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The School of Rock Soundtrack [ 2003 ]

List of songs.

First song. Opening credits. Dewey's (Jack Black) band is performing at a bar.

Dewey get's kicked out of his band. He tries to sell his Gibson guitar when Horace Green school calls and he pretends to be Ned.

Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll? Radio

Dewey tries to get Ned to join his band after his first day of temping. Playing in their apartment.

Concierto De Aranjuez

Joaquín Rodrigo

Dewey finds the kids playing this in music class.

Black Sabbath

The first song Dewey tests Zack with on the electric guitar. Zack plays along to the riff.

Sunshine of Your Love

Dewey sees the kids playing in band class so he runs out to his car and grabs his guitars and musical instruments.

Smoke on the Water

Deep Purple

The second song Dewey gets Zack to play on the electric guitar.

Highway To Hell

The third song Dewey gets Zack to play.

The song Dewey gets Lawrence to play on the piano/keyboard. Dewey sings along.

Charles Strouse

Dewey gets the kids to sing. The first girl sings 'The Sun Will Come Out...'

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angus Young and Malcolm Young

Summer sings this song poorly. Dewey tells her to stop and tells her it was good.

Back in Black

Dewey assigns the kids roles in the band.

Dewey drives up to school the next day and finds Summer waiting for him. She tells him she doesn't want to be a groupie.

In The End of Time

Jack Black and Warren Fitzgerald

Dewey's song. The band is playing it in class. Played throughout film. 'No you're not hardcore, unless you live...'

Chain of Fools

Tamika sings this song to Dewey to prove she can sing.

Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers

Dewey starts another day at school. He sees Zack's dad giving him a hard time about playing guitar in the parking lot.

Mike White, Liam Lynch and Jack Black

Dewey plays this song for the class after Zack tells him that he would tell a bully to step off.

My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)

Montage as the band prepares for the battle. Dewey is teaching rock theory on the board.

Dewey sneaks the kids out of school for the Battle of the Bands audition.

Brand New Sin

Playing in the background at the battle of bands audition as Freddy tries to fight another band.

Mouthful of Love

Young Heart Attack

Playing in the background while Dewey convinces Tamika that being fat doesn't matter in rock n roll.

Black Shuck

The Darkness

Freddie leaves the group at the auditions and hangs out in a van with another band.

Immigrant Song

Led Zeppelin

After the kids fake being terminally ill to get through the audition stage. They drive back to school as Dewey sings along to this song.

Math Is A Wonderful Thing

Jack Black and Mike White

Principal Mullins sits in on Deweys class as he sings this song to teach the kids maths.

Set You Free

The Black Keys

Dewey takes Principal Mullins to the bar for a drink. She asks how Horace Green compares to other schools.

Edge of Seventeen

Stevie Nicks

Dewey plays this song on the jukebox for Principal Mullins.

Good Times (Theme)

Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Dave Grusin

Dewey sings this in the van after taking Principal Mullins to the pub. She asks him to stop.

For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Dewey quotes this song before their battle of bands performance.

Ballrooms of Mars

Dewey is getting ready for parent teacher night. Ned gets his cheque from Horace and Dewey confesses about pretending to be him. Plays in the apartment.

Moonage Daydream (2012 Remastered Version)

David Bowie

Dewey drives Principal Mullins to parent teacher night. This song is playing in his van. He tries to tell her that he's not a real teacher.

Wylde Ratttz

Dewey runs out of the school at the parent teacher night after they find out he's an imposter pretending to be Ned.

Ride Into the Sun

The Velvet Underground

Dewey comes back to his apartment and he fights with Ned's girlfriend about tarnishing Ned's reputation and career. Ned asks Dewey to move out.

Heal Me, I'm Heartsick

When the School of Rock gets to battle of the bands. The other band is performing this song on stage.

School of Rock

The school of rock sing this song at the Battle of the Bands. They choose the song Zack wrote.

It's A Long Way To The Top

Last song as the school of rock plays an encore. Plays into end credits at Dewey's After School rock program.

Trailer Songs

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3 years ago

i’ve been looking around online trying to find a song used in school of rock from 1:28:54 till 1:31:09. it plays as the kids go to see dewey at his apartment until they reach the battle of the bands stage. right before the movie uses “heal me, i’m heartsick” by no vacancy. none of the music recognizing app-things are picking up what this song is. does anybody have a clue? it’s driving me absolutely crazy.

DAFTPUNK2 (GUEST)

3 months ago

here's a song that really similar i think The Clash - What's My Name Just listen the bass part

Is the riff from the beginning of zacks song from another song because it sounds familiar ??

is the riff from the beginning of zacks song from another song because it sounds familiar ??

4 years ago

What’s my name by the clash ( the movie just has the music no vocals).

Why is 'Listen to Me' missed off this list?

5 years ago

The piece playing as they pick Dewey up and travel in the bus to the battle of the bands

yes - what is that song, multiple people have asked abt it on here but no one has been able to identify it. it plays from when the kids go to grab dewey at his apartment until they arrive at the battle of the bands.

What's the song that plays at the end of the first day of school, Dewey's watching the clock strike 3 and runs out the school in excitement 'I'll see you cats on flip flop laterrrrrr"? Also when Principal Mullins is trying to catch his attention.

'swisher

On a scale from 1 to 10 how good is the movie? I give it a 10

And right after the immigrant song, the teacher was playing a song, kind of emotional in the class, he was well interrupted buy th kids to stop playing the song cos the principal is coming, what song was he really playing before he got interrupted, please reply

diegoperazzo

13 years ago

Song in the bus scene Does anyone know what song is heard when the kids get to Dewey's apartment in a school bus? Dewey says something like "that's so punk!" I think the part that is heard was only a drum and a bass, and that's all I remember

The Clash, "What's My Name". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cA1RFrjQuM

i’m having the same problem finding out what this song is, it isn’t what’s my name or immigrant song. it’s driving me nuts. it’s just a mid-tempo drum and bass, but it’s clearly part of a real song.

nickthornton92

12 years ago

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song?

Craig Wedren

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Vague Visages

Movies, tv & music • independent film criticism • soundtrack guides • forming the future • est. 2014, soundtracks of cinema: ‘school of rock’.

The School of Rock   soundtrack includes music by The Clash, The Doors and Led Zeppelin. This info article contains spoilers and song details for Richard Linklater’s 2003 movie . Visit the Soundtracks of Cinema section for more Vague Visages music guides.

Written by Mike White ( The White Lotus ) and directed by Richard Linklater ( Dazed and Confused ),  School of Rock stars Tenacious D’s Jack Black as Dewey Finn. The out-of-work guitarist pretends to be a substitute teacher at the prestigious Horace Green Prep, and subsequently educates his students about the history of rock music. Dewey forms a band that could theoretically defeat his former group at an upcoming competition, but only if his plan isn’t thwarted by a stern principal (Joan Cusack as Rosalie Mullins). Supervised by Randall Poster ( The Queen’s Gambit ), the School of Rock soundtrack features dozens of classic rock hits. Here’s a breakdown of every song.

Read More at VV — Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘The Bubble’

