Because
Last night our household spent the evening getting a serious Prince fix. You know it’s a big deal when MTV plays music videos again.
My kids know Prince’s music, but the artist himself remained less of a icon for them, because, well, we had MTV and we had album covers, and they don’t. They don’t see musicians the way we do. Even when they do encounter videos, they don’t watch them every chance they get the way so many of my generation did. They pull the videos up, plug their headphones in, and listen while they do other things.
This causes a gap that’s more than age-related, more than generational.
Music was a huge chunk of my education at home. When I was little, music and dancing seemed a part of every day life. One of my earliest memories is my portable turntable and “I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key…”
Growing up, my house had a lot more music than television.
There were trips to music stores. Remember music stores? With albums and 45s? Sometimes my dad would DJ and we would guess the tunes, sometimes we took a spin around the loop, just listening to new cds. We went to a lot of concerts. My parents had a vast record collection that imparted their generation’s music to me, but they listened to a variety of new music as well.
Like our cat, I enjoyed sprawling out in front of large speakers, feeling the bass. Unlike our cat, I sang along to the songs, and pored over the albums.
I take this seriously. This is a really big job, putting decades, centuries even, of music into children.
It requires some force feeding.
Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes, thanks to Guitar Hero, your son asks you to buy the ‘new’ BonJovi song, “Wanted Dead or Alive” or suddenly all your kids have a fascination with Billy Squire.
I miss Guitar Hero days from the boy one. His taste in music has evolved into territory I can’t dig. Did you know some people relax in the bath to Avenged Seven Fold?!? I thought that was a good time to walk the dog.
I can assure you visuals are important to children.
Have you ever seen the look on a kid’s face when you first present them with curry, lentil soup, or hummus?
When we lived in Georgia, the little boys across the street were obsessed with Kiss. My littlest girls would go over there to play, and they’d return singing, telling me all about Paul and Stanley. (They liked Paul and Stanley best.) They knew what they wore, how they did their faces, how tall the boots were. They knew a lot about Kiss for bein 4 and 5. This was because of a discography — music, videos, interviews — that they suddenly had access to.
After the Kiss phase, Moo entered a near-obsessive Beatles phase, because we got the Love thingy with videos. Moo listened to The Beatles and watched the videos like it was her job, but she never saw the artists in a personal way. So then things like this happened:
Me: Do you know who Paul McCartney is?
Sassy: Famous guy.
Me: Do you know why he’s famous?
Sassy: He’s a singer.
Me: Do you know who John Lennon is?
Sassy: One of The Beatles?
Me: Yes. Do you know any of the other Beatles?
Sassy: No.
*calls Moo in*
Me: Moomalade, do you know who Paul McCartney is?
Moo: No.
Me: Do you know who John Lennon is?
Moo: No.
Me: What’s your favorite band?
Moo: The Beatles.
Me: Carry on.
But they know ALL the songs. This is an example of the kind of disconnect we get in a digital age. The bodies might move, the ears definitely take it in, but the hands are off and there’s not much to look at.
We went through a similar thing when Bowie passed. The weekend before Bowie passed, there had been a birthday tribute, and since Sassy had no idea what we were on about, The Mister and I spent time enhancing her Bowie education. Oh, she knew plenty of Bowie music, but not that it’s Bowie’s music.
And kids, well, they never like anything the first time around. My life is full of constant amazement over how their tastes grow and change. Sassy proclaimed Billy Joel to be the worst singer ever. She hated Elton John, thought “Bohemian Rhapsody” was stupid, could not understand why Led Zeppelin was a big deal. But just like asparagus, you keep puttin it in their faces, and eventually they swallow some.
One day in March, Moo asked me to turn Bob Seger off, but I refused. One day last week, she asked me to turn him up.
My latest download into Sassy?
A few mornings of this disc, now she sings and hums it.
I love the horns.
Sassy didn’t know who the hell Missy Elliot was until I said Iggy Azalea sounded just like her. Then when I played Missy, Sassy kinda hmmed and said that wasn’t too bad, and now guess what? Sassy loves Missy Elliot.
She’s still holding out on the asparagus…
As a mother, I like to give I Told You Sos and comment, “But you don’t like Fleetwood Mac, remember?”
“But bruschetta is gross because olives, remember?”
I will tell you, around 11 o’clock last night, I asked Sassy if she was in love with Prince yet, and she said, “Mama, I was in love with him about three songs in.” I declare that’s the power of visual stimuli. I mean, really, it’s PRINCE, FFS. If the guitar didn’t make you groove, there’s a beautiful man in gorgeous clothes and um, sometimes he takes them off.
