How Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2' Used a Disco Beat and Schoolchildren to Mock Authoritarian Education

The most interesting thing about this song is that Pink Floyd deliberately used the two most mainstream, “mindless” sounds of the late 70s—disco and a children’s choir—to deliver one of their most biting critiques of conformity. The funky, four-on-the-floor beat was practically a middle finger to their own prog-rock purist fans. Producer Bob Ezrin pushed for the disco feel because he knew that to make a point about indoctrination, the song needed to be catchy enough to get played on the radio. The irony is the track became a global hit, proving the system of mass consumption it was attacking works perfectly.

The children’s choir is the other half of the trick. Ezrin and Roger Waters recorded 23 students from Islington Green School in London, paying them £600 and promising they wouldn’t get in trouble with their teachers. The kids chant “We don’t need no education” with genuine glee, but the double negative (“no education”) is itself a grammatical “brick” in the wall—a sign that the rebellion is messy and unschooled. When the song was released, the school’s headmaster actually tried to have the recording blocked, which just proved