School of Rock Soundtrack: Every Song in the 2003 Movie

• “Fight” by No Vacancy (00:00:00): The School of Rock soundtrack song scores the opening sequence. Dewey’s band plays at a night club. Black’s character steals the spotlight and stage dives.
• “Stay Free” by The Clash (00:07:00): Dewey tries to sell his 1968 Gibson SG after getting fired. The song plays in the background. Dewey receives a call from Rosalie Mullins from Horace Green Prep. “Stay Free” continues as Black’s character accepts the position and pretends to be his roommate Ned (White).
• “Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio?” by Kiss (00:15:00): Dewey invites Ned to play in his band. Black’s character states that he has “vision up the butt” but still gets turned down. Dewey reminds Ned of his days playing in the band Maggot Death. The School of Rock soundtrack song ramps up at the end of the scene.
• “Concierto de Aranjuez” by Joaquín Rodrigo (00:19:00): Dewey visits the bathroom and hears music. He returns to the classroom and finds the students performing the classical piece. Dewey’s eyebrows raise while observing Zack Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos Jr.) playing the guitar.
• “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream (00:20:00): Dewey grabs two guitars from his vehicle. He rushes back to the classroom. The School of Rock soundtrack song fades as Black’s character returns to his van for a keyboard.
• “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath (00:20:00): Dewey plays the song riff. Zack plucks along.
• “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple (00:21:00): Dewey plays the riff of a second song. This time, he’s more animated while performing. Zack once again plays the riff note for note.
• “Highway to Hell” AC/DC (00:21:00): Dewey riffs out and shuffles back and forth. Zack observes his temp teacher’s movements. The student repeats the School of Rock soundtrack song riff without any performance bravado.
• “Touch Me” by The Doors (00:22:00): Lawrence (Robert Tsai) plays the keyboard. Dewey sings the lyrics. Black’s character sets psyched about the potential for a new band.
• “Tomorrow” by Charles Strouse (00:27:00):  Marta (Caitlin Hale) sings during class. Dewey says she’s “got it.”
• “Amazing Grace” by John Newton (00:27:00):  Dewey asks Alicia (Aleisha Allen) to sing. He then identifies her as the “missing ingredient” for the band.
• “Memory” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angus Young and Malcolm Young (00:27:00): Summer (Miranda Cosgrove) offers to sing. Dewey isn’t impressed but pretends to be pleased. Summer also offers to play the clarinet.
• “Back in Black” by AC/DC (00:28:00): The students line up in class. Dewey hands out nicknames and positions for the band. The School of Rock soundtrack song fades as the teacher briefs the security detail about their first mission — soundproofing the classroom.
• “Substitute” by The Who (00:32:00):  Dewey arrives at school in his van. Summer is waiting by a tree with a menacing look on her face. The young student refuses to be “a groupie.”
• “In the End of Time” by Jack Black and Warren Fitzgerald (00:36:00): Dewey performs the song that he allegedly wrote in 15 minutes. He explains where the students will play their instruments. The School of Rock soundtrack song  is about Dewey being kicked out of his band.
• “Chain of Fools” by Don Covay (00:43:00): Tomika (Maryam Hassan) tells Dewey that she doesn’t want to be a roadie. She then sings the Aretha Franklin song during an impromptu audition. Dewey asks Tomika to listen to the vocal solo in Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky.”
• “Roadrunner” by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers (00:44:00):  Dewey heads off to work. Ned and Patty (Sarah Silverman) are confused by his peppy demeanor. The music continues as Zack’s father tells him that he can no longer play rock music.
• “Step Off” by Mike White, Liam Lynch and Jack Black (00:48:00): Zack tells Dewey that he would tell a bully to “step off.” Dewey turn that concept into a song. The entire class sings.
• “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)” by Ramones (00:49:00): The School of Rock soundtrack song plays over a montage sequence. A chalk board shows Dewey’s rock theory notes. The students prepare for the upcoming Battle of the Bands audition.
• “The Wait” by Metallica (00:53:00): The students sneak out of school. Dewey drives them to the audition. The instrumental cuts on a shot of Principal Mullins.
• “Sad Wings” by Brand New Sin (00:55:00): A couple of rockers disparage Dewey’s band. Freddy (the late Kevin Clark) stands up to his fellow competitors. Dewey tells the students to focus.
• “Mouthful of Love” by Young Heart Attack (00:56:00): Tomika worries about her weight. Dewey explains that it’s her talent that matters. He also acknowledges his own physique.
• “Black Shuck” by The Darkness (00:57:00): Dewey looks for Freddy. The School of Rock soundtrack song amplifies as the young drummer leaves a van full of musicians. Dewey chastises the rockers for hanging out with a 10-year-old kid.
• “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin (01:01:00):  The band is admitted into the competition after Dewey pretends the children are dying. Black’s character rocks out while driving back to the school . He also rewards Summer for her plan.
• “Math Is a Wonderful Thing” by Jack Black and Mike White (01:01:00):  The band receives a name — School of Rock — after Dewey strums the song. Principal Mullins arrives to check up on reports of music being played. Black’s character then performs the educational tune.
• “Set You Free” by The Black Keys (01:07:00):  Dewey asks Principal Mullins to have coffee. They end up drinking beer instead. Cusack’s character loosens up and takes her first sip as the School of Rock soundtrack song ends.
• “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks (01:08:00): Dewey plays the song on the jukebox. Principal Mullins recalls a concert she attended. Dewey suggests taking the students to a Philharmonic concert, one that would be “very educational” (and thus be allowed by the school).
• “‘Good Tmes’ Theme” by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Dave Grusin (01:10:00): Dewey sings while driving back to the school. Principal Mullins politely requests that he stop performing. She also reveals why she can’t be “funny” in her position.
• “Ballrooms of Mars” by T-Rex (01:18:00): Ned states that he received a $1,200 check from Horace Green Prep. Dewey prevents him from calling the school. The School of Rock soundtrack song plays as Black’s character admits that he pretended to be a teacher.
• “Moonage Daydream” by David Bowie (01:20:00): Dewey arrives at the school for a parents meeting. He admits to Principal Mullins that he’s not actually a teacher. Cusack’s character misinterprets the moment.
• “T.V. Eye” by Wylde Ratttz (01:24:00): Dewey flees from Horace Green Prep after making a poorly worded statement about his relationship with the students. The song plays briefly and then fades when Black’s character arrives at his home.
• “Ride Into the Sun” by The Velvet Underground (01:24:00): Dewey argues with Patty. Ned asks them to stop. Dewey agrees to move out as the School of Rock soundtrack song continues.
• “Heal Me, I’m Heartsick” by No Vacancy (01:31:00): Battle of the Bands begins. Dewey’s former group performs on stage. Black’s character tells his new bandmates to focus.
• “School of Rock” by School of Rock (01:34:00): The focal band plays a song written by Zack. Dewey rocks a solo, and Tomika takes center stage. The students’ parents express their approval.
• “It’s a Long Way to the Top” by AC/DC (01:42:00): School of Rock loses the competition but plays an encore. The School of Rock soundtrack song continues during a transitional scene. Summer takes a phone call and arrives at the School of Rock After School Program. The track scores an extended credits sequence.

Q.V. Hough ( @QVHough ) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

Categories: 2000s , Comedy , Music , Soundtracks of Cinema

Tagged as: Comedy , Music , Q.V. Hough , Richard Linklater , School of Rock

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School of Rock (2003) Soundtrack

03 Oct 2003 (52 Songs)

Soundtracks

Order by name, order by artist.

School of Rock

School of Rock Cast - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

Smoke On the Water

Deep Purple - Now That's What I Call Classic Rock

Your Head, Your Mind, Your Brain... (Vocal Excerpt)

Add Scene Description

The Who - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

No Vacancy - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

The Doors - The Future Starts Here: The Essential Doors Hits

Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio

It's a long way to the top, do you remember rock 'n' roll radio, concierto de aranjuez.

Joaquín Rodrigo

Sunshine of Your Love

Cream - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Vol. 2: 1992-1994 (Live)

Black Sabbath - Reunion (Live)

Immigrant Song

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III (Remastered)

Highway to Hell

AC/DC - Live (Collector's Edition)

Set You Free

The Black Keys - I Love You, Man (Music from the Motion Picture)

Charles Strouse

Edge of Seventeen

Stevie Nicks - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angus Young and Malcolm Young

Maude Apatow & Larry Goldings - Funny People (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Bonus Track Version]

Heal Me, I'm Heartsick

Back in black, growing on me.

The Darkness - Permission to Land (Edited Version)

Ballrooms of Mars

T. Rex - The Slider

In The End of Time

Jack Black and Warren Fitzgerald

My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)

Ramones - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

Chain of Fools

Wylde Ratttz - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner: The Beserkley Collection

Moonage Daydream (2012 Remastered Version)

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (2012 Remastered Version)

Mike White, Liam Lynch and Jack Black

The Clash - Hits Back (Deluxe Edition)

School's Out

Alice Cooper - Hard Rock Hits

Metallica - Garage, Inc.

Brand New Sin - Brand New Sin (Reissue)

Computerman

Mouthful of love.

Young Heart Attack - Mouthful of Love

What's My Name

The Clash - The Clash (Remastered)

What's My Name (Remastered)

The Clash - Sound System

Black Shuck

Math is a wonderful thing.

Jack Black and Mike White

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

Good Times (Theme)

Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Dave Grusin

For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

T. Rex - School of Rock (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture)

Moonage Daydream

David Bowie - Nothing Has Changed (Deluxe Edition)

Ride Into The Sun

The Velvet Underground & Nico

Ride Into the Sun

The Velvet Underground - Tully (Music from the Motion Picture)

It's A Long Way To The Top

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Soundtracks

School of rock.

• Fight Written by Warren Fitzgerald and Mike White Performed by No Vacancy Produced by George Drakoulias
• Stay Free Written by Joe Strummer , Mick Jones , Paul Simonon and Topper Headon Performed by The Clash Courtesy of Epic Records by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
• Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? Written by Dee Dee Ramone (as Douglas Colvin), Johnny Ramone (as John Cummings) and Joey Ramone (as Jeffrey Hyman) Performed by KISS Courtesy of Simstan Music Ltd.
• Concierto de Aranjuez Written by Joaquín Rodrigo
• Sunshine of Your Love Written by Pete Brown (as Peter Brown), Jack Bruce (as John Bruce) and Eric Clapton Performed by Cream Courtesy of Polydor Records Ltd. (U.K.) Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
• Iron Man Written by Geezer Butler (as Terence Butler), Tony Iommi , Ozzy Osbourne (as John Osbourne) and Bill Ward (as W.T. Ward)
• Smoke on the Water Written by Ritchie Blackmore (as Richard Blackmore), Ian Gillan , Roger Glover , Jon Lord and Ian Paice
• Highway to Hell Written by Bon Scott (as Ronald Scott), Angus Young and Malcolm Young
• Touch Me Written by Robby Krieger Performed by The Doors Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing
• Tomorrow Lyrics by Martin Charnin Music by Charles Strouse
• Memory Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber , Trevor Nunn and T.S. Eliot
• Back in Black Written by Brian Johnson , Angus Young and Malcolm Young Performed by AC/DC Courtesy of Epic Records by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
• Substitute Written by Pete Townshend Performed by The Who Courtesy of MCA Records / Polydor Records Ltd. (U.K.) Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
• In the End of Time Written by Jack Black and Warren Fitzgerald
• The Greatest Love of All Written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed
• Chain of Fools Written by Don Covay
• Roadrunner Written by Jonathan Richman Performed by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group
• Step Off Written by Mike White , Liam Lynch and Jack Black
• My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) Written by Jean Beauvoir , Dee Dee Ramone (as Colvin Douglas) and Joey Ramone (as Jeffrey Hyman) Performed by Ramones (as The Ramones) Courtesy of Sire Records by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing
• The Wait Written by Jaz Coleman (as Jeremy Coleman), Matthew Ferguson, Youth and Geordie Walker Performed by Metallica Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing
• Sad Wings Written by Joe Altier, Brian Azzatto, Chuck Kahl, Kris Wiechmann, Ken Dunham and Mike Rafferty Performed by Brand New Sin Under license from Now Or Never Records
• Mouthful of Love Written by Steven Hall and Chris Hodge Performed by Young Heart Attack Courtesy of XL Recordings
• Black Shuck Written by Justin Hawkins , Dan Hawkins , Frankie Poullain and Ed Graham Performed by The Darkness Courtesy of Warner Music U.K. Ltd. by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing
• Immigrant Song Written by Jimmy Page (as James Page) and Robert Plant Performed by Led Zeppelin Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing
• Math Is a Wonderful Thing Written by Jack Black and Mike White
• Set You Free Written by Dan Auerbach and Patrick J. Carney (as Patrick Carney) Performed by The Black Keys Courtesy of Fat Possum Records, LLC
• Edge of Seventeen Written and Performed by Stevie Nicks Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing and Licensed courtesy of EMI Records Ltd.
• Good Times (Theme) Written by Alan Bergman , Marilyn Bergman and Dave Grusin
• For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) Written by Brian Johnson , Angus Young and Malcolm Young
• Ballrooms of Mars Written by Marc Bolan Performed by T. Rex Courtesy of Wizard Bahamas Ltd. Issued under exclusive license from Demon Music Group Ltd.
• Moonage Daydream Written and Performed by David Bowie Under license from RZO Music Inc.
• T.V. Eye Written by David Alexander , Ron Asheton , Scott Asheton and Iggy Pop (as James Osterberg Jr.) Performed by Wylde Ratttz Under license from Instant Mayhem Productions
• Ride into the Sun Written by John Cale , Sterling Morrison , Lou Reed and Maureen Tucker Performed by The Velvet Underground Courtesy of Universal Records Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
• Heal Me, I'm Heartsick Written by Craig Wedren Performed by No Vacancy Produced by George Drakoulias
• School of Rock Written by Mike White and Sammy James Jr. Performed by School of Rock Produced by George Drakoulias Additional instrumentation by The Mooney Suzuki The Mooney Suzuki performs courtesy of Columbia Records
• It's a Long Way to the Top Written by Bon Scott (as Ronald Scott), Angus Young and Malcolm Young Performed by School of Rock Produced by George Drakoulias
• Computerman (uncredited) From Computerman (2003) Performed by Jack Black
• School's Out Written by Alice Cooper , Michael Bruce , Glen Buxton , Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith Performed by Alice Cooper Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc. by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing (Theatrical trailer only)
• Long Live Rock Written by Pete Townshend Performed by The Who Courtesy of MCA Records / Polydor Records Ltd. Under license from Universal Music Enterprises (Theatrical trailer only)