Which leads me to my next bit, where for a long time, Sassy wouldn’t eat spaghetti unless it involved marinara. When she was 8, I told her I was making spaghetti carbonara, and somehow she didn’t hear the carbonara part, so when it was time for dinner she claimed, “You ruined my spaghetti!” and refused to try it. This week, I told her I was making spaghetti carbonara and she got all excited. Still cautious, I asked her to Google it. She said it looked good and she was still excited. She ate seconds. I’m making it again today.
If only I could get her to love spaghetti alla puttenesca. It’s those damned anchovies, you know. Sassy and Moo hate seafood. Except tuna and sushi, which they were exposed to at a young age. At home. Where chicken fingers were not an option. They won’t even eat chicken that’s been fried in the same oil as fish. I’ll keep tryin.
Love of anything grows from exposure.
How do you share your passions?
joeyfullystated 
Princes death is terrible. Hit me hard. So did Bowie and Lemmy (Singer from Motorhead.) Never really was much for videos though. Not a lot anyway. We had MTV when they still played music, but Headbangers ball was all I watched 😛 Then there was The Box, but all they played was pop stuff, usually on repeat.
And I havent been to a sports bar since 2009, so Im “out of touch” with what plays today. Dont care. Saw an article a while ago about how its “Drakes world” and Im all “Who?” and the one other old geezer in the thread agreed. Lol
Avenged Sevenfold is ok though. Kinda remind me of an angry Social Distortion, except more country-ish. (pay attention, its in there, just listen. Lol) Just be glad he doesnt listen to Cannibal Corpse or stuff like that. Or dubstep. Im sure dubstep was what happened when too many people decided that techno needed more base, and less talent. I guess. I dunno.
And you can tell Sassy I said that Bohemian Rhapsody is stupid. Waynes World was the worst whitewashing of a movie next to Save the Last Dance. 😛
Im all over the board though, musically. You know. Except pop, rap & country. Just cant get into it. And recalling my 7&8 grade “rap phase” is just embarrassing.
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You didn’t watch Beavis & Butthead?!?
I know who Lemmy was *angry face*
Drake is not my thing. Moo likes him though. Moo’s got a taste for nice, clean-cut boys.
I have no idea how Bubba can endure his music. He listens to Social Distortion, too. I don’t mind Korn and Marilyn Manson, so that’s what I ask for while he’s here and insistent on his music.
Dubstep is for dance. Or maybe cleaning. Or maybe sex. It’s not a regular thing here. Trap music either. Some, in small doses.
Sass has come around on all of Queen now, and Piano Man, but she’s still no fan of Elton John’s.
I love Wayne’s World. Forever.
This Prince thing hit me hard, too. Iconic, incomparable. One concert I’ll never get to see. He hung on my wall. Prince, Madonna, and Rainbow Brite. ❤ Imma miss him. I wish MTV gave us a Prince weekend.
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I HATED Beavis & Butthead. I was more of a Ren & Stimpy type at the time, though I was too stoned at the time to recall most of their shows..
Lemmy. LOL
Trap, Jungle, Breakbeat, House..Its all techno to me. And the KIDS that call it “Industrial” these days have no freakin clue wtf theyre talking about. Apples & oranges. Seriously.
And Bubbas tunes? Some of us just like Noise. Lol ;D
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Let me guess…Vanilla Ice?
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That too. Lol
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I had that too. Of course I what I had more of was Skid Row, Warrant, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen.
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There was that too..I grew up with a LOT of classic rock, and Tesla-era stuff. Lol
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I was introduced to Metallica shortly after all of that before they went mainstream too.
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I knew about Metallica as a small kid. Dad was into heavy metal. He was the one who got me saying things like “Ill listen to almost anything with a guitar..”
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Enjoyed this so much – and the food journeys paired with the musical ponderings was brilliant. The timeless song was an unexpected beat – but fit so well!
I do recall the music stores and album art! I personally miss the radio DJs that used to talk about the songs – give the year – maybe some tidbits- nowadays it is just fourth grade humor with local morning DJs – but decades ago it was an art!
—
RIP To Prince
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Thanks so much for reading and commenting 🙂 I appreciate the time you spent.
Yes, long gone are the days of Casey Kasem keeping us informed through the top 100. I miss that, too. I refuse to listen to the radio DJs in the morning anymore. It irritates me.
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I forgot about that great show – w/ casey – in the car especially – and side note – heard he had a horrible thing happen during his elderly care – like folks took advantage and stuff.
and what did you mean about a new key with the roller skates?
