Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School social currency - popular music

I don't cite this list as a cultural imperative for social blending, just as an example of a varied list that builds a lifelong appreciation of music. (Though I'm glad to hear that piano Guys have a following with young children!)

I'm not sure music even matters that much to many teenagers these days. Back when I was a teen what type of music you liked was one of the things that defined you. But to my DD16 and many of his friends, music isn't that important in their lives. They care about video games and movies a lot more than music. My son plays music and enjoys many different kinds of music, he just doesn't collect music, go to shows, spend money on music or talk about it with his friends. There are teenagers who are still very music focused and go to shows but the breadth and type of media out there is so much more than music. The latest YouTube viral video seems more important in their lives that the latest pop band.

Music isn't a big issue with early elementary age kids. If you care if will be able to relate to her peers I would expose her to Disney films, and other current kids movies/tv shows. The pre-K girls I know are all MAD about Frozen.

I fear I've given the impression we don't listen to music in our house!!! We do, just not the radio, and definitely not anything modern top 40 because we are old. She gets exposed to just about every other type of ,music you can think of - we have eclectic tastes (including at times, silence)it's just her particular favourite happens to be ABBA (also one of mine!)

Sounds to me that it doesn't matter anyway I just didn't want her to be standing there with a blank look on her face if the kids were talking about it.

Well. It looks like we're outliers on this thread. My kids have been listening to Green Day since before they could talk (we buy most of their new albums), and my eldest was singing along with Jesus of Suburbia when he was, well, little. DD10 and I both like Katy Perry (and I think the comments here are strangely judgmental about both her and her stuff; FWIW, I think she's an extremely talented woman). We talk about popular songs regularly.

Lady Gaga went to CTY summer camps, so if you're trying to protect your kids from the evils of popular culture, CTY camps may not get you there.

Just have to say that, as much as we could probably be characterized as music snobs...we think Lady Gaga is extremely talented as well. Her duet album with Tony Bennett (granted, not a pop album) currently has a place of prominence in our household playlist, as does some other pop.

Of course, SO is an audio professional, so we have an odd collection of music, sometimes selected on the basis of the producer/engineer/recording studio. I think there may be some tracks that were acquired based on equipment/recording techniques used!

Ongoing discussion in this house about the balance of musical education: classical, jazz, rock, pop, etc. But not much sense that kids need pop culture/music to fit in.

They pick up what they need, as well as some of what they don't.

Mine are on a Weird Al Yankovic jag; I don't think it's current with friends, but it certainly is in my house.

My twins did start to care about popular music in Kindergarten. They declared the music we were listening to "babyish" and asked to listen to something else. We started playing Disney Radio in the car, it is on Sirius/XM and also AM. That solved the "music" issue.

I will say that my boys did start asking about tv shows that up until that point we had not let them watch, as in pre-k they mainly watched PBS or documentaries or shows rated 'Y'. We did let them start watching shows that were Y-7 as it was important as social currency at the time.

Now in 2nd grade, they are more aware of pop culture and are interested in things like the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards.

I'll bite, Val. My tone below is somewhat spiteful: caveat--it's directed at the purveyors of pop, not you personally.

It's not just her, it's the entire genre of monotonous 1-4-5 pop with vapid lyrics about drunkeness and hook-ups, and a public persona deeply imbued with pro-promiscuity messaging that depends on the sexual objectification of women and girls. The producers of these albums get all twitchy every three measures and have to hit the tonic switch lest the drive to a major third jar the top-40 audience's ears. These are corporate jingles stretched out to 3 minutes, and they bear as much resemblance to music as a plate of half-eaten French fries does a Matisse.

So, as both a feminist and someone trained in music, I think much of the heavily engineered pop is atrocious. But that's one person's opinion in a free market, and you're obviously free to disagree. I will give you a hat tip for Green Day, though; they were 10 years ahead of their time.

Everyone has different tastes, I have some guilty pleasures but it is more the exposure to the adult/sexual nature of the music and clips that keeps it pretty tame here, although DD is very familiar with punk and metal due to DH, once again though old school stuff like motorhead and the ramones...

Clips? Does that mean videos?