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10 best songs in school of rock.

From hits by AC/DC, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin to original Jack Black compositions, the School of Rock soundtrack is filled with classic songs.

Richard Linklater’s School of Rock is a timeless gem featuring the quintessential Jack Black performance as a wannabe rockstar who cons his way into a job as a substitute teacher and recruits his students to form a band. On top of being wholesome fun for the entire family, School of Rock is a great introduction to rock ‘n’ roll for its younger viewers.

RELATED:  10 Best School Of Rock Quotes

From licensed hits by legendary artists like AC/DC, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin to original Jack Black compositions like “The Legend of the Rent” and “Math is a Wonderful Thing,” the School of Rock soundtrack is filled with great songs.

“Substitute” By The Who

When Dewey pulls up to the school in his van and finds an unimpressed Summer waiting for him, disappointed with her position in the band, The Who’s “Substitute” plays on his radio .

This is a classic track by an iconic rock band whose title happens to evoke the subject of the film. “Substitute” isn’t about a substitute teacher like Dewey, but the repeated word “substitute” points to his new profession.

“Math Is A Wonderful Thing” By Jack Black

When Principal Mullins spots a guitar in Dewey’s classroom, he explains it away by breaking into a musical math lesson. The following spontaneous song has been dubbed “Math is a Wonderful Thing.”

RELATED:  5 Ways School Of Rock's Dewey Finn Is Jack Black's Best Character (& 5 Alternatives)

He asks Marta to take 45 from 54 and she replies, “Nine.” He sings, “No, it’s eight,” and with the same cadence, she sings, “No, it’s nine.” Dewey thinks for a second and then saves it: “Yes, I was just testing you, it’s nine! And that’s a magic number.”

“Edge Of Seventeen” By Stevie Nicks

In the middle act of School of Rock , while he’s trying to put together an unauthorized field trip, Dewey hears that Principal Mullins is a huge Stevie Nicks fan . So, he takes her to a bar and plays “Edge of Seventeen” to butter her up.

As the opening guitar riff kicks in, Dewey returns to the table while doing a flapping-arms dance that vaguely resembles “the white-winged dove” described by Nicks in the lyrics.

“Moonage Daydream” By David Bowie

David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” plays on Dewey’s radio when he drives Principal Mullins to parent-teacher night. He tries to tell her that he’s not a real teacher, but she just thinks he’s a licensed educator who’s insecure and full of self-doubt.

While “Moonage Daydream” is used brilliantly in School of Rock , it was later used for an even greater soundtrack needle-drop when James Gunn included it on the “Awesome Mix” Walkman playlist in Guardians of the Galaxy .

“It’s A Long Way To The Top” By AC/DC

The last song that plays in the movie is AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top.” After losing the Battle of the Bands, the School of Rock is requested for an encore by a disappointed crowd. They return to the stage and start playing the AC/DC hit , which plays into the end credits as the movie resolves Dewey’s arc.

Following the events of the movie, the Horace Green kids all attend an after-school music program run by Dewey and his ex-bandmate/stolen identity, Ned Schneebly.

“The Legend Of The Rent” By Jack Black

After a few days of band practice, the kids start to question what song they’re going to play at Battle of the Bands. Dewey assures them that he’s written an awesome track for them and they demand that he sing it for them. He warns them that it’s not done and he wrote it in just a few minutes before breaking into a soulful rendition of “The Legend of the Rent.”

Sometimes dubbed “In the End of Time,” “The Legend of the Rent” is an overtly autobiographical song about a struggling artist who got kicked out of his own band and can’t pay his past-due rent because the audience doesn’t yet understand his genius.

“Sunshine Of Your Love” By Cream

When Dewey witnesses the kids’ musical talents in band class, he gets the bright idea to recruit them for his new band. As he races to his van to grab his instruments, “Sunshine of Your Love” – one of Cream’s most recognizable hits – blares onto the soundtrack.

“Sunshine of Your Love” has been used in a few memorable movie moments, often to reflect a similar lightbulb moment, like Robert De Niro realizing he could kill all his co-conspirators and keep the loot from the Lufthansa heist for himself in Goodfellas .

“Touch Me” By The Doors

To test the kids’ rock-playing abilities, Dewey asks them to play a few familiar hits. He gets Zack to play a bunch of memorable guitar riffs from rock ‘n’ roll classics like “Smoke on the Water” and “Highway to Hell.”

The song that he asks Lawrence to play on the keyboard is the Doors’ psychedelic hit “Touch Me.”  Dewey sings along but changes the lyrics to compliment Lawrence’s talents: “Touch me, babe, can’t you see / That I am not afraid / Lawrence is good at piano / He shall be rocking in my show.”

“Immigrant Song” By Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” is notoriously difficult to license for use in film and TV. One of School of Rock ’s DVD bonus features is a video of Jack Black begging Zeppelin to let the filmmakers use “Immigrant Song” on the soundtrack.

RELATED:  15 Best Uses Of Led Zeppelin Songs In Movies

In the end, they got permission – and it resulted in one of the most memorable moments in the movie. After the kids fake a rare blood disease to land a spot on the Battle of the Bands line-up, Dewey celebrates by singing along to the Zeppelin classic in the van.

“Teacher’s Pet” By The School Of Rock

After practising “The Legend of the Rent” with the kids for a few weeks, Dewey ditches his own self-indulgent, half-finished lyrics when he realizes his lead guitarist Zack Mooneyham is sitting on some awesome material of his own.

The tune is engaging and the lyrics are catchy: “If you wanna be a teacher’s pet / Baby, you just better forget it / Rock got no reason / Rock got no rhyme / You better get me to school on time.”

NEXT: 10 Best Songs In Dazed And Confused

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45 Top Songs About School Life – For Those Days That’ll Always Be in Your Memory

School’s in session! Below are our choice of catchy songs that encompass every aspect of school life. Whether you loved school or hated it, at least one of these songs will touch on your own elementary or high school experience with teachers, homework, and stresses of youth.

So read on for our best songs about school life.

“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper

Song year: 1972

Probably Alice Cooper’s greatest hit, this 1972 anthem to the end of school and beginning of summer perfectly captures the pure joy and delight of the beginning of summer vacation.

Although the song is actually saying that school is out because the school was blown up, Cooper’s rock-punk anthem has become the epitome for the best months of the year for school-aged children even nearly fifty years later.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” by the Ramones

Song year: 1979

The Ramones were the kings of punk rock in the United States throughout the 1970s and 1980s, making their lyrics that much more effective against high school teachers and the principal.

This classic tune is a punk rock classic that visualizes high school as a grand party where guys would rather chase girls than learn from the establishment. It was pure punk at its finest.

“Fifteen” by Taylor Swift

Song year: 2008

Taylor Swift was still a teen herself when she sang this song about being fifteen, a freshman in high school, and the trials and tribulations young girls go through during this confusing time in school and in life.

This is a time when adolescents are just discovering who they are, and Swift’s country song embodies this wonder and fear of young love while searching for one’s identity throughout high school. It is the perfect reminder of teenage love and heartbreak.

“School Days” by Chuck Berry

Song year: 1957

From its first few well-known guitar licks, Chuck Berry’s classic rock anthem narrates how teens in the 1950s looked forward to hanging out with friends after the chore of going to school, arguing with teachers, dealing with bothersome guys in class, and taking stressful tests.