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It’s a song from the 70’s
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Very nice post. I had to chuckle when you were talking about CDs in your youth. I am of the vinyl generation. I remember the portable record player of my Brother’s. I remember the albums I remember my Dad buying a huge stereo console when I was about 14 or so. I used to lay in front of it and listen to the speakers switching back and forth. It was magical to me. Music has always been my friend. I remember when MTV first premiered and actually played videos. I remember my Thorens turntable and Pioneer amp. I remember the old file cabinet that held my albums. And yes I remember Prince and Bowie and all of the others who gave us music and then left us. I loved the fact that you are keeping your kids “hip” to other types of music. And keep telling Sassy that asparagus is good food. Especially with crab.
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“Especially with crab” LOL Just what she wants to think about. I remember when she was three and she sat beside her daddy at dinner. They brought out his crab legs and she was TERRIFIED. We had to switch seats.
Course, she eats crab all the time in sushi. *rolls eyes*
I’m glad you were of the vinyl generation. I wish vinyl was more mainstream these days. Hopefully the hipsters are helping 😉
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and with ham and risotto, or just because.
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Truly! I don’t need a reason to eat asparagus 😛
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Loved this one, Joey. My kids were weaned on music LP’s from the 60’s and 70’s. From soul to Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles, Floyd. We put our favorite albums on during dinner. Years later, they told me they prefer the raw “scratchiness” of vinyl, their music is too flawless. Go figure. ☺ And anything “carbonara”…what’s not to love ?? 💖
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Lucky ducks. I don’t know if or when we’ll ever invest in a turntable…but I, too, prefer that scratch.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting 🙂
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That crackle and pop when you first lay the needle down is priceless.
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“Put the needle on the record and it goes like this…”
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We never put that turntable away…it’s from the late 70’s !
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You are a good musical mama. Keep force feeding those young-uns with the “good” stuff. You took me down memory lane. I started out with vinyl…45’s and LP’s…moved into 8-track and cassette tapes, then CD’s until downloading from iTunes and many other places came along. I have a wide variety of musical taste, but I laugh that it ranged from David Cassidy in the 70’s, to BonJovi and every other hair band of the 80’s, to AC/DC and Journey (my all-time fave) and a host of pop and rock and blues and Christian artists. It runs the gamut.
Anyhoo, it’s too bad Prince had to die at a young age. Dude was amazing and uberly talented.
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I find with music, the wider the span, the better! Good for you!
Glad you enjoyed my post today, thank you for commenting 🙂
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I grew up in a house without cable TV, with music that was classical or from a musical. My parents didn’t like pop music, so the only time I heard it was on the radio. Like your children I don’t know the details of bands/performers because music was in the background, not something to watch. Unlike your children I had no control over what I heard, so I learned how to tune out things I didn’t like. That’s a good life skill, come to think of it.
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Yes, disdain and struggles DO strengthen our skill sets. Thanks for reading and commenting, Ally 🙂
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I was subjected to Roger Whittaker on the regular. I wish that I had learned at an early age how to block out things that I didn’t like. I used to listen to Elvis albums and Olivia Newton-John.
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My music is wide, and has grown wider thanks to the wife. She has expanded my education to fill the void that my upbringing left me with. Thanks Baby! I am slow to appreciate things that are new to me. I have to really hear the music first, and then I hear the lyrics. It is more about the music for me than lyrics. One memory from high school is that every morning and lunch period included the doors without fail.
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Same here. The Doors were a constant in the cafeteria! Thanks for the memories 🙂 Glad to have enhanced your music education!
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I always thought of Prince as an artist first and a musician second, like David Bowie. Their performances were works of art.
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Good point, Jan. I agree. 🙂
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Roger Whittaker was BIG around here, as in sell out 18,000 seat arena big. I was subjected to a steady diet of depressing 70’s country: Tom T Hall was the one I wish I could’ve blocked out.
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Love it. My listing is like my reading, I’m all over the board. It reminds me of a comment that circulated the old bulletin boards, before social media and Internet memes existed. “Momma did you know that before he was famous, Paul McCartney used to be in a band called Wings?”
One thing about digital media though, I can load my phone up with music I could never have found from old albums and such. It’s like a four day long mix tape now.
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I dont know what Id do if it wasnt for digital media. 10s of thousands of files..some you just cant get in stores nowadays. Sure, the sound is different on most, but I got some old Skip James mp3s that say different. 😛
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Yes, I agree, digital storage is ideal for playlists and storage.
I actually had a sentence in there about Wings before I edited, so I appreciate the joke.
