How have you introduced your kids to (your) music?
 

I have a newborn (Zoe Beth) and in the next few days we'll begin "Daddy/Daughter Music Time" every so often. Granted I don't expect her to latch on to these musical tastes for quite some time. In fact maybe it's more of an excuse for dad to get mom to leave him alone while listening to a CD.

Anyways, our first selection will be a Beatles album, probably Sgt Peppers. How have you other parents introduced music to your kids? What are some of the songs or artists that your kids (older than newborns obviously) look a bit out of place singing at their age?

Right around the time my daughter was born (in April 1991), REM had done an MTV Unplugged special, and I had taped it. I was a big REM fan at the time, and I guess we played the tape quite a bit.

We also found that it had a real soothing effect on our daughter, and when we would have some of our friends over (who had babies the same age), they would give us a weird look when I would pop the acoustic REM tape as a prequel to naptime.

Similarly, she could Time Warp by the time she was four (thanks to a family-friendly edit I made of Rocky Horror).

As my daughter has grown (she's 13 now) I have taken it upon myself to indoctrinate her with music that I think is important in some way or another, and as such she has a strong appreciation of everything from The Turtles to Nick Cave to the Ramones to James to Jimmy Buffett to The Residents to Alejandro Escovedo.

Above all, have fun teaching your baby about music that's important to you.

It has really been rewarding to me - and I think to my daughter, as well.

Cool story 12th Monkey. I have a friend from college who's having a blast driving around town listening to the White Stripes with his 14-year-old. I'm sure when we have kids they will be exposed to all sorts of music, but what I'm waiting to see is what will THEY listen to to try and anger me.

:lol:
I already told my daughter I've seen it and heard it all.
Shock value won't work on me...

I've not consciously tried to introduce my tastes in music. I figure she'll have her own when she get older. Just like my mother who listens soley to R&B, so that's what I grew up with. When I got to be around 12 I found my own music (which started with Top 40, branched out to alternative when I was a teen hanging with my friends who listened to it and is now a mix of just about everything).

My brother ended up listening to what I do, but not on my doing. He said he would just hear my boombox playing from my room and liked what he heard.

Who knows what tastes my daughter will have, but she'll be exposed to more genres of music than I was so her decisions will be educated ones (and not just boxed into the whole "you should listen to this because that's what's on the radio or that's what your demographic/friends listen to").

But when I'm in my car or around the house, my daugther just naturally listens to what I do (just as I did when I was a kid listening to what my mom did). She sings Maroon 5, makes me replay Dido a million times.

I've always wondered about that too... by the time I had a kid or two and they were old enough to get into music, would it be anything I'd be able to stand? After thinking about it for a while, I decided that the next quarter century or so isn't going to throw anything my way that'd make some of the noisier stuff I'm into seem weak...

My parents music never really had much effect on me for the most part. Sure, that's where I heard the Beatles for the first time, etc, but it's not like I wouldn't have heard of them otherwise. I've gotten my mom into a few things in recent years though. She's the only 54 year old in town that has a copy of Television's 'Marquee Moon' in her car. :)

I highly recommend Jerry Garcia/David Grisman Not For Kids Only. My boy is now 2 1/2, but he has been listening to this disc since he was in the womb. I agree with what somebody posted in the related thread. Play for them the music that you like, to an extent. Lots of Jupiter Coyote and the Grateful Dead played for my son, but I love to watch his dance interpretation to RHCP Give it Away. The most important thing is to expose them to music.

I try to introduce my parents to music that I listen to... but I haven't had much success. It seems they can't listen to much that wasn't made before the late 70s. When I was growing up I took a liking to Huey Lewis and the News and the Monkees (Mom's influence) and Queen and Journey (Dad's influence). But now I listen to just about anything, except rap... rap sucks. When I have kids I will just listen to my music, and what the kids pick up, they pick up. I am always getting new music (unlike my parents... last CD purchased was a best of ABBA album) so I expect that whatever my kids end up listening to, I won't have any problems with it (except for rap... rap sucks).

[QUOTE]Originally posted by C-Mart
[B]But now I listen to just about anything, except rap... rap sucks.

Amen.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by johnbook
[B]Not to mention 99% of it really shouldn't be heard by ears younger than 17 years old.

My baby is due in the next couple of weeks, the first thing I am putting on is An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess. A psuedo acoustic set from the keyboardist and lead guitar player from Dream Theater. It is mellow and jazzy, I find it very soothing.

I'll also get some Moodswings in their as well.