“School Days” would end up becoming a rock and roll hit for young listeners during that time who could relate to Berry’s description of a typical high school day.

“School Days” by the Runaways

Song year: 1977

This song bearing the same name as Berry’s classic debuted twenty years later by an all-girl punk rock band that would spawn numerous classic musical artists in the 1980s.

Lead singer Joan Jett rejoices what she describes as wasted youth from the outlook of an older and wiser eighteen-year-old. She shows signs of regret for never making the honor roll, despising homework, and basically not caring about school until it was too late.

“ABC” by The Jackson 5

Song year: 1970

This is the perfect song about the ins and outs of school. It narrates how a young girl who needs to focus on the importance of school, not just learning her ABC’s but also reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Having it sung by a young, adolescent Michael Jackson adds to the purity and youthfulness of this chart-topping R&B tune. He convinces the young girl that learning the alphabet and other much-needed subjects is as easy as counting to three.

“Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd

This song has the perfect chilling mixture of Roger Waters’ vocals and children singing in the background to form an unsettling protest against school and the educational system. The result is a powerful message that children do not need an education.

This anti-school anthem reflects Waters’ own issues with the school system by examining the control he believed teachers had over their students and that students in the long run were simply better off with them.

 “We’re Going to be Friends” by The White Stripes

Song year: 2002

Jack White delivers a sensitive tune about the delight and innocence of elementary school through the eyes of a young boy coming back to school and the main priority in life was making friends.

It is a playful and good-natured tune that recounts the narrators walking with a new friend to school and knowing they would be friends and truly shows the simplicity of this special time in one’s childhood. 

“(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” by the Beastie Boys

Song year: 1986

This party anthem probably reminds every Gen-Xer of their early high school years. The Beastie Boys became superstars with this hit about waking up late and not wanting to go to school.

This rebellious anthem is the perfect party song of the 1980s that explains perfectly why young teens would rather party with friends than going to class, doing homework, and listening to teachers drawl on and on about subjects they simply do not care about.

“Be True to Your School” by The Beach Boys

Song year: 1963

From the Beastie Boys to the Beach Boys, this lively pop song from the 1960s is the opposite of fighting for your right to party. Instead, the Beach Boys are encouraging students to show their school spirit and pride in their school.

This is one of the few songs that illustrate a positive take on being faithful to education as the Beach Boys sing about proudly wearing your school letter jackets and declaring your school as being the best in the state. It may not sing about academics, but it definitely recounts how high school carries with it a sense of identity and community.

“(What a) Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke

Song year: 1960

This song carried with it a distressing tale of a student who has trouble with every academic subject in school. From history and science to math and foreign languages, this poor soul is unable to master any of his school subjects.

When then is it a wonderful world? Because even with all of these academic shortcomings, this student still knows that the world is a wonderful place to live and that he has found that one special love of his life. If he tries harder in school, maybe she will love him in return.

“The Hard Way” by The Kinks

Song year: 1975

This was one song that contributed to an entire concept album the Kinks made about the education system. This song in particular stood out for its fast guitar and memorable lyrics that detailed a teacher’s thoughts on a student whose time was being wasted in school.

The narrator is actually a disillusioned teacher who feels time is wasted since the student probably will never make anything of himself. It is a story of disappointment and disenchantment of school days masked with rock and roll.

“Smokin’ in the Boys Room” by Motley Crue

Song year: 1989

Another song purely about teen rebellion, this story takes a look at teenage boys smoking in the high school bathroom. It was a heavy metal classic that helped make the band a top 40 hit during the days of MTV and music videos.

“Smokin’ in the Boys Room” takes a hilarious look at a song originally sung by Brownsville and how students in the late 1980s cared more about defying the establishment rather than learning their high school subjects.

“Getting Better” by The Beatles

Song year: 1967

No list is complete without The Beatles, who in this song reflect on their own school experiences. The song examines one young man’s conflicts with focusing on school and were not far from the real-life school days of Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Both McCartney and Lennon were ones not to follow the rules, and this disobedience is reflected in the lyrics of “Getting Better” and the story behind the narrator being held down with the strict rules of his schooldays.

“School is Out” by Regina Spektor

Song year: 2007

The narrator of this unreleased song walks the vacant hallways of school, noticing the bathroom graffiti, things left behind by fellow classmates, and pennies that are scattered across the floor. This is a depressing yet melodic tune about school being over.

It is unclear whether the narrator is a student or a teacher, but one thing for sure is that she feels out of place and disconnected within the school’s walls when left alone without people around her.

“Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen

Song year: 1984

This Van Halen classic is probably more well known for its MTV music video than the song itself, yet it is also a definitive song about a young boy’s obsession (and possible affair) with his teacher.

The song was on the popular album named appropriately after the year the song was released and became a somewhat ill-fitting yet catchy anthem for all young boys of the 1980s.

“Don’t Stand so Close to Me” by The Police

Song year: 1980

Four years before Van Halen had young boys singing that they were hot for their female teacher, The Police were narrating another inappropriate situation of a young girl having a crush on her male teacher.

Sting expressively narrates how the student fantasizes about her teacher and how she should not stand too close to him. This song opened up the decade with a story of love and lust between a student and her teacher.

“Don’t be a Dropout” by James Brown

James Brown had a very important message through his 1967 classic, and it was simply to stay in school. The narrator of Brown’s tune is trying to convince the audience of the importance of education by talking about a friend who went to a failed job interview.

During the interview he was told that since he did not have an education he may as well be dead. A bit harsh, but gets the point across of the importance of school and getting an education.

“The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” by Julie Brown

From a serious song about staying in school to a hilarious parody from the 80s mocking the tragedy songs of the 1950s, Julie Brown’s unique hit narrates the story of her best friend, Debi, and the killing spree she performs at the high school homecoming dance.

Debi commits the crime right after being crowned homecoming queen before being taken out by police. Could this song be done today? Probably not. But in 1984 it was a novelty only MTV kids could love.

“Beauty School Dropout” by Frankie Avalon

Song year: 1978

Another somewhat parody of the 1950s in that this classic was in the 1978 film Grease. Frankie Avalon sings to the character Frenchy, who had dropped out of high school to attend beauty school, which she would end up flunking out of.

The school is a hilarious take on the aspects of the film as the narrator, Avalon as her guardian angel, encourages her to return to high school (appropriately done in the sequel, Grease 2 ).

“(She’s) Sexy & 17” by the Stray Cats

Song year: 1983

The parody songs of the 1950s continue with this 1983 classic that details a schoolboy proclaiming how he will not go to school and does not care about reading, writing, math, or history.

The narrator would rather be with a girl named Marie who is, you guessed it, sexy and seventeen. Cutting class and hooking up takes precedent for this young man over learning from his teachers.

“Little Things” by Good Charlotte

Song year: 2001

Good Charlotte was known for their punk rock anthems during the early 2000s, and this classic was dedicated to all of the outcasts and misfits we all knew in high school.

The song itself hits on some pretty serious topics of high school bullying, but does finish with a positive outlook that the kids in high school who felt alone and abandoned will find a flicker of hope with the little things.

“Bad Boy” by Larry Williams

Song year: 1959

This song may not have gotten an audience until The Beatles recorded their version of Larry Williams R&B treasure, but Williams’ voice is perfect for narrating the story of a new kid who constantly gets in trouble in school.

A true “Bad Boy,” the mischievous pranks are pretty harmless, such as putting gum in a girl’s hair or a tack on his teacher’s chair, yet in 1959 he is still painted as a bad boy.

“My Old School” by Steely Dan

Song year: 1973

Co-founder and lead singer of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, narrates why he will not go back to his old school, Bard College. This autobiographical tune explains how Fagen and his girlfriend, Dorothy White, were arrested in 1969.

Fagen, White, and around 50 other Bard College students were arrested in a raid, and this was the inspiration for this Steely Dan tune about getting in trouble in college.  

“I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats

Written by Bob Geldof, of Live Aid fame, this song tells the story of a real life tragedy he had read about detailing a sixteen-year-old named Brenda Ann Spencer who had fired a gun at children at a San Diego playground.

The tragedy resulted in the killing two adults and the injuring of eight children and inspired Geldof to narrate a song about school being out, children going to the playground, only to be struck with violence.

“High School Confidential” by Jerry Lee Lewis

Song year: 1958

This song opened for a film of the same name and clearly praised the tradition of going to high school dances, somewhat of a staple during the 1950s and 1960s.

Jerry Lee Lewis was just one of many rock and roll singers who sang about high school traditions, but his is fun to listen to and makes you really believe he wants to be at the high school dance joining the kids and having fun.

“Walk this Way” by Aerosmith

Long before Aerosmith joined up with rappers Run-DMC to reclaim this tune, they were singing about a high school dance, a school gym locker, a cheerleader, and other schoolboy fantasies.

The original 1975 version of “Walk This Way” certainly stands on its own as an exciting and scandalous narrative about every young boy's fantasies about high school girls.

“Good Girls” by 5 Seconds of Summer

Song year: 2014

The star of this narrative is a good, smart, straight-A high school girl who is so intelligent she is headed to Harvard in the fall. Her parents are worried, however, that she has spent so much time with her nose buried in her textbooks that she has not had any fun.

The song acknowledges that, although she is a straight-A student going to one of the best schools in the country, a good girl may simply be a bad girl who just has never gotten caught.

“Teacher, Teacher” by Rockpile

Nick Lowe’s vocals are perfect for a swooning student who has a crush on his teacher in this 80s classic by his band Rockpile. During a decade of rock songs that end up sounding salacious and a bit crude, Lowe comes off as harmless and innocent.