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks so much for reading this long post and commenting 🙂
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The world changes fast. I threw away all my 8 tracks before moving to Idaho. We still own some vinyl, cassettes, and CDs, but own nothing to play the vinyl and cassettes on.
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I just loved this post. Music taps into some pretty primal places in the human brain which is why we all can get so passionate about it. Keep feeding the kids a steady diet of variety. An open mind is the best gift you can give them.
My tastes run the gamut from Opera to Punk to Heavy Metal to Classic Rock, though I never did get in to music videos. And I still have all my old vinyl too, so I may just spring for a new turntable one of these days.
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Thanks, Norm.
I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
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I’m sad about Prince but I was seriously into country music snd “oldies” when he was big. So, I have a reaction analogous to your kids but backwards. I know who he is but I don’t really know his music. I knew Bowie, also sad, but I feel it differently.
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Agree with you on all points. My kids love music but they listen to it in such different ways in comparison with mine. First they don’t buy any CD anymore. I spent so much money buying records and Cds and music magazines when I was their age!
As for the fact that kids and teens know the songs but not who sings it or wrote it, it’s the same with poems, for example. The other day my twenty-two year old daughter spent time with a middle school girl who saw a poem in my daughter’s poetry book and exclaimed, “I know this! It was on Instagram!” The poem happened to be by Robert Frost. My daughter thought is was great that the kid could recognize the poem and less disturbed than me by the fact that Robert Frost didn’t ring a bell to the twelve year old. I had mixed feelings, to be honest.
But I love your little girl’s reaction to the Beatles.
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Oh yeah, I see that all the time! In fact, when I went searching for this Shakespeare quote, it was hard to find one that actually attributed it to Shakespeare! And there were a ton more that had altered the quote. Yes, I agree, this is a problem.
I think Sassy and Moo were maybe 10 and 11 when I asked The Beatles questions.
We (and they) do still sometimes buy cds. But we don’t keep the cases…
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I know what you mean. This concerts me when the writer behind a quote or a poem is not recognized for the work.
My kids buy music through their phones and computers where they store everything. I still love CDs, cases included. My husband is like you, though. 😊
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This is most beautiful read I have read today. So great to see how you are getting your children to love music for what it is…more than just beats. Such a fun read. Now am off to Google all the different kinds of spaghetti.
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Thank you for the awesome compliment, Deb! 😀
I hope you found some interesting spaghetti variations 🙂
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My parents are about 40 years older then me so they were baby boomer era and I was gen y. So I grew up listening to the Everly Brothers on vinyl and at 4 was obsessed with the song All I Have To Do Is Dream. I didn’t grow up with any music past the late 60s at home, but my 3 older brothers were all gen x and were listening to sex pistols and guns n roses and such. And I love techno and electronic music (but that’s only because I’ve done a lot of drugs)!
Plus 7 years of singing gave me a love of classical and musicals. But I still think there is a difference even between my generation and the new one. We grew up with tapes recording songs off the radio and rewinding the tape with a pencil.
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Although you’re younger than me, I too taped songs off the radio, probably 85-90.
Thanks for sharing part of your music education. 🙂
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Great post! I love the weaving of the music with the asparagus and the anchovies. What I used to do to encourage the larnin’ of music was to occasionally (especially when the kids needed money for something) say in the middle of a song on the radio, “Who is singing this song?” The first one who got it (if they got it) would get 50 cents and later a buck. So they would study hah. As a joke I tried it again on them as adults, but I had to go $5 that time.
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I’m of the vinyl generation, Joey. My youngest (she’s 18) is thinking of buying a record player as there are quite a few places now selling old vinyl records. She loves the big square sleeves and the artwork on them. I was explaining to her how in my teens, I used to stand in my bedroom with an LP playing and I would clutch the empty sleeve to my then-very-small- bossom and listen while Bowie, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac etc filled the room. She totally got how much more cuddly a flexible LP cover was than the hard plastic CD holders she grew up with. 🙂
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I’m slowly educating Audrey in the ways of music and sci-fi, so far she’s taking to it all very well.
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That’s the one thing I miss about downloading music: no album cover, and no liner notes. I would put a record on, and read the notes and the personnel, and could tell you that Fred Lipsius played the piano solo in the middle of Blood, Sweat, and Tears’ version of “Smiling Phases,” from their second album. Useless trivia, yeah, but it was more of a connection than I have now. When I would sit and listen to music, I would SIT and LISTEN to the music. Sounds like you were pretty much the same.
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Hail hail puttanesca and Prince! 🙂
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😀
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