My 20 month old daughter loves dancing to Flogging Molly.

That is just cool. Flogging Molly is probably one of my fav bands and i honestly like just about anything with that Irish rock sound, the Pogues, the Prodigals, Gaelic Storm.

I don't have kids yet but I do like to put my ballsack on my Subwoofer while playing SLAYER and BJORK cd's.

Does that count?

I told them Dad's car stereo does not get Radio Disney and only plays cds.

They like "They Might Be Giants" and some Japanese pop like Puffy, Shonen Knife, etc.

I've just picked up some cds by "Ralph's World" that are supposed to appeal to kids and adults.

I have not entered the land of kids but I have a 5 year old niece and I introduced her to some Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison. She likes to sing along and dance to it (Well the Stones and some Costello) so I feel I am doing a good job.

both my kids love TMBG kid album NO! It is fantastic. In fact, I love any TMBG I put on.

My 5 year old can sing half of the Wilco songs now.

The Beatles are her favorite. She watched the Beatles Anthology with me while she was playing. That effected her. :)

She also LOVES musicals: Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, West Side Story, Sound of Music, etc.

When she was around 3 or so, she absolutely HATED classical music.

I'll generally sing a song to my kid when we're at the park or taking a walk, until he hears it enough to know it and sing it with me. Then I'll play him the real song, and he'll love it.

He's four now, but when he was an infant, I used to play Doors music in the car. For the first few months, if he was crying or whatever, I'd play the Doors and he'd be quiet. I think Morrison's voice soothed him.

everything i need to know about music i learned in my mom's car driving me to school, or in my dad's car on the way to baseball practice. they rarely had the radio on, always playing their doors, zeppelin, beatles, steely dan, and jackson browne. i knew the lyrics to zeppelin's IV by the time i was 8. we never really listened to music around the house, so the car was how i learned about music,

Whoa, this is pretty cool. That Queens Of The Stone Age one should be interesting.

I grew up listening to Big Band Jazz. I still love that stuff - but I really latched on to Rock and Roll when I was 9.

My 7 year old daughter LOVES KISS, Ratt, Dokken, Dio, etc. I have a feeling that whatever she gets into later on won't completely negate her love of this music. It may overshadow it (that's natural), but I think she will still dig this stuff 10-15 years from now. (Hell, I've been listening to it for 30 years!)

I give my niece a little of everything. Clapton, Buffett, Eagles, KISS, Phil Collins, Beatles, Hendrix, Jack Johnson...her mom gives her a line every once in a while (Queen), but on the whole my sister has awful awful taste in music. So I'm trying to make sure my niece doesnt pick it up.

90% of my entire childhood was spent listening to two of my dads CD's, Jimmy Buffett's Songs You Know By Heart and CSNY American Dream. Love both albums. we also listened to U2 and The Stones. Then I broke out on my own and listened to Dylan, Phish and Rush. The middle years between my dads music and when my own taste developed was a shameful time with lots of bad artest (i.e. post Smash It Up Offspring, Styx)

Started early...I have a set of twin daughters who love......

Regina Spektor
Tori Amos
Opeth (slower stuff)
The Temptations (THEY ADORE almost all of the classic Temp songs).

Started early here as well - no kids music really. My daughter (3 years old now) loves Rusted Root, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead, Michael Franti (with or without Spearhead), Utah Phillips etc.

Give it time. People used to think that Alice Cooper was about as evil as it gets, and now he's like everyone's crazy golf-playing uncle. Marilyn Manson even seems like a lamb these days. Sometime in the next 15 years, some musician will come along and shock you. :)

Vincent was introduced in utero. Music is a huge part of our lives, my wife went to concerts with me until she was 8.5 months pregnant, and not some Michael Bolton soft shit, we saw Social Distortion, Bad Religion, and many others. We find it harder to get out now, but we play the music for him at home, as well as the kiddy stuff. He dances more to our music than he does the other stuff.

By listening to music in the car. My daughter's taste is already really varied as is mine.

My sixth month old daughter is really getting into music. We're having a lot of fun. I have some DTS songs on DVD that I'll play for her while rocking her in my arms and she's asleep w/in 5 minutes. It's amazing. The funny thing is that she sees the menu show up on the DVD player and starts getting all excited. Last weekend we danced her around in our arms to some Earth, Wind and Fire tunes and she was laughing like a loon. I'll certainly play her baby tunes, but she'll get a good dose of classic songs from all genres.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do when she's a bit older and understands lyrics. Doubt I'll give the Sex Pistols a go for a very very long time.

