closer than one might think.
- The saxophone solo at the end of the original was played by jazz musician Curtis Amy. A song that blends rock, jazz and orchestral music suits the children well as their first lesson.
IV. Secret rehearsals and a ticket to compete
(Songwriting) Now the band needs a song of its own. Dewey dashes off a plausible improvised song and urges the children to turn their feeling of being held down by someone into a song. Around this time it comes out that Zack has secretly written a song, but the film saves it for the climax. (Montage) While a Ramones song plays, music theory lessons, rehearsals and costume preparations follow one another in quick succession. It is the stretch where the fake teacher's con looks like the most joyful collaboration. One by one the children's faces become those of band members. Glimpses of Zack's situation, forbidden rock by his strict father, slip in between, showing what these rehearsals mean to the children. (Audition) Using a field trip as cover, Dewey takes the children out of school and drives the van to the qualifying round of the battle of the bands. At first they are refused entry, but through Summer and Dewey's scheming they barely get on the list. The older bands they meet in the waiting room mock the children, and Tomika is afraid of going on stage. In the van on the way back, once their place is confirmed, Led Zeppelin's “Immigrant Song” bursts out. The children follow Dewey as he pounds the steering wheel, banging their heads. (Permission) The song did not come easily. Linklater had once tried to use a Zeppelin song in Dazed and Confused and failed to get permission. This time, near the end of the shoot, Black stood on a stage packed with extras playing the audience and filmed a video begging the band to let them use the song. After receiving the video, the members finally granted permission.
It runs under the montage that quickly weaves together theory lessons, rehearsals and costume preparations. It compresses the time in which the children are bound into one band into the length of a single song.
- A rare political song in the Ramones catalog. It mocked President Reagan's 1985 visit to the military cemetery at Bitburg, Germany. The Bonzo of the title was a nickname used to taunt him at the time.
- In the montage (editing that strings short shots together to show time passing in compressed form) scene, the song's steady beat drives the pace of the scene changes.
- There is a playfulness in setting a song of rebellion to the children's rehearsal scenes. For secretly learning rock in a school of rules is itself a small rebellion.
It bursts out in the van on the way back after they win a place in the competition. It is a song celebrating the moment the con turns into a real band's dream.
- A guitar riff (a short, repeated phrase) that hammers the same note fast like galloping hooves drives the whole song. It matches the speed of the racing van exactly.
- Robert Plant's high wail in the intro is the song's emblem. Dewey in the driver's seat imitating that wail became a signature scene of Black's comic acting.
- Led Zeppelin was famous for rarely granting permission to use its songs. The plea video Black filmed in front of the extras brought this song into the film.
- The song was later used in the Marvel film Thor: Ragnarok as well. A children's film, in other words, had blazed the trail more than a decade earlier.
V. The jukebox and the unmasking
(Beer) Ahead of parents' night, Dewey lures Principal Mullins out of the school. The promised coffee turns into beer at a bar. In the bar, where the Black Keys' raw blues rock is playing, Dewey picks up that she loves Stevie Nicks and puts “Edge of Seventeen” on the jukebox. The scene was shot at a bar on Staten Island. (Her true self) As the song plays, Mullins's stiff shoulders loosen. Recalling a concert she saw in her youth, she confides how rigid a person she has hardened into at school. If rock was liberation for the children, for the adult it is the memory of a lost time. In this short scene Joan Cusack shows the person behind the principal's role. It carries on into the drive back, where Dewey hums an old sitcom theme and she tells him to stop, and laughter passes between them for the first time. (Cracks) But the lie cannot last. The paycheck the school sends lands with the real Ned, and on parents' night Dewey's identity comes out. The time when T. Rex and David Bowie's glam rock played is over, and Dewey slips out of the school to escape the furious parents. With the competition just ahead, the band loses its leader. (Rock bottom) Waiting for Dewey back at the apartment is a quarrel between Ned and Patty. As a Velvet Underground song plays, Ned for the first time asks Dewey to leave, and the long-deferred question remains as it was: how will the man who taught children rock take responsibility for his own life? In this passage, where the story sinks to its lowest point, the music steps back for a moment, leaving room for the sound that will erupt again the next morning.
When Dewey plays this song on the bar's jukebox, Principal Mullins's stern face softens. It's the scene that reveals the old fan still living inside the strict adult.
- The guitar, strummed without pause in the same rhythm from start to finish, sounds like the song's heartbeat. Waddy Wachtel played it, and many people recognize the song from this sound alone.
- Nicks herself has said the title came from mishearing Tom Petty's wife, who used a phrase meaning “around the age of seventeen” in her Southern accent.
- On the surface it's a driving song, but Nicks has said it carries her grief over losing her uncle and John Lennon. It sits well with the scene in which Mullins recalls days gone by.
- In the film, this song stands for grown-up rock rather than kids' rock. It's the scene in which Dewey does for the principal what he has done for the kids.
