Wednesday, July 29, 2009

music ponderings

I write this at the risk of sounding, ahem, old.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about music. I love it--all (well most) genres. It's a huge motivator for me. I blast my radio or CD's when the kids aren't in the car, and even when they are. I think my recent music pondering began when we took our most recent road trip to SC. Before we left, I burned a CD from my iTunes collection. It ROCKS!! Turns out, my boys think so too. So much so, that they "rock out" to the CD daily and haven't listened much to "Lukey and Charlie" music (consisting of Hide 'Em Your Heart CD's, Veggie Tales, etc) since we've been back from our trip.

Now Chad likes music as well, but he doesn't pay attention to the words. I'm not sure how. The words tell the story of the song--in my humble opinion. Well, Luke must take after me. He pays close attention to the words of songs and suddenly I'm answering all kinds of questions about the song lyrics on the road trip CD. Here's an example. . .the song I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin has the lyrics. . .

And I will rise
when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise, on eagle's wings
Before my God
fall on my knees,
and rise...
I will rise

Luke proceeds to ask me, "Mommy, why will he rise?" I tell him when Jesus comes back, all those who love Him and believe Him will go to heaven with Him. If we love and believe Him, we will too. Lukes thinks about it and says, "I think it will be great to go to heaven, but I don't want to stay there. I want us to still live in our house!" More questions arose, but it was really cute. It was also hard for him to understand and slightly difficult to explain.

But, then we move into secular music and I start having to answer different kinds of questions. Another example is from Taylor Swift's song, Love Story. Some of the lyrics are. . .

That you were Romeo
You were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don't go

Luke asks, "Mommy, why is the daddy telling someone to stay away?" I wonder, Hmmmmm, do I go into the whole Romeo and Juliet story? No. So, I try to put it simply and lightheartedly. I tell him the daddy was grumpy and thought that the boy might hurt Juliet's feelings. I also tell him that he stops being grumpy, becomes happy again and lets the boy stay with Juliet, because if you know the song, and listen to lyrics, then you know that the dad changes his mind and lets Romeo marry Juliet.

I could go on and give you examples of questions from every song, but you would be bored, or maybe you already are.

Point is, I'm feeling the need to be cautious about what we expose our children too. We are big fans of KLOVE, a national Christian radio station. However, I still love my pop/80's, 90,'s today/rock music. I think it's good to expose my children to a variety of music, and I'm actually enjoying answering some of these questions. But, they are too young for some of the stuff on the radio. Heck, I might be too young too---or maybe too old? Yikes!

I have, still, more thoughts.

My parents favor music of "their" time. Sure, they occasionally know current songs. However, my Dad would choose to listen to the Grateful Dead over anything current. Why is that? When do you stop listening to what's current? Did they stop listening to the radio when my sister and I were younger to shield us from the junk on the radio then or because we listened to so many "kids" tapes and they forgot about current music? I wonder if I will ever just stop listening to the radio or paying attention to what's on now. When my boys are older, will I prefer to just listen to U2, Journey, Dave Matthews because that is just better than what's current in the future or because I won't know what's been on the radio due to my boys' CD's?

How many of you are still with me?

Great. Thanks. Just had to get those questions out of my head.

6 comments :

mrchrishill said...

Good post. I'm a fan of music and have it surrounding me most places I go - house (built in speakers in most rooms), car, work, car, home, ipod workouts, etc. So being aware of the influence it has on people is essential. This is one reason I support ministries like these guys: http://www.vimeo.com/3641011

As for style of music, I think exposing children and myself to various kinds of music will help shape the creative appreciation of various styles. Of the 27617 plays since Oct 2006, I love tracking what I listen to. Try it out or see what I'm listening to right now even: http://www.last.fm/user/mrchrishill

Thanks for the morning pick up.

Anonymous said...

I think the answer is to introduce the Grateful Dead to the kids.

- Michael

Anonymous said...

Good music also tells a story through the music...not just the lyrics. I can think of a few songs that the lyrics would be just fine without the background music.

So what if I like the music. I'm quite convinced that if it wasn't for the non-lyric focusing one of us, are children wouldn't be able to express preferences like, "No, Daddy, I want to listen to jazz," or "no Daddy, I want to listen to classical," Or "Daddy, you know I've always appreciated the greats that have defined meaningful music like Johnny Coltrain, Louis Armstrong, Dizzie Gillespie and the amazing Thelonius Monk, but I just can't understand why modern jazz artists have chosen such distracted directions for music today."

Miss Angie said...

I still think of your Dad when I hear "I put my hand up on your hip, when I dip you dip we dip" lol!

Miss Angie said...

I still think of your Dad when I hear "I put my hand up on your hip, when I dip you dip we dip" lol!

Miss Angie said...

I still think of your Dad when I hear "I put my hand up on your hip, when I dip you dip we dip" lol!

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