On of the coolest things about being a parent is being able to rediscover things as you share them with your kid. I wonder if this is something unique to my generation as my parents did not actively share things with us as kids. But one thing they passed down was a love of great music. I listen to music everyday, I was a DJ & worked at a radio station because I loved music so much. This in addition to singing and playing the flute. My husband also was a DJ and loves music maybe a little bit more than I do.
When our daughter was born there was always music blasting. We weren’t the type of parents who kept the house quiet just because the baby was sleeping. She’d dance and play with the various instruments we have. We have videos of her singing and banging away on Grandma’s piano when she was a toddler. After we had the boy, our trio became a quartet and more musical fun was had. The boy likes to rock and both kids will dance to anything.
We’ve urged this along by taking to the LACMAs Friday Night Jazz series and their Latin Sounds series. We go to street fairs and festivals where they are exposed to music from all over the world. All of this in addition to our vast music collection on vinyl and CD, not to mention our mp3s and the use of sites like Pandora or Last.fm.
Where we fall short is popular music. See, our kids were raised mainly on old funk & soul, reggae and rocksteady, jazz & blues. Occasionally they’ll hear daddy play some Iron Maiden or I’ll put on Music Choice’s 80s station, otherwise they’re not exposed to pop music. A couple of years ago I had realized this and tried to rectify it. I played my kids some old Michael Jackson songs which they both loved. My daughter told me that the Go-Gos were her favorite girl band in all the world after hearing 2 songs by them.
My daughter who knows more bhangra than rock came home one day telling me she’s a punk rocker. They were listening to punk music in the car. Indeed, both kids can mosh & pogo like nobody’s business when they hear a punk song come on. Recently, my husband introduced the kids to the Beatles. In 2 weeks, the girl now recognizes their music. Last night, the kids heard ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and we had fun dancing along to it in the car.
I’m cherishing these moments because I know that as she gets older, she’ll want to listen to what her peers listen to. I’ll be forced to endure bad pop, horrible R&B/rap medleys and bland rock. My only wish is that through the music we’ve shared with her, she’ll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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The The sound of music by Anika Malone, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.