There IS hope for the younger generation.

shack

I went with my 18 year old daughter to a fastpitch softball tournament she was playing in this weekend (three hour drive). She drove and since it was her car we had to listen to her music. There was the usual teenage female fare (which actually isn't too bad) such as Celine Dion, John Mayer, Josh Groban and a couple of soundtracks (one of which had some Carly Simon, George Thorogood, Al Green and the Gin Blossoms..pretty good). Then out of the blue comes "Surfin' Safari". Seems she had lifted my Beach Boys' Endless Summer CD. Her comment was that it was pretty good music but it seemed that all they sang about was surfing, girls and cars to which I replied "What else is there?". I explained that surfing was interchangable with several other activities but the last two were pretty much constants. I did allow that Brian moved to a few other topic on Pet Sounds and she is going to give it a listen. We discussed the precise meaning of a Deuce Coupe, pink slip, 409, baggies and what exactly shut down means.

So I guess there is some hope for our younger generation when any 18 year old kid today is willing to go back 40 years to listen to a little R&R .

Frank Z

Shack,
I know how you feel! my kids are both hooked on Oldies! My 7 year old spent most of yesterday morning listening to my copy of Elv1s (30 #1 hits by The King). My 10 year old son loves his copy of The Beatles #1 hits!!

Here's another reason to believe that there is hope for the future.
After getting my kids tucked in bed a few nights ago, my son came down stars and tells my wife and I that he really needed to talk to us. From the look on his face we both knew he had something important to say. He proceed to tell us about a magazine that he got from one of the kids in school earlier in the day. Of course we thought that he was going to say it was a Playboy or something along those lines. He told us it was a Skateboarder Magazine but that it had a an article about drugs in it. Since this magazine caters to kids I really thought that it would have an anti-drug slant, I could not have been more wrong! The article was a basically a bunch of kids saying that doing drugs was okay ( same old B.S. we've all seen and heard!), and of course there were plenty of quotes about "Effin this, Effin That, Effin the other!", and to my greater surprise there were plenty of pictures showing all kinds of drug/alcohol abuse. He was so upset to find out that some of the skaterboarders that he admired were into drugs that he wanted to give up skating, he does not want anything to do with that junk (his words!). He said that he felt really bad that he had even read a little of the article and knew right away that he should not be reading it at all! His feelings about drug abuse are quite strong, even at 10 years old. I know a lot of people will read this and think "yeah just wait until he's XX years old." You know what, I think that no matter how old, he'll still make the right decision, he's an amazing child!

My wife and I have always believed that the only way to raise our kids is with lots of affection, attention, and an open door policy if they need to talk to us about anything, without fear of getting in trouble. I guess the commercials on TV about parents being the anti-drug are correct!!

Shizelbs

Now now now, meaningless music is not unique to the popular music being produced today. I can remember sitting in the car when I was younger listening to my dad's idiotic bubble gum oldies. Those too were meaningless and really stupid. At least I thought so at the time.
It is my opinion that music is crappy right now. And with that comes the bling bling. I don't think music is at its cultural peak right now. But, that is not to say that there isn't good stuff out there right now. If you only listen to mainstream rap, you will likely find little substance, but look just a little deeper into the underground rap, and you will realize where the substance has gone, and what rap can be.
I suppose my biggest complaint is that song-writing is becoming a forgotten art. Lyrics seem to have little importance these days. Sometimes I feel songs only have lyrics because thats what songs have, not because the writer has strong feelings towards something they wish to verbalize through music. This is something that afflicts music listened to by all age groups, not merely the younger generation. I think all music produced today could use a little kick in the butt.

VR3

Thats what is wrong with grown ups. Yall generalize 'today's music' in the rap/hip hop/pop category. When you head into the Rock/Nu Metal categories you get rid of most if not all of that meaningless POS music. I cant stand Nelly, 50 cent and them or ne pop artist. Some rap like eminem is ok. But I am a rock fan, the lyrics mean something past doy and duh. IMO

rs159

Originally posted by Shizelbs
I suppose my biggest complaint is that song-writing is becoming a forgotten art. Lyrics seem to have little importance these days. Sometimes I feel songs only have lyrics because thats what songs have, not because the writer has strong feelings towards something they wish to verbalize through music. This is something that afflicts music listened to by all age groups, not merely the younger generation. I think all music produced today could use a little kick in the butt.

'Seems like today's pop (and by pop I mean the typical "all the hits all the time" type station - mianstream rap) artists don't have anything to say. They just go:

hmm... let's put the snares in here, here, here and here, then da big bass right here. Ok, thats good. Now lemme see... "Ya make love, ya make love... aaaa, love in yo' mouth. My bling bling, 12 cars, 3 boats, and 6 vehicles. diomands in my ****' teeth, when I talk I sparkle..."

If I listen to the radio one more time my head will ex-PLODE!!!

VR3

Originally posted by rs159


'Seems like today's pop (and by pop I mean the typical "all the hits all the time" type station - mianstream rap) artists don't have anything to say. They just go:

hmm... let's put the snares in here, here, here and here, then da big bass right here. Ok, thats good. Now lemme see... "Ya make love, ya make love... aaaa, love in yo' mouth. My bling bling, 12 cars, 3 boats, and 6 vehicles. diomands in my ****' teeth, when I talk I sparkle..."

If I listen to the radio one more time my head will ex-PLODE!!!

diomands in my ****' teeth, when I talk I sparkle..."

That is funny, I prefer rock stations. They play songs very spread out from another. They all dont sound alike neither!

dylan

Check out XM if you get a chance... it gave me a completely different view on music today. What radio stations play (or stores market for that matter) and what is actually available are two completely different things.

rs159

So true...

Tour2ma

First guys let me just say that your kids liking your music is a mixed blessing. Yes, there are the times that you buy them something “from the past” and they love it. For me it was giving my daughter a copy of Carol King’s Tapestry when she went off to College. But then comes “the borrowing”… may I suggest lockable CD cabinets???

Originally posted by ATCVenom
If I hear one more song about "bling bling".... I'll scream.

Originally posted by Shizelbs
Now now now, meaningless music is not unique to the popular music being produced today.
I suppose my biggest complaint is that song-writing is becoming a forgotten art. Lyrics seem to have little importance these days.

Agree amundo… I mean “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was not the most earth-shattering message, now was it? But it was a good song in its day.
Man I spent the whole morning with a shuffle play of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Nanci Griffith and Paul Simon… all top notch SONG-writers in my book. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had to stop what I was doing to listen to what they were singing.

Originally posted by dylan
Check out XM if you get a chance... it gave me a completely different view on music today. What radio stations play (or stores market for that matter) and what is actually available are two completely different things.

… not an XM subscriber yet, but I’ll add that while at home digital cable music channels are not a bad choice either.

jdavy

Well old or not, when a kid hears a song for the first time, it is new to them. Start them young. My 19 month son like Bach, Betheoven, and Motzart.

Tour2ma

jd,
I see you're an SRS man. What your spacing: L to R, each to side wall, each to back wall?