I've tried not to push anything on them, but when she as 3-4, my oldest daughter would always ask for me to play Uncle Tupelo's "Anodyne" when she was going to bed. Now that she is 10, she only wants to listen to Radio Disney.

I have a six-month-old girl and we play music around her at home and in the car. She hasn't really doesn't react to it that much. I'll also make up songs to sing to her. She'll smile and laugh at those.

My wife and I have always discussed if our daughter will listen to our cds as she gets older or if she'll have her own music.

That was tricky call for us and ultimately we had discussions about words you can say at home and words she can't say anywhere else. We then tried to tone back the music if it had extreme language but the majority of stuff i listen to is pretty mellow. She can however, sing the entire song "Ganja Babe" by Spearhead. :lol:

part of me wonders if the excessive ABBA, Olivia Newton-John ("Physical" was my jam at 2 years old), Barbra Streisand, Culture Club music that was played around me when I was in my development years contributed to my being gay, rofl.

My 2 year old likes to sing and dance to Crazy by Gnarls Barkley and I Don't Feel Like Dancin' by Scissor Sisters. I burned them to CD along with some other stuff (Jimmy Buffett, J. Geils Band, Blur, Gym Class Heroes and Breeders to name a few), which he plays on his Little Tykes CD player all the time.

Wow. Old thread. My daughter is now 3 since my last post and she also has a 1 year old sister now. She/they generally gets to hear her kiddie stuff when she is with mom in the car. Also my wife sings a lot. As for me, she gets her fill of prog in my car. Lots of Dream Theater, Queensryche and Pain of Salvation. I'll glance in the mirror every once in a while and catch her bobbing her head to the music. :lol:

Funny story. A few weeks back I was listening to Tesla's new CD in the car and my [almost]3 year old tells me she wants to hear BINGO(what she listens to in mom's car). I tell her I don't have BINGO and that I have Tesla. She responds in her cute little way, "I don't like Tesla." I continue with "You don't? I do," fishing for that automatic, "child likes what the parents like" response but she goes on. "I don't, I like BINGO."

So funny and sweet at the same time, and really the only time she has objected to any of my music. I figured it was because she was just stuck on that one song, BINGO, like every kid does, but she was with me a few days later and had a very similar conversation. I guess she just really doesn't like Tesla.

Yep. Mine's now 16, and I can see my music tastes have had some impact.
The other day my wife overheard her tell her friends that "my dad has the best taste in music...he finds out about cool bands before anybody's ever heard of them." Made me proud...sniff....

She's continued her appreciation of "the classics" (Ramones, Clash, Pistols) while understanding that the most "new" music styles are just a rehash of some other period. I've turned her on to online stations like KEXP or SOMA-FM in order to foster an awareness of new bands that rarely get airplay, in order to broaden her horizons.

Of course, she's made me aware of a few bands I've come to like (Islands, Plain White Ts, The Fratellis, the numerous Ben Gibard side projects) so the favor is being returned.

We don't always agree, but that goes with the territory.

Fun...

The joy of introducing your little kid to music is trusting that he/she will take away an appreciation of what makes for good music. It obviously doesn't require that your kid likes every single group or artist you do. Imagine how less interesting the world would be if everyone liked the same exact styles and bands.

Our son has always listened to our music - so far he does not have certain favorites, he does like certain CKY songs. His favorite song though, he sings it and ask for it and ask to watch the video all the time of Mike Watt's "Big Train", he even gets his voice deep when he sings it.

Today during breakfast(cereal, scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels) I put on the Daydream Nation DE I got last night just to check out the sound. My son(almost four), who somehow already has very strict notions of what is and isn't "rock" music(White Stripes="rock 'n' roll," Pantera="not rock 'n' roll, just fast"), asks "Is this dinner music?" during "Teen Age Riot" - meaning something mellow we'd normally listen to in the evening. Then, when "Silver Rocket" gets going, a light goes on in his head - "Dad, this is rock 'n' roll." He excuses himself from the table and starts pogoing and pumping his fists to the music in the living room, then his sisters(almost two and just five) excuse themselves and follow suit. Everybody's having a good time and we end up playing "Silver Rocket" three times. Then I have to skip past "The Sprawl," because I do not need them parroting "does 'fuck you' sound simple enough?" to Grandma this weekend("Eric's Trip" I let play, since I figure there's not much chance they'll be repeating "fucking the future"). By "Providence" they all mellow out and sit down and get this "wtf is this" look on their faces. Listening to music with your kids is some of the most fun you can have as a parent.