The young boy begs for praise from his teacher while alluding to the relationship going towards the inappropriate after the school bell rings. The song ends up being the epitome of a lovestruck high school teen.

“Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani

Song year: 2004

At first glance, “Hollaback Girl” may not seem like a song about school, but it is in fact a song about Gwen Stefani as the quintessential high school cheerleader leading the cheers, not the kids hollering back.

The song was in fact written in response to a comment by Hole singer, Courtney Love, who equated Stefani to a high school cheerleader and love to the bad high school girls smoking behind the shed. Stefani’s response was a hit 2004 song.

“Love’s Unkind” by Donna Summer

The high school crush is a nostalgic representation of those four defining school years, and Donna Summer’s 1977 hit exemplifies a young girl and how she feels seeing her crush every morning in the school yard.

The song becomes that much more relatable when Summer further explains that the boy has a crush on the narrator’s best friend , a story that is the essence of high school backed by a pounding disco beat.

“High School” by Kelsea Ballerini

Song year: 2017

Exactly forty years after Donna Summer belted about a high school crush, a young artist named Kelsa Ballerini narrated her own country song about the high school football star who, although older, still yearns for his days back in high school.

Ballerini’s song is also relatable for different reasons, whether it is the narrator longing for Friday night football games, still driving her beat-up truck, still wearing her football jersey, or still calling his high school girlfriend. This is a story of a man who may have graduated from high school five years before, but is stuck in the emotions of his old life.

“Charlie Brown” by The Coasters

Everyone probably knew that one class clown in school, that one typical funny guy who makes everyone laugh, sometimes at his own expense. This is the student named “Charlie Brown.”

No, this is not about the classic protagonist from The Peanuts, but a kid who called his teacher “Daddy-O” and jokes about smelling smoke in the auditorium during a rhyming session. And the low voice asking why everyone is always picking on him is still memorable today.

“Shameika” by Fiona Apple

Song year: 2020

This song meets the requirements of being a reminiscent song about school because it was literally named after Fiona Apple’s classmate who had consoled the songwriter after Apple was bullied by a group of high school girls.

The song is unfortunately a familiar scene for many girls in high school, with the “mean girls” bullying others and the constant grind of going to school and dealing with this unfortunate fate. Apple even admits that she was not afraid of the high school bullies, and that just made things worse for her during this difficult time of teen life.

“The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades” by Timbuk3

Before STEM was cool, there was Timbuk3 singing about a job in nuclear science after high school graduation. The song hails good grades and an excitement for a student to start his career in a field of study he has been planning for during high school.

Today there is a push for high school students to gain an interest in STEM, but in 1986 the narrator’s future was bright due to what was ready for him – a good-paying job in the field of science.

“No Such Thing” by John Mayer

John Mayer does not seem to like high school guidance counselors in this 2002 hit, as he speaks out against them and other figures of authority who advise high school students to go for sensible career paths instead of taking risks and following their dreams.

Many guidance counselors do warn high school students to be careful and go for the safe jobs, and Mayer narrates against this and instead advises his audience to consider a life less sensible. He followed his own dream, something that made him happy.

“Don’t Stay in School” by Boysinaband

Song year: 2015

The point of this song was to get people talking, and when you tell young adults to not stay in school it usually does just that. The narrator does make some great points about what we learn in high school versus what we should be learning in high school.

Why learn about physics and not how to vote? Shakespeare and not looking after one’s health? The solar system and not how to budget money? Isotopes but not how to be a good parent? He concludes that childhood is actually wasted inside the walls of school.

“School of Rock” by School of Rock

Song year: 2003

The film School of Rock is a classic, and the title song is a perfect anthem to life in both middle and high school. Jack Black belts out about being a teacher’s pet, getting to school on time, and finally the power of rock and roll.

The film itself is a hilarious look at private school, and the song backs up this memorable film by detailing the private school’s conformist mentality it teaches and how Jack Black’s character tries to break the students free with rock and roll.

“Too Cool for School” by Fountains of Wayne

Song year: 2000

A few years before School of Rock , Fountains of Wayne made this rock song for the horror comedy film Scary Movie .

Since the film it is in is a horror parody, the song also parodies a student who plays hooky in order to get rid of his enemies. This truant is too cool for school and is always looking out for himself, an instigator who does things his own way.

“Smarter than You” by The Undertones

As the title indicates, this narrator is a know-it-all intellectual who claims to be smarter than you and everyone else. This may not be directly related to school, but it is a typical know-it-all that you more than likely went to school with at some point.

The narrator declares how smart he is minutes after meeting a girl, and you can probably imagine from looking back at high school that anyone who needs to make this claim is usually hiding colossal insecurities.

“High School Never Ends” by Bowling for Soup

Song year: 2006

Everything you may remember from high school is encompassed in this song. The accompanying music video claims they are back in 1985, but the lyrics are relatable at any age.

From students gossiping about one another’s clothing, appearance and relationships, to dealing with emotional and addiction issues, the rock song reminds listeners of the truth about high school and how it is a miniature real world students all enter at one point.

“Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake

This rock song makes education look cool and sexy, since that is the type of woman the lead singer of Cake is looking for in this 2001 tune.

He may want a woman with a short skirt and a long jacket, but this woman better also have a mind behind the outfit. He details how an intelligent woman is what he really desires, beyond just the outside and the outfit.

“Dammit” by Blink 182

Song year: 1997

Before they were singing about all the small things in life, Blink 182 released their 1997 hit that detailed the uncertainties everyone has about high school, relationships, and growing up.

This punk rock tune sums up youth perfectly, having friends in high school, that one girl you crush on, and when you see her years later and she still looks at you as just a friend.

“Jeremy” by Pearl Jam

Song year: 1991

Pearl Jam’s classic grunge hit takes a serious look at bullying and teen suicide. When Eddie Vedder belts out how Jeremy spoke in class, he is expressing the mental anguish high school students go through when they are bullied.

This is one song that portrays the serious issues of high school and how kids can use their own actions to drive their classmates to take their own life. And this song came out before the dangers of social media and cyberbullying.

Pearl Jam was way ahead of the curve back in 1991 when they released this now-classic track raising awareness about teen suicide and bullying in schools. It’s a great song with an important message every kid can learn from.

“Don’t Forget to Remember Me”by Carrie Underwood

Song year: 2005

The American Idol winner tales a heart-wrenching tale about life after your high school graduation and what it is like to become an adult and the bond you still have with your parents.

Underwood’s tune is about a girl who moves away from home after she graduates from high school. She wants to start her own life, but soon realizes the bond she has with her mom will end up lasting much longer than her vital school years.

“Parents Just Don’t Understand” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince

Song year: 1988

This final choice is the perfect anthem for all middle school and high school students in the 1980s. The Fresh Prince narrates how out of touch his parents are as he tries to get ready for the first day of school.

They give him the wrong sneakers and ugly clothes and the Fresh Prince desperately tries to teach his mother what kids in the 1980s actually wear to high school. It is a hilarious rap that put Will Smith on the map as a young rapper and won him a Grammy.

Best Songs About School Days, Final Thoughts

Whether your memories of school include your first crush, Friday night football, your favorite teachers and classes, or the struggles with bullying, these songs hit all of the important milestone moments in one’s life as a high school student trying to find his or her way in the world.

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20 facts you might not know about 'School of Rock'

Posted: May 2, 2024 | Last updated: May 2, 2024

There have been movies about bands, and movies about inspirational teachers, but a movie that combines the two? And also happens to be a comedy? And also casts Sarah Silverman in one of the most thankless roles ever committed to film? School of Rock offers it all. Here are 20 facts you might not know about the movie. Accept no substitutes.

The writer is also a costar

Mike White provided the screenplay for School of Roc k, but he did more than simply write the film. He also plays the real Ned Schneebly, the substitute teacher that Black’s Dewey Finn pretends to be.

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It was part of a collaborative run for White and Black

White and Black were friends who also worked together on Orange County , which White wrote prior to School of Rock . White would then Nacho Libre , which starred Black as well. The two had a production company together called Black and White, but it shuttered in 2006.

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White actually wrote 'School or Rock' to Black’s interests

In this movie, Black plays a musician with a love of classic rock. White actually had no interest in that style of music. He wrote the film with Black in mind for the lead role and catered it to Black’s own history performing rock music as one-half of Tenacious D.

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It was inspired by a cult record

White got the inspiration for School of Rock in part from the Langley Schools Music Project. Basically, back in 1970s, a teacher in British Columbia had recorded a bunch of kids at four schools in his district singing choral versions of pop hits of the time. It came out…kind of spooky. The records were not notable at the time, but in the early 2000s, they were discovered, released, and quickly became a cult object. This happened in 2001, and School of Rock would be released in 2003.

One of the kids cast became a star

As a movie about a teacher who turned his class into a band, there are a ton of child actors in School of Rock . One of them would end up skyrocketing to fame. Miranda Cosgrove made her acting debut as Summer Hathaway in the movie, and she would eventually become well known as the titular star of  iCarly .

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One moment was inspired by reality

Dewey Finn tries to stage dive at one point in the movie, but it turns out disastrously. Black added this into the movie based on a real occurrence he had witnessed. Apparently the same thing happened to Ian Astbury, lead singer of the band The Cult.

A college stood in for the school

Director Richard Linklater made use of several New York City locations in shooting the film. That includes the school that stands in for Horace Green Prep. The location for that school was the Main Hall building of Wagner College on Staten Island.

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One hallway got a lot of work

Schools are littered with hallways typically, but instead of moving around the location, Linklater and company decided to just stay put and change the look around them. They shot every single hallway scene in the film in the same hallway.

