Monday, February 9, 2009

Listen to the Band

I grew up listening to "easy listening" music at home. That was back in the day of 8 tracks and 45 and 33 LPs. We listened to folk music a lot~Smothers Brothers, Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary (I HATE Puff the Magic Dragon but that's a story for another day). My mom introduced me to Elvis, The Beatles, Mamas and the Papas, The Rolling Stones. My favorite Stones song is Paint it Black and I distinctly remember listening to it on one of my mom's 45s. Those were the days.

When Doug and I moved in together in 1997, we had to combine our musical tastes. His leaned toward the classic rock~Zeppelin, Queen, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd. I came with a classical music collection featuring Mozart, Bach, Beethoven. I have a collection of musical soundtracks too~Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Cats, The Music Man (my all time favorite), West Side Story. It's not easy to reconcile such differing musical tastes. At the time, my parents had a 250 CD changer in their house. We loved the idea of it, so we bought a 200 CD changer and filled it. The first two sections of CDs pretty much belong to Doug's genre of music~the first 6 CDs are Led Zeppelin (and if you remember, we danced to a Zeppelin song at our wedding, so I am a convert). I "own" the last two sections of the player and it's filled with Indigo Girls, 10,000 Maniacs and all my other music.

Owning this CD changer has exposed our kids to quite a variety of music. Sometimes we'll put the music on a block shuffle, so they'll hear a ton of different classical music, or enough classic rock to last them a lifetime. Meg now recognizes Ozzy Osbourne by a guitar riff (freaky, I know) and has requested both Ozzy and the Beatles on her Ipod shuffle. The best thing about the changer is that the kids can learn a lot about us by what we listen to. Our musical choices are not mutually exclusive anymore. Doug has taken to enjoy classical music a bit, and I love Aerosmith so much we've seen them in concert 3 times. I would kill to see Led Zeppelin in concert if Plant and Page can get their acts together.

I would rather listen to music than have the tv on during the day. I actually put the changer on today and turned to to 10,000 Maniacs. I haven't listened to them in a year. They were one of my favorites during college.

So, what is your favorite music?

6 comments:

Auntie Nettie said...

I saw your twitter about the 9,999 maniacs and the 1 girl singer and had to stifle some laughter. It would be too hard to explain to my officemates WHY that was cracking me up so much.

Seagulls on the quad.

(and my answer -- partly written up already, as part of future postings!)

Astarte said...

Hmmm, I think Natalie Merchant is the maniac. That chick has some personality issues, methinks.

I like campy music when I'm driving, like disco and dance stuff. I really, really love 60s music, too. I am totally that dork at the grocery store singing along as I shop.

Jess said...

I love internet radio for the variety it gives you as well. Rhapsody is especially awesome, though of course you have to pay for that, but Pandora is also great.

Anonymous said...

I love satellite radio--I can listen to the hits channel and then switch to the 80's or to the 50's (I wasn't born until 1978, but I lurve me some 50's music!!).

creative kerfuffle said...

i would rather listen to music than tv too. i'm getting ready to do a post about what's on my mp3 player. i love 60s, some 70s and most 80s stuff. and of course my boyfriend, rod stewart ; )

Saly said...

My music taste is strongly influenced by my parents and what they listened to while I was growing up: Meatloaf, Queen, Simon and Garfunkel, The Monkees.

I love my satelite radio though, 80's 90's and broadway showtunes, all the way!