Become a Music Nazi

My fellow music Nazi.

 I am a music Nazi.

It's okay. My parents (mostly my mom) was a music Nazi too. I was forced to listen to anything she saw fit from Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man to the Beatles to 1950s classics. Saturday mornings we'd wake up at the crack of dawn and clean the house to her favorite albums. The vinyl stuff. I  learned a great deal about pop music from her. Since I was the youngest, I had to also listen to two older sister's favorite selections.

I am sure that many people of my generation and before had parents that were more fascist in their approach to music. And it is quite possible that they would have preferred a crematorium rather than suffer the torture due to their parents warped musical tastes. I am sorry for them. Yet I can't help but feel that must have contributed to their own sense of what appealed to them as teenagers and adults. Its through that exposure that we learned what was awful. Lets face it. If there weren't hideous music around, how could we tell what was good? Also, sometimes bad music can be so bad, its art.

Today, kids are plugged into only their own music and tuned out to anything that isn't placed before them by the media.  If we don't  make them listen to our music, they may suffer. Its what makes us us. What makes our generation so unique. It comes down to learning about our musical heritage.

Roland and I recently decided (unbeknown to Enrique our 14 year old) that we need to make him unplug his earphones and force him to listen to our music.  I am not that cruel really. I will listen and endure his taste in return.  I think it can begin conversations (perhaps even arguments) regarding music. Today, in the car I played Morrissey's album "Years of Refusal." In case you haven't noticed I am on a Morrissey kick right now. Anyway, there was a line from "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell" that is, "When I die I want to go to hell." Oliver (my 7 year old) questioned, "Why would anyone want to go to hell?" My response was that perhaps the man singing felt that hell wasn't so bad. Roland suggested it was an odd line because Morrissey wrote it. Oliver's opinion was that it was stupid to want to go to hell. It was a good little conversation that we would not have had if we had not made the kids listen to what we listen to.

I am not against technology. I had my Walkman back in the day and today I have my i phone. Our world is becoming more and more controlled by media. Its important that the next generation know that the world has more to offer them musically.

Therefore, become a music Nazi. Unplug a teenager and make them listen. You will sleep well at night.