Black did plenty of riffing

Jack Black is the kind of comedic performer who likes to riff, which is obvious if you’ve ever seen his movies or seen him on a late-night talk show. In fact, he came up with all of the nicknames he uses for the students in the film.

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Linklater had one request to direct

Linklater was approached to direct School of Rock , and he was interested. However, there was one thing he wanted. Namely, all the kids in the film had to actually be playing their instruments. To make that happen, Linklater did casting across the United States looking for kids who were talented musicians, as opposed to focusing on finding actors.

Cosgrove had to learn to not sing well

Cosgrove’s Summer doesn’t get into the band because she can’t sing, butchering the song “Memory” from Cats in the process. In reality, Cosgrove had the ability to sing. She was given a quick “bad singing” lesson in order to nail what they were looking for in the movie.

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Linklater has a cameo

Finn shows a photo of the band that he and Ned had been in together before Ned went “straight” and got his teaching gig. Also in that photo? None other than Linklater himself.

The story got a little less dark

Dewey is able to pose as Ned for a long-term substitute because the real teacher slips in the shower. That’s not exactly cheery, but originally, the story was darker. In an earlier version of the screenplay, Dewey hit the teacher with his car.

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There was a reunion from another music-heavy movie

One of Black’s costars in School of Rock is Joan Cusack, who plays the principal at Horace Green. Black and Cusack had both previous been in High Fidelity together, where Black plays an employee at the main character’s record store.

Linklater pulled out all the stops to get one song

The director really wanted to use “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin in the film and on the soundtrack. However, getting Led Zeppelin to sign off on one of their songs being used is rare. In an attempt to curry their favor, Linklater show a video of Black asking the band for permission to use the song with extras cheering and chanting behind him. He then sent the video to the surviving members of Zeppelin. It apparently worked, as the song is in the film.

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It had a nice run at the box office

After debuting No. 1 in the domestic box office, School of Rock would stay in the top 10 for six weeks. The movie was made on a budget of $35 million and made $131.3 million worldwide. It was the highest-grossing “music-themed comedy” ever until Pitch Perfect 2 overtook it in 2015.

Black won an award

Black took home Best Comedic Performance at the MTV Movie Awards for his turn as Dewey Finn. He also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Comedy or Musical, but lost to Bill Murray for Lost in Translation .

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There was a talk of a sequel, but that has gone away

In 2008, murmurs of a sequel to School of Rock began to emerge, with Black, White, and Linklater all in talk to return. Purportedly, it would be called School of Rock 2: America Rocks and feature Black’s Finn taking summer school students on a road trip. However, in 2012, Black said that he, White, and Linklater could never lock in on a vision for the film and that it was likely never going to happen.

It got a Broadway adaptation

If they can turn Beetlejuice into a musical, they can obviously turn a movie like School of Rock into a musical. It wasn’t just adapted for Broadway. Andrew Lloyd Webber did the adaptation, with Broadway staple Alex Brightman playing Dewey. All in all, it was a success. It was nominated for four Tonys, but it didn’t win any.

You may also like: 20 must-add songs for your upcoming road trip playlist

There was also a TV adaptation

Nickelodeon adapted School of Rock into a TV show several years after the movie came out. The TV version focused more on the kids, unsurprisingly, and ran for three seasons from 2016 through 2018.

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Top 20 School Songs

Summer is just on the horizon. There are pool parties, road trips and beach days awaiting.

But before that, there are the last days of school to get through before the fun begins. If you're a student, you're probably eagerly awaiting the freedom that the end of the school year brings.

That goes for teachers, too; if you're a parent, you might be thinking about your school days ... or maybe dreading the next three months.

Rock 'n' roll and academic education don't always mix. After all, what fun are strict timetables, stern teachers and mountains of homework? But it can be a great foundation for some rough and rowdy songwriting. Below we take a look at the Top 20 School Songs. Class is now in session.

20. J. Geils Band , "Centerfold" From: Freeze Frame (1981)

After debt threatened to derail the J. Geils Band in the late ‘70s, they came roaring back at the start of the next decade with “ Love Stinks ” in 1980. The single scraped the inside of the Top 40 and gave the group a new foundation. “Centerfield” helped keep the good times rolling with Peter Wolf’s ode to his onetime “homeroom angel” and the devastation he felt when he later discovered she was the newest pinup in his “girlie magazine.” Armed with a lethal keyboard hook from Seth Justman and surrounded by handclaps, “Centerfold” was quickly plastered all over the radio and MTV . The song gave the J. Geils Band their biggest hit, a No. 1 single for six weeks. (Matt Wardlaw)

19. The Boomtown Rats, " I Don't Like Mondays " From: The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

School shootings aren't a new phenomenon. They've even inspired a handful of school songs over the years. The Irish band the Boomtown Rats were touring in the States when news broke that a 16-year-old girl had opened fire at an elementary school in San Diego. Two people were killed, while nine others were injured. Asked why she committed such a heinous act, the shooter responded, “I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day.” “It was such a senseless act,” Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof later recalled to Smash Hits magazine. “It was the perfect senseless act and this was the perfect senseless reason for doing it. So perhaps I wrote the perfect senseless song to illustrate it. It wasn't an attempt to exploit tragedy.” “I Don’t Like Mondays” went Top 10 in 14 countries, including No. 1 in the U.K., but it stalled at No. 73 in the U.S. (Corey Irwin)

18. Jerry Lee Lewis , "High School Confidential" From: 1958 Single

Jerry Lee Lewis appears at the beginning of the 1958 movie High School Confidential to sing the title track he wrote especially for the soundtrack. Discerning moviegoers are advised to stop watching this laughably bad Albert Zugsmith-produced weed-scare teen film immediately after the song. Lewis' single became a multichart hit anyway, but only after splicing together two takes recorded following that movie cameo. Lewis then  set it aflame a few years later onstage in Germany, as heard on 1964's raucous Live at the Star Club, Hamburg . By then, however, an underage sex scandal had immolated Lewis' career. (Nick DeRiso)

17. Dan Baird, "I Love You Period" From: Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired (1992)

By the time the  Georgia Satellites splintered at the beginning of the ‘90s, singer and guitarist Dan Baird wanted to take a shot at a solo career, “just to give it a try and see if I could,” as he said in 1992. Collaborator Terry Anderson had penned the Satellites' single “ Battleship Chains ” and brought Baird “I Love You Period,” which recalled an early teacher crush. In the song, Baird reveals his affections and, in a twist, the teacher sends back some helpful edits. “ I love you period / Do you love me question mark / Please, please exclamation point / I want to hold you in parentheses .” While he didn’t get the girl in the end, his punctuation and sentence structure were greatly improved. (Wardlaw)

16. Pearl Jam , "Jeremy" From: Ten (1991)

Two different school incidents inspired Pearl Jam’s classic “Jeremy.” The first gave the song its title. Jeremy Wade Delle was a 15-year-old from Texas who committed suicide in front of his high school classmates; the second was a personal experience of Eddie Vedder, who survived a school shooting at his junior high school. Such heavy topics seem unlikely to inspire a mainstream hit, but that’s exactly what they did. Audiences connected with the track’s angst-driven vocals and powerful guitars, and “Jeremy” quickly became one of the defining songs of the grunge revolution. It reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart and earned a pair of Grammy nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Hard Rock Performance. (Irwin)

15. Bruce Springsteen , "Growin' Up" From: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)

When Bruce Springsteen released his debut album in 1973, he was on the verge of turning 24 but had already done time playing in bars. Springsteen has said he was never comfortable in academic settings; he preferred playing guitar and didn't even attend his high school graduation. Pursuing music was a risk, but by early 1973, it was already starting to pay off. " I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared / I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress ," he sings in "Growin' Up." " But my feet they finally took root in the earth / Well, I got me a nice little place in the stars ." (Allison Rapp)

14. Bruce Springsteen, " Glory Days " From: Born in the U.S.A. (1984)

Springsteen's "Glory Days" is about an older man who reminisces about his school days in a way that implies he both misses them and is glad they're over.  High school can be a lot of fun, with its baseball games and girls, but in the end, a 36-year-old Springsteen surmises, it's not representative of real life and it doesn't prepare you for what lies ahead. " Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister ," he sings, " but boring stories of glory days ." (Rapp)

13. The Beatles , " Getting Better " From:  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band   (1967)

Paul McCartney was doing what Paul McCartney always does: creating a sun-speckled pop tune on the Alfred E. Knight piano in his music room. Then John Lennon started bitching about the teachers they had in school. It went on this way, as McCartney wrote " getting better all the time " and Lennon responded, " It couldn’t get no worse ." But then Lennon confused LSD for his uppers in the studio, and a subsequent vocal session had to be stopped. The Beatles' unwitting producer George Martin offered to take Lennon out for some fresh air. They ended up on the roof, where Lennon "looked up at the stars and said, 'Aren't they fantastic?'" Martin said in an Anthology interview. "At the time, they just looked like stars to me." New vocals were recorded two days later, completing the song. (DeRiso)

12. The White Stripes , "We're Going to Be Friends" From: White Blood Cells (2001)

“We’re Going to Be Friends” is often associated with the 2004 teen comedy Napoleon Dynamite , which features the White Stripes' plaintive acoustic track during its opening credits. On the surface, both the song and film are quaint chronicles of back-to-school rituals. But look past their childlike innocence, and they’re also testaments to the value of walking through life with somebody you love and trust. Jack White ’s protagonist doesn’t notice the days racing by, but he’s content in the knowledge that today, tomorrow and every day after, he’ll have his beloved Suzy Lee by his side. (Bryan Rolli)

