Music, Music, Music

I'm considering moving my blog from Tumblr over here to Blogger, so please bear with me as I may or may not make the transition. As an introductory blog, I'm digging up a blog from May 25th. This wasn't that long ago, I know, but it was one of my favorite blogs and I'm putting it here, just in case there's a person out there in Blogville who hasn't read it yet.

So today's topic is music. Good music. Bad music. Music in general.

As parents, we've tried to provide a wide variety of musical interests to 14 & 12. We play a huge variety of music in our house (on iTunes, CD, DVD, etc). My kids have listened to Bach, Chopin, Creed, Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Beatles, and Frank Zappa. We've taken them to see Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, and The Police in concert. And I've taken them to Duran Duran (couldn't drag Don kicking and screaming to that one). And I've taken them to see Miley Cyrus, Big Time Rush, Hot Chelle Rae and One Direction (good GOD why didn't I remember my ear plugs for that one???) And I have to say, their taste in music isn't all that bad. (They enjoy Nikki Minaj's 'rap', I wanna find a pencil and jam it so far into my ear that I can actually erase the sound she makes). When I hear "Let's go to the beach, beach..." I can't get to the dial fast enough to change it before I have to vomit. But for the most part, their choice in music doesn't suck.

Hot Chelle Rae opened for Big Time Rush the first two times we saw them (yes, we've seen them three times now). And they were actually really good. The second time we saw them, the lead singer, Ryan Follesse wore a shirt that said Van FU*%@% Halen but we were so far away from the stage it could've said Elmo for President and we wouldn't have known the difference. But I digress. Their music was fun and enjoyable. So much so that I actually made my own Pandora channel with their music. I actually downloaded a bunch of their songs (yes, I paid for them all) and turned both girls onto the stuff they hadn't heard before. Listen to I Like It Like That and tell me your not moving your foot or nodding your head to the beat. HOWEVER when New Boyz start singing, go make a sandwich or something. Because this is something that bugs the crap out of me. 12 and I were driving yesterday and she said something that I've been thinking forever. Why do they take a good song and then ruin it with some crappy rap thrown in? Seriously. Listen to Maroon 5's Payphone. Was Wiz Khalifa looking for a job and Adam Levine felt bad for him and offered him that crappy rap part? Because it ruins the song. The guy sounds like he never made it past the third grade. Sad really. But other than that, the song is really good.

Let's move on to songs that DON'T EVER need to be remixed. Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know is the poster child for this. Good Lord, whoever came up with the idea to remix that and thump that bass a little harder should be beaten with an aluminum bat. Until they are unconscious. It's awful. And completely unnecessary. Why take a perfectly good song and ruin it?

Since it's my blog and I can post whatever I want, I'm going to let you listen to the GREATEST Duran Duran song (yes, in my opinion, you got a problem with that??) ever made. Come Undone is, by far, the sexiest song Simon LeBon has ever written.  If you don't think so, tell me why. Then go hit yourself in the head with an aluminum bat. Because you're wrong. 

Now, can I just tell you how I get down on my knees every night and thank Jesus that my girls don't listen to Justin Bieber?? They'd rather listen to Billy Joel's Downeaster Alexa than Boyfriend. And for that, I'm going to start giving them an allowance. Next week.

So I'm a firm believer in providing my kids with a varied musical experience so that they can make good, educated choices in music and not come home wanting to dye their hair orange and start 'rapping' about going to the beach, beach.

I'd write more but now I have to go vomit.