VI. The battle of the bands
(Resolve) The next morning, the kids are left without a leader. In the end, it is the kids themselves who drag Dewey back onto the stage. Once they discover the children are gone, the parents and the principal follow them to the competition venue. The competition scenes were shot at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, New Jersey. (The rival) First onstage is No Vacancy, the band that kicked Dewey out. The song they perform is Wedren's “Heal Me, I'm Heartsick.” Frontman Theo is played by Adam Pascal of Broadway's “Rent.” Polished yet somehow hollow, the song deliberately and precisely mimics the commercial rock Dewey despises. The band that threw Dewey out in the film's opening scene has returned as his final opponent. (The main event) Then it's the School of Rock's turn. The song Zack wrote rings out onstage for the first time. Everything learned over the course of the film, namely the guitar riffs, Freddy's drums, Lawrence's keyboards and the voice of Tomika, once terrified of the stage, comes together in a single song. The music was written by Sammy James Jr. of The Mooney Suzuki to a draft lyric Mike White had put into the script. It was still unfinished well into the shoot, and the crew clung to it as their last big gamble. (The ending) The outcome of the contest isn't revealed here. Suffice it to say that the music reaches its verdict somewhere other than the judges' table. What happens between the stage and the audience once the song ends is the film's true final scene, and what fills that scene is left for you to see and hear for yourself.
The song No Vacancy performs at the competition, and the only track on the official album credited to Craig Wedren. It deliberately and precisely paints the slick commercial rock Dewey hates.
- What Wedren was asked for was a song like those of Creed, a popular band of the early 2000s, and a saccharine, grating one at that. Knowing it was made hollow on purpose makes it all the more fun to hear.
- It follows the formula of the power ballad (a rock ballad that starts slow and erupts into big guitars and drums at the chorus) to the letter. Its habit of inflating every emotion is precisely what makes it sound insincere.
- Frontman Theo, who sings onstage, is played by Adam Pascal of “Rent.” Pascal says he sang it himself, but the album credits the song to the fictional band No Vacancy.
- It is built to be heard against the kids' song that follows right after. The contrast between the two shows what is alive and what has gone stiff, even within the same rock.
The band plays the song Zack wrote onstage at the competition for the first time. Everything learned over the course of the film comes together in this one song.
- Co-writer Sammy James Jr. recalled that an AC/DC-like phrase came to him while he was arranging the keyboard intro of The Who's “Won't Get Fooled Again.” In a sense, the bands from Dewey's lessons are melted into the song.
- The lyrics speak in the voice of a kid fed up with homework and rules, talking back to a teacher. There is wit in how the song turns around the relationship between the students and Dewey, who had been posing as a teacher.
- Midway through, Dewey's guitar solo and Tomika's voice step forward in turn. The moment when the kid who feared the stage sings is the emotional peak of the scene.
- On the album, Sammy James Jr.'s band The Mooney Suzuki backs Black and the kids. At the reunion marking the 10th anniversary of the film's release, the grown-up cast reportedly gathered again to play.
VII. A long way to the top
(Credits) Over the end credits, Dewey and the kids sing AC/DC's “It's a Long Way to the Top” together. Like the Langley record that inspired the film, the final song is a cover that recasts grown-up rock in children's voices. The beginning and the end are thus joined in a single line. (Reception) Reviews were favorable, with praise falling especially on Black's performance. Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars out of four, writing that the film proves a family movie can be alive and smart and still really rock. Made for $35 million, it grossed $131.3 million worldwide and remained the highest-grossing music-themed comedy until “Pitch Perfect 2” arrived in 2015. (The album) The soundtrack, released on Atlantic, reached No. 95 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the soundtrack chart, and was certified gold in the UK. At the 2004 Grammys, it was nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Visual Media. Wedren has also scored “Laurel Canyon,” “GLOW” and “Yellowjackets,” among others. (The stage version) In December 2015, Andrew Lloyd Webber opened a musical version at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre. Glenn Slater wrote the lyrics and Julian Fellowes the book, adding new numbers to the film's songs. It earned 4 Tony nominations in 2016 and closed in January 2019 after 1,309 performances. The composer of “Memory,” which Summer sings badly on purpose in the film, turned out to be the very man who built that stage show. (Reunion) In August 2013, the film's 10th anniversary, a reunion screening was held at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Linklater's home base. The now-grown cast reportedly played together at an event after the screening.
An AC/DC cover that Dewey and the kids sing together over the end credits. It closes the film by showing the kids, now a band, one last time.
- On the AC/DC original, singer Bon Scott played the bagpipes himself. The song is famous for this singular sound, which brought a Scottish folk instrument into a rock band.
- As the title says, it sings of how grueling the road to rock stardom is. It sounds like a fitting confession to close the story of Dewey, which began with him being thrown off a stage.
- It is a cover (a new performance of someone else's song) in which kids sing grown-up rock anew. The spirit of the Langley Schools record, the film's starting point, comes back to life in the final song.
- At 5 minutes and 51 seconds, it is the longest track on the album. It works like an encore for those who stay in their seats until the credits finish rolling.