11. The Police , " Don't Stand So Close to Me " From:  Zenyatta Mondatta   (1980)

Students crushing on teachers is a tale as old as time. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” gives the teacher’s side of things, chronicling a man who has a romantic affair with his pupil, only to get caught up in the controversy of it all. Sting had been a teacher before becoming one of the planet's most popular artists, but he insisted the song wasn’t autobiographical. “I'd done teaching practice at secondary schools and been through the business of having 15-year-old girls fancying me - and me really fancying them! How I kept my hands off them I don't know,” Sting noted in the 1981 book L'Historia Bandido . "I never had a relationship with any of my pupils - I wouldn't want to,” he later noted to Q , instead suggesting that the song’s theme was just smart business. “You have to remember we were blond bombshells at the time, and most of our fans were young girls, so I started role-playing a bit. Let's exploit that.” (Irwin)

10. Steely Dan , "My Old School" From: Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)

Donald Fagen takes an unsentimental walk down memory lane in “My Old School,” loosely recounting a 1969 drug bust at Bard College in which he and future Steely Dan bandmate Walter Becker were arrested. It’s a wry, relentlessly peppy number, powered by Jimmie Haskell’s four-saxophone arrangement and a typically virtuosic guitar solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. Despite vowing not to return to his old stomping grounds until California tumbles into the sea, Fagen buried the hatchet and returned to Bard in 1985 to receive an honorary Doctor of the Arts degree — proof that success is the best revenge. (Rolli)

9. Chuck Berry , "School Days" From: 1957 Single

Chuck Berry's "School Days" paints a common picture of rock 'n' roll hungry teens in the late '50s, the ones who found tradition tedious and institutions downright boring. After class, there's no time to lose: " Soon as three o'clock rolls around / You finally lay your burden down ." It's straight to the local jukebox for something hip to dance to; no history book or math equation could explain this "body and soul" feeling. "School Days," like Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," "Johnny B. Goode" and others, helped cement his status as the bard of this new era of music. Hail, hail rock 'n' roll!  (Rapp)

8. The Ramones , "Rock 'n' Roll High School" From: 1979 Single

Probably not so surprisingly, the Ramones weren't really into doing the usual things school is there for, like learning stuff. " I don't care about history ," they declare at the opening of their 1979 single, which doubled as the signature song of the movie with the same name. " I just wanna have some kicks / I just wanna get some chicks. " A few different versions of the song exist, including one produced by Phil Spector , who worked on the Ramones' 1980 album,  End of the Century , where a revised rendition can be found. " I hate the teachers and the principal / Don't wanna be taught to be no fool ," they sum up, in perfect Ramones fashion. (Michael Gallucci)

7. Aerosmith , " Walk This Way " From: Toys in the Attic (1975)

"Younger bands are into jerking off and we're into fucking. That's all there is to it!" Steven Tyler once proclaimed. The elder statesmen of raunch rock proudly display this affinity on “Walk This Way,” repurposing a gag from Mel Brooks ’ Young Frankenstein into instructions for pleasuring a partner. It’s best not to overanalyze the lyrics, though; instead, get swept up in Joe Perry and Brad Whitford ’s blazing fretwork and Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton ’s deep-seated funk grooves. Tyler’s tongue-twisting lyrics presage the rap-rock explosion that Aerosmith harnessed a decade later on the groundbreaking and career-rejuvenating “Walk This Way”  remake featuring ascendant hip-hop stars Run-D.M.C.  (Rolli)

6. Paul Simon , "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" From: Paul Simon (1972)

There's a lot that doesn't make sense in Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard." Who (or what) is "mama pajama"? How did Rosie become the "Queen of Corona"? How does a "radical priest" fit into the storyline? And, most important of all, what in the world did "me and Julio" do to get in such trouble? Simon's lyrics confirm only that " it's against the law ." Whatever their crime, they both get summarily hauled away from the schoolyard where they love to hang out until the aforementioned clergyman steps in to secure their release. Turns out, Simon doesn't know what got them locked up either. "I have no idea what it is," he later told Rolling Stone . "Something sexual is what I imagine but when I say 'something,' I never bothered to figure out what it was. Didn't make any difference to me." (DeRiso)

5. Brownsville Station, " Smokin' in the Boys Room " From: Yeah! (1973)

Brownsville Station guitarist Mike Lutz wasn't one of the guys depicted in the classic song he co-wrote with the band’s Cub Koda. “I confess that I personally never got into smoking in the boys’ room at school,” he admitted in an interview . “But it seemed like a good topic to write about.” They had no preconceptions about that song's prospects, even burying it at the end of their 1973 album. But “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” sailed to No. 3. The song provided a similar lifeline to Motley Crue  in 1985 when it was covered on  Theatre of Pain   and became the band's first Top 40 hit. (Wardlaw)

4. Van Halen , "Hot for Teacher" From: 1984 (1984)

School days anthem "Hot for Teacher" was the last single released by Van Halen's original lineup, and both the song and its video found the band at the peak of their powers. Having proven their mastery of traditional pop songcraft with previous 1984 singles " Jump " and " I'll Wait ," the band pushed boundaries as far as possible in the other direction with " Hot for Teacher. " After a spectacular minute-long Alex and Eddie Van Halen instrumental intro, the spotlight turns to David Lee Roth in class clown mode, professing his lust for his new teacher as Eddie Van Halen alternates between simmering boogie and full-tilt heavy metal. The video paired each member with younger doppelgangers, introducing the world to sweet, sweet Waldo while Van Halen soloed down the longest library table in recorded history. (Matthew Wilkening)

3. The Beach Boys , "Be True to Your School" From:  Little Deuce Coupe (1963)

Brian Wilson 's dreamy nostalgia for the Beach Boys' shared youth in Hawthorne, California, combines with Mike Love 's Chuck Berry-esque lyrical specificity to produce a snapshot of midcentury life. Then they had to go and screw it all up with a single version that tacked on cheerleader chants. (These were provided by the Honeys, a girl group that featured Wilson's future wife Marilyn.) Stick with the more stripped-down album version, which leverages the Beach Boys' short-lived six-man lineup to create a more delicately conveyed pocket-sized reverie. Fans of the University of Wisconsin probably wondered why their fight song was incorporated into the middle eight, but Hawthorne High's version was based on the same melody. (DeRiso)

2. Pink Floyd , " Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 " From: The Wall (1979)

Has school ever sounded so hellish as it does in the centerpiece to Pink Floyd's 1979 opus The Wall ? " We don't need no education / We don't need no thought control ," Roger Waters sings in the song's famous opening lines. As a cornerstone in the rock opera's story of an artist's withdrawal from society, "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" traces the character Pink's dysfunction to his earliest days and the teachers who took out their frustrations on schoolchildren. Somehow this protest song (" Hey, teachers, leave them kids alone! ") became a worldwide No. 1 hit, the biggest single of Pink Floyd's career and one of the most subversive radio songs ever. (Gallucci)

1. Alice Cooper , "School's Out" From: School's Out (1972)

The eternal appeal of Alice Cooper's summer anthem can be summed up in the song's second verse: " We got no class / And we got no principals / And we got no intelligence / We can't even think of a word that rhymes ." It's both a middle finger and an apathetic response to the establishment that perfectly encapsulates why "School's Out" remains rock's all-time greatest song about school. Who hasn't counted down the number of days until summer vacation and fantasized about not ever coming back? The song became Alice Cooper's first Top 10 hit and a favorite of anxious kids everywhere as the school year comes to its long end. (Gallucci)

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Columbine school shooters glorified by young followers: Inside the scary online obsession

When two Colorado students murdered 12 of their classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, they committed what history would etch as the first school shooting of the internet era.

At the time, Google was still a startup. Facebook, the iPhone and YouTube had not yet been invented. Yet 25 years later , the traces left online by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have not faded into the obscurity of the early web. 

Instead, those remnants took hold in each evolving online technology – chat rooms, social media and video – and today spark obsessive online interest among a generation that wasn’t even alive at the time of the attack. 

That interest flourishes via online algorithms that amplify edgy or hate-fueled content, researchers say – and via social media platforms that prioritize audiences and profits over finding and removing violent and damaging content. 

On the 1990s-era internet, the killers left behind their plans of violent terror – like threats and bomb-building instructions – as well as the personal minutiae of teenage life, like playing the first-person shooter game Doom. The lyrics to a favorite song, a recent electronic-metal release called “Stray Bullet,” were posted on one of their websites.

A dark subculture latched onto those details of their online life and the investigative reports that followed. The killers’ photos, personal journals and home videos fueled discussions in internet forums and chat rooms. 

Today, researchers track social media, video sites and gaming platforms, where they find a cult of Columbine thriving among young internet users.

TikTok profiles with the shooters’ names and photos are festooned with hearts and ribbons and fans of the shooters declare their love and admiration in the comments. Videos splice together old footage and stills of the shooters.

First-person shooter simulations of the Columbine massacre regularly pop up on TikTok where they fetch tens and even hundreds of thousands of views. 

While some online platforms say they work to find and eliminate violent content , online experts and school shooting survivors continue to say the megacompanies of the modern internet haven’t done enough to stamp out these dark elements of the early web. 

Social media companies are “raking in the money,” Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was shot and paralyzed during the Columbine attack, told USA TODAY. “They're not going to do anything about it because then the traffic will go down.”

Whatever the forum, the subculture’s real-life effects have been persistent and deadly . 

School shooters, including the killers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 and Virginia Tech in 2007, studied and emulated the Columbine attack. The documents posted online by copycats frequently mention the influence of Columbine . 

In January, a 17-year-old high school student in Iowa shot six people, killing one, before turning the gun on himself. Shortly before the shooting, he posted a photo on TikTok of himself  in a bathroom stall with a duffel bag at his feet, with the words, “Now we wait.” 

