Music Lovers, No Doubt

Marty and I are both music lovers, and we are excited to report that we're raising children with a passion for music just as intense (or more so) than our own! When Elise was a toddler, we were determined not to be "those parents" who had Farmer and the Dell on repeat on our car stereo. Our kids were going to have good musical taste. They were going to have an appreciation for all of the wonderful music that we loved - and we would be able to still listen to adult music. It was a great plan. But we quickly learned that while Elise certainly tolerated our music (and sometimes even liked it), kids music is actually designed for kids, specifically to keep children entertained and does an amazingly great job. So for quite a while, it was completely worth it to be "those parents" in return for having happy, entertained children on car rides. We searched far an wide for the least annoying children's music possible (music not sung by groups of children) and loaded up on Backyardigans (surprisingly catchy and fun), Trout Fishing in America, Laurie Berkner, various public radio artists, etc. That has been our life for many years now.

This summer, however, Elise was introduced to the musical stylings of Miley Cyrus by her Aunt Lauren. This was apparently life-changing for our little one (Miley Cyrus' music can be life changing? who knew?), as she has since decided that she no longer wants to listen to "baby music." This is good for us, of course, because it goes back to our original plan to listen to adult music in the car, but not so good for us because children aren't inherently drawn to the artists Marty and I love - like Fiona Apple, Ben Folds and Ben Harper. Elise likes Miley Cyrus' "Ho Down Throw Down" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and anything by Lady Gaga. Marty and I are not really into pop music, so choices were pretty limited for what we could find to play for the kids when we were in our car and without Lauren's ipod. So we began to try to find artists that were the most kid friendly.

Elise and her Aunt Louie

Our first winner was a surf-rock band called Dance Hall Crashers. Both of our children LOVE this band, which has very peppy, fun songs they can bop along to (we even have a whole elaborate dance to one). Their two favorites are "Lost Again" and "The Truth About Me" but they like pretty much all of it, which is great for us because we love this band and don't find it annoying to listen to these songs on constant repeat. The next discovery was No Doubt/Gwen Stefani. Their favorites are Just a Girl, Sunday Morning and Sweet Escape. Elise has subsequently become obsessed with Gwen Stefani as a person, asking lots of questions about her every time a song comes on. Questions include: Is she a person in the real world? Can I meet her? Does she have a mom? and Can I play with her kids? She has already begun begging me to take her to see Gwen in concert, but I will have to wait on that for a few years!

Elise has long maintained that she only likes "girl singers" but she has recently branched out to a few individual songs by male singer, including Ob-la-Di, Ob-La-Da by the Beatles, She Is by the Fray and Forget You by CeeLo (hey - at least it's the edited version!) though she won't say she likes those artists, she does like the songs. Lucas still likes the Backyardigans tunes the best I think, but he does love Dance Hall Crashers and No Doubt as much as his sister does. He has also recently taken a liking to They Might Be Giants (particularly Whistling in the Dark) which isn't really surprising because it is practically children's music anyway. He just likes to dance and hum and have a good time and is pretty easy going about whatever song is playing.

Now whenever we get the in the car, we all take turns picking a song until we get to our destination. Elise has approached her new appreciation for music with a sort of studious vigor. She wants to learn all of the words to all of her favorite songs, so she listens to them again and again until she knows it. We've had to have conversations about sarcasm thanks to Just a Girl, but other than that we have had little issue.

Our punk-rock kids

While our children now have a broader - and somewhat more grown up - musical tastes, they do still love the old Kids Music Classics, which are always featured during our after-dinner dance party every night. Because now matter how grown up they get, they still love to boogie!