Future Hits

Our Story

Rock music that teaches. Really.

"Future Hits is relevant, standards-aligned, and reaches children of all learning and language levels in meaningful and memorable ways — there's nothing quite like it! Kids sing along in no time!"

— James Gray, former principal & teacher

Matt Baron (M. Ed.) is an elementary public school teacher and the founder and songwriter of Future Hits, an educational rock band whose songs build important language skills while cultivating children's love for learning.

On a Friday afternoon during his first year teaching, a first grade teacher colleague handed Matt her "long o" spelling list for the following week (words such as "boat," "row," "coat," "snow") and asked him to come up with a phonics lesson to teach her entire classroom that coming Monday. How would he keep the attention of 30 kids? As an ESL resource teacher who only worked with small groups, and a first year teacher with no experience teaching a whole class, Matt decided to use his musical skills to engage the larger group. After a futile Google search for songs to teach about the "long o" vowel sound, he grabbed his guitar and, with the spelling list and a blank sheet of paper in front of him, wrote the first Future Hits song ("Yellow Boat") in minutes.

That next Monday, he played the song and it was a smash. Kids cheered and wanted to hear it again. The guitar commanded their attention. All thirty kids hung onto every lyric, their eyes open wide and their mouths trying to sing the words. Word about the songs and materials spread like wildfire to other teachers, administration, and parents — their enthusiasm motivated Matt to write more and more. He received more spelling lists from more teachers and kept writing. Soon he began creating worksheets for students to show their comprehension of each song's lessons (which now incorporate social emotional themes as well as phonics). Kids yelled his name in the hallway when they saw him with his guitar in tow. Providing whole group lessons that engaged each classroom's array of learners with differentiated activities and lyrics projected on the big screen became a main event of the kids' days as well as his.

Thus Future Hits, the fun, heartfelt and (secretly) educational rock band and curricula program, was born. Since 2011, Future Hits songs and educational materials have been used in hundreds of classrooms by thousands of students. Mario Rossero, former CPS Arts Director, says: "The songs and activities are successfully designed to be accessible for all learners as well as attend to social emotional learning (SEL) needs in the process." The band has released three albums (two bilingual in English and Spanish), one educational workbook, and has performed in locations as far and wide as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, the Galápagos Islands, China, and Norway.

Today, Future Hits serves classrooms with in-person and remote concerts with accompanying educational material designed for children in grades Pre-K through 3rd. Each song is tailored to develop literacy skills, increase English language fluency, and highlight Social Emotional Learning concepts in a fun, engaging way. The songs and curricula are differentiated, standards-aligned, and promote multi-modal demonstrations of learning. Watch this short video to see them in action.

Future Hits also offers services around the world via remote platforms, and hopes to connect with you and your students (or families learning at home) soon! Get in touch to learn more.