Kid's Music
I'm driving Little_Mz_Hatbox to school this morning. As we were departing the garage, I asked her if she wanted to hear some tunes. "Yes," she replied, "I want the iPod. I want to hear... iTunes!" When I told her that iTunes was the name of the program I used to put music in the iPod, she was amused.
The second song that came on was "On the Run", track 3 of "Dark Side of the Moon". Before the first synth arpeggio had finished, she happily chimed in with "Oh, Pink Floyd. I love Dark Side of the Moon. Daddy, that's my favorite Pink Floyd." I alternated between being proud that my six year old could identify Floyd in less than a bar and wondering whether I should be concentrating more on playing Bert and Ernie's Greatest Hits or more Beethoven's Wig.
And then the next song began. "Radiator" by Aphex Twin, from Selected Ambient Works Volume 2. Which is pretty obscure for North America (or anywhere else for that matter), but if you heard Eno's Music for Airports you have an idea what I'm talking about. I was going to quickly fast forward, but I decided to check first. "If you don't like this, let me know and I'll change it."
"No, I like it. It sounds pretty weird, but I like i." This is an album that I often fast forward through, because it's not exactly easy listening. But Leah seemed to really enjoy it, and spend some time figuring out whether the sounds were on the recording or if they were coming from the car. "Daddy, did you make that breathing sound? No? Then it must be the music. Oh."
Some vain part of me hopes that she'll continue to go for the eclectic, and thus spare us and herself from the inevitable pop-tripe of 2010-2020 that her peers will listen to. On the other hand, I might just be creating a musical loner, somebody who was listening to U2 in 1980 while everybody else was into Duran Duran. The loner listening to Zeppelin while the Bee Gees were on the top 40. Or am I setting her up to reject this music and start listening to teeny-bopper stuff in earnest? Time will tell.
The second song that came on was "On the Run", track 3 of "Dark Side of the Moon". Before the first synth arpeggio had finished, she happily chimed in with "Oh, Pink Floyd. I love Dark Side of the Moon. Daddy, that's my favorite Pink Floyd." I alternated between being proud that my six year old could identify Floyd in less than a bar and wondering whether I should be concentrating more on playing Bert and Ernie's Greatest Hits or more Beethoven's Wig.
And then the next song began. "Radiator" by Aphex Twin, from Selected Ambient Works Volume 2. Which is pretty obscure for North America (or anywhere else for that matter), but if you heard Eno's Music for Airports you have an idea what I'm talking about. I was going to quickly fast forward, but I decided to check first. "If you don't like this, let me know and I'll change it."
"No, I like it. It sounds pretty weird, but I like i." This is an album that I often fast forward through, because it's not exactly easy listening. But Leah seemed to really enjoy it, and spend some time figuring out whether the sounds were on the recording or if they were coming from the car. "Daddy, did you make that breathing sound? No? Then it must be the music. Oh."
Some vain part of me hopes that she'll continue to go for the eclectic, and thus spare us and herself from the inevitable pop-tripe of 2010-2020 that her peers will listen to. On the other hand, I might just be creating a musical loner, somebody who was listening to U2 in 1980 while everybody else was into Duran Duran. The loner listening to Zeppelin while the Bee Gees were on the top 40. Or am I setting her up to reject this music and start listening to teeny-bopper stuff in earnest? Time will tell.