The post was set to music, an old electronic-metal song from the 1990s called “Stray Bullet.” 

More: 25 years later, the trauma of the Columbine High School shooting is still with us

Columbine imagery easy to find on game sites, social media 

Much of the online content related to Columbine today is created by young people or designed to appeal to them, two researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found in a recent study.

Moustafa Ayad and Isabelle Frances-Wright say young people are enthralled by the Columbine killers and create content that goes viral on social media, from first-person shooter simulations to Roblox characters dressed to look like the Columbine killers down to the “natural selection” and “wrath” T-shirts they used to wear.

“The abundance and types of materials that the killers produced resonates with young people in a way that we haven’t really seen with other school shootings,” Frances-Wright said, “which has allowed it to perpetuate and live on all these years later.” 

The creators of those videos, in turn, direct viewers to private, unmonitored channels on Discord and Telegram. 

And that’s where the really dark stuff happens.   

By setting up accounts pretending to be minors on social media, Ayad and Frances-Wright quickly found 127 videos glorifying a range of mass shooters on TikTok and X, formerly Twitter.

One TikTok video they discovered, which featured the Columbine shooters in fictional Disney posters, had amassed nearly 400,000 views in three months. 

TikTok has since taken down the videos flagged by researchers. But content celebrating the Columbine shooters is still widely available, and easily found, on TikTok and other platforms, despite rules against glorification of violence and real-life attacks.

A spokesperson for TikTok said the company doesn’t tolerate content like the videos Ayad and Frances-Wright found, and that the company employs more than 40,000 trust and safety professionals to moderate content.

“We're investing over $2 billion in trust and safety efforts this year to provide a safer platform," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

This week, Frances-Wright performed a quick search and provided USA TODAY with several links to TikTok videos showing school shootings, including some that used imagery from the Columbine attack.   

Videos on TikTok and elsewhere try to evade detection by blending content that glorifies mass shooters with legitimate educational content, or by using the killers’ nicknames or other coded language. Statements like “I don’t condone” or hashtags like “true crime” or “fake” are also added to mislead platform moderators. Some accounts switch privacy settings so posts are only available to followers.

While the researchers found videos appearing to show gameplay on the Roblox platform, where users play shared game scenarios mostly built by other users, it was unclear how long – if at all – those games ever appeared on Roblox itself. The characters may have been designed using Roblox, without ever being uploaded to the platform.  

A spokesperson for Roblox said the company has strict community standards prohibiting “the portrayal of sensitive real-world events and content portraying, glorifying, or supporting Terrorist and Violent Extremist organizations.”

“We have a dedicated team focused on proactively identifying and swiftly removing such content as well as banning the individuals who create it,” the spokesperson told USA TODAY in an email.  

Despite the attempt at camouflage, accounts are still frequently banned. So, the profiles redirect their followers to less-moderated platforms like Discord and Telegram, Ayad and Frances-Wright found. There, open glorification of mass shooters, violent gore and hate speech can be more freely shared. And indoctrination and radicalization are more likely to occur. 

Discord and Telegram did not respond to requests for comment.

In closed discussion groups on Discord, for example, players share tips on building mass casualty simulation games and how to make gaming avatars that look like the Columbine shooters, the researchers said. 

The attackers are commonly referred to and admired, down to details about their haircuts and favorite music. “In many respects,” their report notes, “the Columbine shootings are considered a foundational event for supporters and content producers of mass casualty attacks.” 

The deadly allure of the dark side

Ryan Broll, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, says the internet is an accelerant for “dark fandom” – communities of fans fixated on the perpetrators of violent acts .

“These communities usually form online because they are inherently deviant communities and they can more easily find people who share interest in these topics online,” said Broll, who studied a subreddit devoted to Columbine. “Although people have always been interested in crime and violence, the internet is essential to the size and longevity of dark fandoms, like that around Columbine.”

Of the hundreds of school shootings across the United States in the last 25 years, Columbine remains the most influential, researchers Jenni Raitanen and Atte Oksanen from the Emerging Technologies Lab at Tampere University in Finland found .

Raitanen and Oksanen attribute the shooting’s enduring influence to the oft-cited idea that it was retribution for bullying.  

“The Columbine perpetrators claimed that their massacre was a political act, conducted in the name of other oppressed students,” the researchers wrote in a 2018 paper . 

As such, the two young men sought to serve as spokespeople for what previous researchers called a “revolution of the dispossessed,” Raitanen and Oksanen wrote. In essence, they claimed to be carrying out their attack in the name of angry, disaffected and angst-ridden youth everywhere. 

Those ideas were long ago debunked. 

Columbine’s former principal Frank DeAngelis says much of the Columbine content falsely portrays the Columbine shooters. 

The FBI concluded the killers, who said in home videos that they hoped the attack would inflict “the most deaths in U.S. history,” were driven by a desire for mass carnage and lasting notoriety, not teenage angst.

Yet today’s online subculture celebrates many of the same false claims. 

“The two killers of Columbine are heroes to some of these kids and they shouldn’t be,” said DeAngelis, who retired in 2014 and assists communities across the country after mass shootings . “It scares me.”

Finding kinship online can normalize violent urges, says Peter Langman, a psychologist and author of “Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters” who runs the website SchoolShooters.info .

He points to a website devoted to the Columbine massacre and other mass murders. In a recent chat about which serial killer or mass murderer they related to the most, most said the Columbine killers. “I also relate to Eric and Dylan,” commented one person. “Like most people lol.” 

Three registered users of the website have gone on to commit mass murders, according to Langman. 

“Even if no one is advocating committing such acts, the fascination, the obsession that some people have may normalize the phenomenon,” he said.

Kris Mohandie, a forensic psychologist who has assessed youth offenders influenced by Columbine , said the identities of susceptible young people can be shaped by the content they interact with and produce online. They are drawn to the Columbine shooters “because it aligns with dark impulses and their sense of alienation, and what they think looks cool,” Mohandie said. 

That’s certainly what happened to Lindsay Souvannarath. 

The then-23-year-old student from Geneva, Illinois, was drawn to the story of Columbine via online chat rooms and forums. A budding artist and novelist, she sought feedback from her peers online and eventually fell headfirst into the subculture. 

In a 2019 prison interview with "The Night Time" podcast, Souvannarath, who is now in prison for planning a deadly attack on a mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Valentine’s Day 2015, talked at length about the inspiration she took from Columbine.

It all happened online. Souvannarath met her co-conspirator online when he commented on some of her artwork, and the two swapped music recommendations, fashion tips and theories about the Columbine attackers.   

“We thought we were actually them somehow,” Souvannarath told "The Night Time" podcast. “Not exactly reincarnations, but more like their spirits had found their ways to us, and we were them.” 

Souvannarath was arrested as she flew into Halifax airport the day before the planned mass shooting. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder two years later and is serving a life sentence in prison.

A ‘collective fail’ for social media platforms 

Hochhalter, the Columbine survivor, called on Facebook five years ago to take down pages glorifying the shooters , saying she feared they would inspire others. 

One of the pages, which had more than 2,000 likes and shared surveillance video images of the shooters, said its “mission” was to “never forget and always honor these heroes.”

Facebook deleted the pages within hours, saying they breached the company’s rules. 

As the 25th anniversary of Columbine approaches, Hochhalter said the communities of “Columbiners” online have only multiplied. She and other survivors of the attack have received abuse and death threats and have had to call in the FBI to investigate their tormentors, she said.

Meanwhile, on the platforms where the ideas spread, with almost nothing being done about it, she said.

"These people who are at the helm of the social media companies … those are the true extremists,” Hochhalter said. "Because they're allowing all of it to happen.”

Mohandie says the policies and enforcement at most social media companies are “grossly inadequate.”

Social media companies, some of which are worth billions of dollars, “have a responsibility to take down content glorifying the shooters, he said. 

“They have an ethical and social responsibility to do more than what they are doing,” he said. “They get a collective fail. All of them.”

After years of building robust content moderation systems, social media companies facing political pressure and economic headwinds have pulled back on gatekeeping, part of an industry trend that is making it harder to distinguish between educational content about Columbine and content that crosses the line.

What’s more, this is just the kind of content – dark and edgy – that is “algorithmically sticky,” said Natasha Zinda, an online content creator and activist. Posts that push right up to, and even beyond a platform’s rules on conduct, are often exactly the sort of content that gets views, clicks and interaction, she said.

“Algorithms like to push hate,” she said. “Our internet, and our culture on the internet, is all about engagement – whether it's good or bad.” 

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue researchers agreed. 

Some platforms are doing better than others when it comes to moderating content and deleting posts that violate terms of service, Frances-Wright said. But none of the platforms are doing enough, she said.

Better moderation and supervision need to take place at every stop in the radicalization pipeline, Frances-Wright said: From platforms where simulations are being created, to TikTok where it is being distributed, to secret spaces like Discord and Telegram where it is being openly discussed and new plots are being planned.  

Zinda also noted that the last layer of defense for children who might interact with these communities and this content is parents.

As a mother of three, Zinda said she appreciates how difficult it is for parents to control what their children view online. But every parent whose child is gaming or spending significant time online needs to prioritize talking with them about what they are doing and monitor their children’s internet activity.

“It's a click away,” Zinda said. “And you need to be talking with your kids daily about what that is.”

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We stand for academic honesty and obey all institutional laws. Therefore EssayService strongly advises its clients to use the provided work as a study aid, as a source of ideas and information, or for citations. Work provided by us is NOT supposed to be submitted OR forwarded as a final work. It is meant to be used for research purposes, drafts, or as extra study materials.

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