Dang kids and their music!

[Flick James]

I have two children. I got started late in life with parenthood and didn’t have my first son until I was 40. Well, I had a step-daughter from a previous marriage but that’s another story.

Anyway, my oldest is a year and a half old and still watches a good deal of Nick Jr. type shows. Yo Gabba Gabba is his favorite. But now he’s starting to discover Spongebob on Nick and likes it. I don’t mind that. I like it too. However, Nick Jr. has no commercials, so I haven’t really been up on what’s being marketed to kids these days until recently, because Nick has commercials.

Dear God. I knew there was some inane music being packaged and marketing to kids since Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers, but I can’t handle this. I don’t know what I’m going to do when my son starts singing along with this crap. I don’t want to create a generatinoal rift and tell him his music is terrible, but how am I supposed to refrain? I don’t think it’s going to be possible.

I hate to be a “music was so much better in my day” curmudgeon here, but, what the hell, I’ll go there. Even when I grew up, I liked some music that was coming out at the time and I liked older stuff too. I mean, I was a Sabbath and Rush fan in the early 80’s as well as liking Elvis Costello and The Cars, so I feel like I have room to talk. My step daughter from my previous marriage was the same way, into new and older stuff, and had some surprisingly sophisticated taste at such a young age. I feel like the young ones growing up right now are being so targeted that they almost can’t escape. I was at a Cold Stone the other evening and this kid of about 10 came in with his dad to get ice cream and there was some godawful crap playing on the in-store system, Lady Gaga maybe, I don’t know, and this kid was gleefully singing along like it was the greatest thing in the world and the dad was just standing there, smiling as if he were being supportive of his son’s taste, but I could see in his eyes he was dying on the inside. Then, when we left, there were some girls in the parking lot, probably about 16 and fresh with their drivers licenses, writhing around on top of a car, really slutting it out, blaring some garbagey, overly processed pop crap I couldn’t begin to identify. What in God’s name is going on?

Are there any parents of kids a few years older than my own that can give me some guidance here? How do I get my kids to appreciate some decent music? How do I learn to tolerate what I know they’re bound to be listening to in a couple of years that will make me want to lift a gun to my temple? I know I can’t just be a curmudgeon and gripe about their music because that’s just going to create a generational rift and good luck getting them to appreciate any decent music that’s not mass-marketed to them. Are there any young musical artists doing anything with any grit or substance today? I don’t know of any. Any new music that comes out that I like is generally put out by more mature artists.

Not only am I venting anxst, but I would genuinely like some advice. Why not from badmovie.orgers?
 

[claws]

If this was 1985 you would sound exactly like my parents 

Every generation has their own music. I personally think mine (the 80s) was the best but my parents disagreed.
I don't have any kids of my own but if I did I would never interfere with their choice of music. My parents never did even though they might have b***hed, moaned and rolled their eyes. My advice: let them listen to whatever they want.

[3mnkids]

I listen to a lot of new music. Rock music mostly. I have found some great music on my daughters zune.      Let him like what he wants but play the stuff you like as well. My kids like some music from the 80's that I play and I like a lot of what they listen to.

Try not to hate his music just because its not old    

[jimmybob]

Probably if you expose them to older music with more soul quality they'll lean towards that rather than what's marketed now. The turning point for me when I was younger is when I listened to Led Zeppelin I out of curiosity and nearly wet myself.

And that path eventually led to me finding more soul quality in older movies and eventually b-movies. 

-Jimmybob

[HappyGilmore]

I don't even know what to say.  I'm a musical misfit in this case.  I can't even begin to say what "my" music was/is.  I'm 26, born in '84.  I can't claim the '80s as being 'my music', although, I prefer to listen to music from the '70s and '80s.  I guess the '90s would be where I heard a lot of music and claim a lot of them as "my" bands: Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, R.E.M. (granted around in the '80s, but still), etc.

I'm in that age where I SHOULD be listening to most modern music, but I generally loathe it, with a few exceptions.  And, to think of it, I can't think of any real specific group that marketed to kids when I was younger.  We didn't really have the "Disney" stuff like Jonas Bros., Miley Cyrus, etc.  Granted, we had New Kids on The Block, Debbie Gibson, NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, being all 'teen' oriented, but for the most part, I didn't like em, well, New Kids excluded.

I wouldn't last being a parent.  Kid brings home Miley Cyrus, I'd weep while screaming that they should be listening to Frank Zappa...

[Mofo Rising]

Well, I think a large part of it is the stupidity of youth. They just haven't lived long enough to be exposed to the good stuff. So, naturally, they think the first stuff they come across is going to be great. It doesn't help that we have music marketing machines like the Disney Channel forcing this stuff upon them.

But I think the few who actually care about music will eventually seek out the good stuff. Stuff they like, and if they really care, they will go out and find the music that influenced that music. If they're at all musically inclined, I think they will seek out music that isn't garbage.

Look at it this way: Pop music has been garbage for decades. It was the same in the '50s, '60s, and so on and so on. But there has been actual music produced that entire time. Vital music that never made it into serious airplay.

