My kids have a wide range of interests. The younger one of my sons is into Legos and Star Wars while the older one is into tabletop Warhammer games and online gaming. Lucky for me, he also has the same appreciation for music as I do even though our tastes in music differ significantly. However, to my surprise, he loves older music from the 80’s and 90’s even though I do not play any music from those decades. Imagine how happy I was to discover that little tidbit of information about him.
Yesterday, while getting dinner prepared, instead of watching Netflix as I normally do, I decided to listen to music. I happened to come across a song in my playlist that I haven’t heard in a while and played it just when my son came into the kitchen for a snack. He stated, “Hey, I heard you play that song before, I’m going to look it up on YouTube”. Before too long, he was sitting at the kitchen table watching music videos through YouTube via his Ipad. Soon enough, I was suggesting different videos and he would watch it. Then we would begin to dissect the music. We started off with Billy Joel, Phil Collins and Genesis and eventually moved on to other artists ending with my least favorite: Michael Jackson. Now, TONS of people love Michael Jackson…I’m not one of them. He was worth working into our discussion, however, regardless of my opinions of the man. I will admit, Michael Jackson has produced a lot of good songs and may be the “King of Pop”, but, I have never been interested in his music style. I will also confess that there are only three to four songs at the most that I do appreciate by him; one of them being “Man In The Mirror“. I much prefer Janet Jackson over Michael, but even her style does not exactly cater to my particular taste in music.
After each video I would suggest, my son would become interested in the message, lyrics, and a bit of history about why a particular song was produced. At his age, I never took my music interest that far as to do any research about the lyrics or what prompted the artist to write the song to begin with. I was like every typical teen and would just listen to the music for the beat rather than the message. So, to witness my son actually dive into any given song for a better understanding of it just blows my mind…and, I love it!
As I stated earlier, we started off with Billy Joel. “We Didn’t Start The Fire” was the first one he wanted to watch since I had played it the other day during my workout on my treadmill. I had never seen it due to being deprived of MTV while growing up, so, I was pulled away from cooking and watched it with him. I am always impressed by the videos of the 80’s. The creativity that went into the older videos always leaves me in awe. Even my son commented on how amazed he was at the amount of work that went into making the videos for Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and Genesis’ “Land Of Confusion“. He was a bit confused with Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” video since it did a quick run through of a family’s life ending with someone in a casket. He did enjoy trying to sing the lyrics to REM’s “It’s The End Of The World“. We both failed miserably, which, I take consolation in knowing that there are probably very few people who can sing that song perfectly aside from Michael Stipe. He wound up looking up the actual lyrics and found that even trying to read them was a challenge in itself. I read it with him and found the lyrics very confusing and mainly made up of random phrases mashed together in such a way that it just works. I tried to explain it to my son, but he was stuck on the fact that it didn’t even rhyme. I pointed out that some parts did rhyme, but that wasn’t the point. The point was the message. All of the things going on in the world which prompted these artists to bring awareness through their songs was what I wanted him to “get”. While “Sledgehammer” and Dire Straits “Money For Nothing” prompted carefree feelings and fun, songs like Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror” catered toward awareness of real issues of poverty and hate.
We finally ended our “one on one” time with the WHO’s “Pinball Wizard” and Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida“. Well, at least, I TRIED to get him to watch “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” just to get back at him for the numerous nonsensical videos he has forced me to watch in the past. He quickly caught on and firmly stated “I am NOT watching a music video that is seventeen minutes long!” (Dang it!)
Our discussion ended on the topic of whether or not “Pinball Wizard” was about a real person or not. I believed it was. My son looked it up on Google and wound up on Wikipedia, as most people normally do, and tried to explain that it wasn’t based on a real person at all. I further explained that the concept of “Tommy” was made up, but, the person it was about was actually real. We butted heads on that one song and neither could confirm which one of us was right since the internet seems to say both as well. If one of my readers could clarify, it would be much appreciated. I am not a WHO fan and have not listened to any of their music aside from the “Pinball Wizard” song.
In conclusion, the quality time spent on our similar interest is one that I am sure we will both look back on fondly in years to come. It is so rewarding when you find that common ground that you can relate to with your teen. Whatever interest you both share, take advantage of it and cherish it because, “all we are is dust in the wind, dude”.