The Musical Education Of A Disgruntled Teenager & A Fuddy Duddy Mother

Friday, December 19th, 2008

I think that Paige and I are hitting some sort of musical kismet where are all of the stars are aligning and we suddenly like most of the same beats. This is common ground people. When you have common ground with your teenager, you grasp a hold of it and don’t ever ever ever let it go until it forces it’s way out of your clenched and white knuckled fingers.

When Paige was 7 years old I told her that when she turned 14 I would no longer censor her music. Censorship basically meant that I didn’t let her  listen to anything too explicit or offensive to women. Or basically, shit that I didn’t want to listen to in the car while I was driving her around.

Back then making her wait 7 years seemed like an eternity, but it sure got here in a hurry. As soon as she turned 14 the first thing she said was, “NOW I GET TO LISTEN TO WHATEVER I WANT.” I had no idea that she had been patiently looking forward to her birthday precisely for that reason. Just another notch on the “neener neener, I’m becoming an independent person” post.

In order to make commuting in the car together more enjoyable, I decided to create an iTunes playlist where we both contribute songs to the mix. Surprisingly, this has been an amazing bonding point for the two of us. This is what I call “accidental genius.”

It all started with Hey Jude. You may have heard of that Beatles song. She would listen to it over and over again thinking that the Beatles was some sort of one hit wonder like Barry Mann or Billie Ray Cyrus. That’s when I started introducing her to the entire Beatles’ catalog. And where she was just AMAZED, amazed and dumbfounded that one band could come up with so many great songs and original music. In the day of remakes and sampling, it was almost unfathomable to her.

Since that day, she’s been adding to the playlist and I round out the mix with songs from the wayback machine that I think she might like. Sometimes I give her a musical history lesson. For instance, until recently, she had no idea that the Beastie Boys are Jewish boys from Brooklyn. Or that Reverend Run was the same guy on Run’s House. You should have seen her face when she saw before and after pictures of Lauryn Hill.

Sometimes she schools me on her musical repertoire too. Who knew she new all the lyrics to most of Johnny Cash’s hits? Or that she loves the Doors? And Bob Marley? She even introduces me to music like Estelle or Lupe Fiasco (For the longest time I thought Lupe Fiasco was a Latino rapper. He’s not.) I love it.

Here’s a samplin’ of what we were listening to on the way to the mall yesterday while stuck 3 miles behind a car accident with no where to exit. Oh yeah, it was snowing too. (more…)

Tags: atmosphere, beatles, britney spears, cold play, death cab for cutie, eminem, estelle, kerli koliv, lupe fiasco, mgmt, music, paige, Parenting, single parent, the killers, what i'm listening to
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