If I can insert myself into the argument, I didn't listen to music at all until I was thirteen or so. At that time I swallowed garbage like C&C Music Factory and MC Hammer as good. What did I know? Then somebody introduced me to the industrial noise of Ministry. That initial sidetrack put me on an individual path of seeking the craziest music I could find. Now I listen to absolutely everything, just trying to find the stuff I think is good, in whatever form it takes. I'll enjoy Patsy Cline tunes next to techno-dance numbers and bands that are nothing but pure noise.

Have some faith in the kids. The vast and unfortunate majority will listen to garbage foisted upon them, but there's always the new generation that will actually care about the good stuff.

Pay attention to them and ignore network television.

[voltron]

I grew up in the 80s so I'm partial to that era (I'm 34 now). I generally loathed anything that wasn't Iron Maiden when I was a kid. When I heard Seventh Son....I didn't like it so I stopped listening to Maiden and started getting into thrash - believe it or not, kids used to give me s**t for liking Metallica. Once I got bored with all the thrash, I stated listening to Skinny Puppy who opened up a new world for me. Then I graduated to death metal and grindcore (mostly the classic Earache stuff). When that got boring, I started listening to the "roots" of electro (Throbbing Gristle, Neubauten). Along the way I dicovered some amazing music by bands like The God Machine, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel, scorn, Merzbow, Swans, by a great but now defunct radio show called Brave New Waves....nowadays I can aprecciate a lot of the classic 80s synthpop, and some of the lesser known bands of that era. I guess my point would be that I feel that I never really gave in to what was ever on the charts and I'm not ashamed of anything I ever listened to, unlike the kids of today who will be embarassed by the current trends in popular music in ten years or so. Just like those kids who used to listen to Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, etc, then jumped on the grunge bandwagon.

[Mr. DS]

If anything, as a few have mentioned in this post, pop culture repeats itself.  Instead of Madonna we now have Lady Gaga.  Instead of Michael Jackson, we now have Justin Timberlake.  Sure the music may have changed a bit but Top 40 is Top 40.  Its all an age gap where one generation simply won't get another one's music.  A good example with me is I think the stuff their passing off as "metal" now is a travesty.  Particuarly stuff like metalcore.  

However, self admitingly I like a bunch of stuff from days past that most will snub their nose at and I'm fine with that.  Stuff ranging from pop 80s through death metal.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, it doesn't always require a great degree of "talent" to make great music.  Some of the most talented bands out there can often make really awful music at times I find.  

[Flick James]

Thanks for the commisseration. I was just venting. To the first couple of replies, I appreciate it. However, while it's true that just because it's not old doesn't mean it's not good, I see a huge distinction between Talking Heads and the vapidity of Justin Beiber. Look, I understand the pop-music thing. Hey, is there really a huge difference conceptually between Justin Beiber and Shaun Cassidy? Probably not. But then Shaun Cassidy wasn't being force-fed between shows 24 hours a day on Nick. That was my main point. I've cooled down a bit since my original post and realize that with media availability today kids do have plenty of opportunities to be exposed to good stuff, so I may have overreacted. It was a trip to Cold Stone to have some ice cream that brought on the rant. DAMN YOU COLD STONE!!!

By the way, nobody ever said if there are any young artists today making meaningful music that is not mass-marketed to 12-year-olds.

[Mr. DS]

Thanks for the commisseration. I was just venting. To the first couple of replies, I appreciate it. However, while it's true that just because it's not old doesn't mean it's not good, I see a huge distinction between Talking Heads and the vapidity of Justin Beiber. Look, I understand the pop-music thing. Hey, is there really a huge difference conceptually between Justin Beiber and Shaun Cassidy? Probably not. But then Shaun Cassidy wasn't being force-fed between shows 24 hours a day on Nick. That was my main point. I've cooled down a bit since my original post and realize that with media availability today kids do have plenty of opportunities to be exposed to good stuff, so I may have overreacted. It was a trip to Cold Stone to have some ice cream that brought on the rant. DAMN YOU COLD STONE!!!

By the way, nobody ever said if there are any young artists today making meaningful music that is not mass-marketed to 12-year-olds.

Hey don't get me wrong, I hate Justin Beiber and know exactly where you're coming from.  He looks like Simple Jack from Tropic Thunder.  And I have say before him I hated NSYNCH and before them I hated New Kids On The Block.  My point is this stuff refreshes every 10 years and every generation thought their era was the best.  That and honestly, its not all bad...just most of it.   I guess the lucky part about this is folks like Miley Cirus and The Jonas Brothers have hit the hump of puberty.  Its all down hill from here baby.  

Side note, my sister in law follows Hanson on tour.  Yes they're still alive and not working at Burger King in case you wanted to know.

[Jack]

When our kids were little, I used to be in a band - they thought I was cool!

Oh god, now I'm depressed again 

[HappyGilmore]

Side note, my sister in law follows Hanson on tour.  Yes they're still alive and not working at Burger King in case you wanted to know.

Not for nothing, but I have to defend Hanson a little bit.  They get a lot of grief, as most people mostly remember that song MMMBop, but I gotta give them a bit of credit.  They were unlike most of the boybands.  They wrote their songs, played the instruments, everything.  They didn't have pre-written pop heavy songs waiting for them.  And, as they've grown, the music's gotten much, much better, and more rock-heavy.  Do they still play the bigger hits? Yes.  But it's to appease the fans who may only know them due to said hits.