This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I heard the sounds of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s “Lodi” coming out of our 13-year-old son’s room. I was filled with pride in the kid’s hard-bitten psych-up music for another school day. Meanwhile, our high school senior son has been all about The Doors (especially his new musical hero, Ray Manzarek) and determining the second-best guitar player after Jimi Hendrix. He’s decided that Eddie Hazel‘s guitar on “Maggot Brain” is his favorite extended guitar solo he’s heard to date. However, he’s disappointed that the rest of Funkadelic‘s catalog, or at least what he’s heard of it so far, doesn’t live up to the promise of that song.
With no tremendous topic to put forth, I ask you: What are your kids listening to, right now?
I look forward to your answers.
My two year old daughter makes me proud when she sings the theme song for the 1966 Ultraman series, and (of course) when she loudly demands “I WANT BEATLE MUSIC!” at the top of her lungs.
My 9 year old son is into a mishmash of stuff. Lately, it’s been Van Halen (upon seeing a video of them for the first time he said, “Wow, they really like the razzle dazzle!”), “Glory” by John Legend and Common, old Elton John, and a Fallout Boy song that samples Tom’s Diner.
My 8 year old daughter listens to Kids Corner on WXPN, and other than that, she’s pretty content to let someone else pick out the music.
When we’re all in the car together we listen to comedy, usually Brian Regan and Jim Gaffigan, on Spotify.
My girls are now out of the house and at 26 and 24, I don’t know what they are listening to, I’m guessing it continues to be a combination of top 40 and country (and that would be current country, not the country I’d listen to).
My son is 18 and listens to a weird (like I’m one to talk) combination of old jazz, modern indie rock (if that’s a suitable label for stuff like Mumford & Sons, etc.), top 40, and some classical stuff.
All three, fortunately, are firmly grounded in the Beatles, Motown, and oldies in general from back when I still controlled the dial.
We will all be together this weekend in Baltimore for a Mother’s Day/Father’s Day get together where my eldest lives and just bought a house. She let me know that they just announced a surprise Prince concert there this weekend. Back in 2006 or maybe 2007 (whenever Musicology came out and he toured the hits), I took them all to see Prince, a concert they still look back on the way I look back on some of my first rock concerts.
My 8 year-old son pretty much will listen to what I do, but the trendy stuff, like that big Ronson/Mars Uptown Funk song, is starting filter in through schoolmates. He also likes Michael Jackson. He does not like Justin “Beaver” because he’s got the word on good authority from a classmate that Justin is a “bad guy.” Once in awhile, he will sit through a concert movie with me, which he calls dad’s “guitar shows.”
Neither of mine live here so I don’t know all the time but the younger one was here today and he said he’s been listening to Ty Segall,Thee Oh Sees and Wand lately.
Since I have an album by each of these I am happy that he makes solid musical decisions on his own. Well, I think they’re solid. he listens to some stuff I think is boring, like that guy from Community that makes rap albums or something and he listens to some of the newer “punk” bands that I think are missing the point of what Punk was all about. They all sound the same to me, and if they are a little different they seem to be trying to fit in. I think it’s just nice that the kid likes guitars! He wants a new amp so he can get in a band, so I hope he does that. The guy he’s been playing with has released a couple of cd’s and I even have a record by him that I got on my own and my son and this guy have been banging stuff around so he has connections that will get them out of the garage and in to bars. My guess is they’ll sound like they love The Replacements, cuz they both do.
My almost 20-year-old daughter loves Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day and the Beatles in roughly equal measure.
My almost 17-year old daughter likes Taylor Swift and the Beatles, loves Fall Out Boy and videogame soundtracks.
My 14-year-old daughter loves Genesis, Ralph Towner, U2, the Beatles, the Decemberists, Brian Eno, the Smiths, Nick Drake and Suzanne Vega, and likes pretty much everyone else you like. Yeah, she’s one of those people. (Which is to say…one of us.)
None of mine yet have fallen for the Replacements the way I keep hoping they will, and not for lack of trying. (Which, of course, might explain it.) Although all like R.E.M. muchly. (I’ll take it.)
Hopeful stuff out there for Next Generation Hallers! Are there any artists you love who your kids don’t get AT ALL? Have you tried to explain to them what you love about said artist? My boys can’t believe I like Captain Beefheart. They find no redeeming qualities in his music; they can’t understand what planet I’m from when I try to turn them onto “Dirty Blue Gene.” I can understand why. I don’t think I would have been able to dig him prior to my college years, but I don’t want to get into all the “keys” to unlocking the joys of those records. They’re going to have to figure that stuff out on their own. The boys also can’t take their mother’s love of Joni Mitchell, but I remember well how terrifying I found Mitchell when she appeared in The Last Waltz. Again, my experience told me there were certain “keys” to appreciating the heavily womanly vibe of Mitchell.
My 22-year-old has been into OAR for some time now (even before that hit about turning the car around). He’s still gets into whatever hip-hop is happening these days. L’il Wayne maybe?
Then, we have my 20-year old daughter. Taylor Swift is huge in her world, as is Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum and the top pop hits of the day. Anything by Niki Minaj she’ll take.
Lastly, the 17-year-old boy. I catch him listening to OAR, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. These still hope for this one.
All were raised on a steady diet of Chuck Berry, Beatles, Stones, Little Richard, et.al. I can’t help thinking, like Oskar Shindler, I could have done more.
Post of the Week!
It’s a source of some comfort to me that our 12-year-old is very happy and interested in whatever his parents (which ends up meaning, really, me) are playing, whether rock, jazz, classical, or what have you. He knows a lot about music in general (i.e., he plays piano, knows theory, etc.) and is quite astute at times in making connections or noting similarities, influences, etc., without prompting from me.
On the one hand, I am good with his apparent lack of interest in contemporary music–he ain’t hearing much of it through his parents. But yet, part of me would like him to have more connection to what is going on in his own time.
At the moment, he seems especially drawn to the Zombies, the Police, and the Clash. So I feel disinclined to complain.
That’s funny, I was just talking to a student who also referred to Justin as a “bad guy.” What are they talking about? That he wears too much gel in his hair?
We don’t have kids, but we do the best we can to influence the musical tastes of our friends’ kids. For 2 years, a colleague and I have been swapping music on Fridays. His tastes are less “developed” than mine, and his wife’s is even worse, so I feel that I am doing them some good lending him some of my music library. So far, theTom Tom Club, Queen and Magnetic Fields are reported to be big hits in their household.
I don’t think they are making a musical judgement. Evidently the tabloid stuff filters down to elementary school gossip. He’s gone off on some folks for taking his picture and got some speeding tickets around his house.
I am amazed by the sophistication and depth of your children’s music taste…even for high schoolers. I had to trudge through The “Ghostbuster’s Theme”, “Maneater”, and “Land Down Under” before I was able to discover The Clash and such.
I have a five year old son who loves “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, because Geddy’s synthesizers sound like light sabers, and “Strat Cat Strut” because of the line “I get my dinner from a garbage can”. He thinks it’s hilarious and I completely agree with him.
My 10 year old made me play “School Days” from Chuck a couple times on our way home from camping last week. Otherwise he’s listening to that horrible boiled-down U2-soiunding band, Imagine Dragons. I’ve successfully turned him on to my new favorite though, Shamir.