Lesser-known stories
(Roots) The seed of this film is an album that Hans Fenger, a music teacher in British Columbia, Canada, recorded in 1976~77 with elementary schoolchildren in the Langley school district. The recordings originally circulated only within the schools, but they gained a cult following when reissued in 2001. White is said to have drawn loose inspiration from the album in developing the story. Because the album isn't mentioned in the film's credits, most viewers don't know this lineage. (The adviser) The music consultant was Jim O'Rourke, the experimental musician who also played in Sonic Youth. Rather than starting the kids on flashy pieces, he taught them simple songs first, like Lou Reed's “Sweet Jane.” It was also he who slipped the band Sparks into the rock family tree on the blackboard. The anecdote appears in an oral history by the filmmakers published around the 20th anniversary. (Redemption) In the early 1990s, Linklater couldn't get the rights to a Led Zeppelin song for “Dazed and Confused.” So the permission for “School of Rock” was, for him, a vindication a decade in the making. The connection continued afterward, and at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors, Black gave the speech introducing Led Zeppelin. Linklater saw this as a bond that came straight from the film. (Irony) “Memory,” which Summer sings badly on purpose, is an Andrew Lloyd Webber song. Cosgrove practiced singing badly specifically for the scene. And a decade or so later, that very Lloyd Webber turned the film into a Broadway musical. A small joke in the film ended up as a bridge between the original and the stage version. (Credit) When writing the competition song, Wedren was asked for something saccharine and grating, like Creed. Yet the official album credits it only to the fictional band No Vacancy. Adam Pascal, who sang it onstage, recalled that he sang it himself. Because of the fictional-band conceit, the name of the person who actually sang never appeared on the album.
Glossary 📚🔎
Score
(Meaning) Originally the word refers to a full score that gathers the parts of many instruments in one place. In film, it came to mean the entire body of background music newly composed for that film. (In film and musical theater music) Music newly written for a film and laid beneath a scene so that only the audience hears it, not the characters. It is distinguished from inserted songs, which are existing tracks chosen for use. In “School of Rock,” Wedren's score appears only briefly, and rock songs fill most of the film. Think of the accompaniment a piano teacher improvises behind the actors to suit the mood in a school play. The actors pretend not to hear it, but it changes how the audience feels. (Elsewhere) In sports, a score means points or the tally of goals.
On-screen music (diegetic music)
(Meaning) Diegesis comes from the Greek diēgēsis, meaning “narration.” It refers to what actually exists inside the world of the story. (In film and musical theater music) Music that the characters in the film also hear. Radios, jukeboxes, stage performances and instruments the characters play themselves all count. In this film, the Stevie Nicks song Principal Mullins hears on the jukebox and the riffs the kids play in the classroom are examples. In a video game, a song playing in a shop your character walks into is on-screen music the character hears too, while the background music running throughout the game is heard only by the player.
Riff
(In film and musical theater music) In rock, a short, catchy phrase repeated by the guitar or bass. It serves as the backbone holding up the whole song. Often, as with “Immigrant Song,” you can name the tune from the riff alone. In this film's classroom scene, Dewey and Zack hold a conversation by trading riffs. It's like the game where a friend taps a rhythm on the desk and you tap it right back. A riff has to be short and easy to remember for the exchange to work.
Montage
(Meaning) From the French monter (monter), meaning to assemble or fit together. (In film and musical theater music) An editing technique that strings many short scenes together rapidly to show a long passage of time or a change all at once. Usually a single song runs underneath to tie the scenes together. In “School of Rock,” weeks of rehearsal are compressed into a few minutes over a Ramones song. Think of a graduation video that strings together photos of a sports team training over a semester, set to one upbeat song. (Elsewhere) In crime dramas, a suspect sketch pieced together feature by feature from a witness's memory is called a montage.
Power ballad
(In film and musical theater music) A rock ballad that starts quiet and slow, then swells the emotion to the brim as electric guitars and drums explode at the chorus. Rock bands of the 1980s~2000s loved it. In this film, Wedren deliberately built the rival band's song on this formula to satirize rock that is grand on the outside but empty within. If you have a friend at the talent show who starts out almost whispering, then suddenly belts the last chorus and even drops to their knees, that friend knows the grammar of the power ballad.
Compilation soundtrack
(Meaning) Compilation comes from the English compile, meaning to gather from many sources and put together. (In film and musical theater music) A film album that gathers songs by the various singers and bands used in the film, instead of a newly composed score. The “School of Rock” album features tracks by The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin and Stevie Nicks along with songs by the cast and a few snippets of Black's dialogue. It was also nominated in this category at the 2004 Grammys. It's like classmates each picking a favorite song to build a playlist for the school-trip bus. The difference is that on a film album, every track comes with a scene from the film.
Cover
(In film and musical-theater music) The practice of newly performing or singing, and recording, a song first released by another singer or band. The bones of the original are kept, while the performer's voice and arrangement give it a new color. The film's final number is a cover in which the cast sings an AC/DC song once more, and the Langley Schools record that was the film's starting point was itself a collection of covers, children singing grown-up pop songs. Singing a favorite artist's song your own way at karaoke is a small cover, too. (Elsewhere) In publishing, a cover means the outer binding of a book.