What is the deal with kid’s music? I don't want to sound an extremely judgmental tone here, but… I guess I will. I think most of it is pretty worthless. I am not trying to alienate myself from a whole myriad of parents who currently own "Barney's Funzone - Volumes 1-10" and currently are playing it in the family minivan, but I just want to ask the question, what would it be like if we exposed our kids to higher art forms, especially music, from the womb on out? Do we somehow think that our kids can't handle these things? Why should we dumb down their artistic tastes?Is this child abuse? Perhaps, but all I know is that when I play Switchfoot, Coldplay, John Mayer, Willy Porter, Keith Jarret, or Miles Davis in the van, my three year old consistently says, "Dad, I want it loud!", and then he pretends to play his guitar or drums for the duration of the song.
What about spiritual content? I am all for my kids being exposed to great theology in the form of song. I would just much rather have their infusion of great thoughts of God come in a much better package than "Kiddie Praise". Again, my experience tells me that his ability to recite the lyrics from a MuteMath CD is just at keen and he seems to like it just at much as anything that he sees on "Sesame Street".
It's not that my 3-year-old son has never been exposed to music that is more marketed towards children his age; he gets it everyday on the kid's TV programming that we allow him to watch. I would submit that our kids are going to get enough material infused into their brains that is targeted for their age from all the different technological mediums that are out there, why not expose them to forms that have a bit more substance?
All this to say, opinions about music are subjective for sure, but there is a reason that Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” has been around for over 50 years now and will probably still be in circulation in another 50 years. I think it would be a fair assumption to conclude that the same can’t be said of, “Barney Sings the Blues”.
Maybe I am just too much of a purist in terms of music and the thought of a Barney CD playing in our family van is about enough to force me to put a gun to my head. Maybe I am an abusive father for not bending to the cultural norms of music for most kids. Or, maybe we could be sowing the seeds of appreciation for art that is much more enduring than the latest song on "The Wiggles".
Could it be that exposure to more long—term artistic forms could be indirectly fostering a future career or at least a fine appreciation that will provide years of joy in listening and appreciation of God’s glory through his creative creatures? Maybe not, but I think it’s worth the effort on my part as a parent.
1 comment:
Z-
I appreciate your take here. I think we can sell our kids short when we fail to expose to them to better music. I've got to admit that my minivan rocks out every once and a while to "The Wheels on the Bus go round and round..." and to be honest, my kids love it. And I've got to tell you that as soon as my son can play the guitar I'm going to teach him how to play Pharoah Pharoah or I Like Bananas.
With that said, I must say that my kids respond with a surprising interest and attentiveness when Katie and I play more "cultured" music.
Sometimes we play classical violin selections from Vivaldi or some moving pieces from Bach or Beethoven. And too my surprise...my kids like it. I've even seen them interpreting the music through their body movements. Just the other day we had violin and piano music playing in the background at our house. It wasn't long before my 7 year daughter and her 2 year old sister were whirling through the living room moving with the melody. What I found beautiful was my 7 year old's ability to "prance" with the violin when their were 16th notes being played. She would back off the foot movement when the bow would pull over whole notes. Somewhere deep inside my daughter is an awareness of something beautiful inside music. As her dad, I want to foster her "beauty sensors" and continually expose her to music and art that point her to our creative God.
On a side note...a few months ago my family was out in public (restaurant or store) and there was the faint sound of a violin in the background. I was oblivious to the music until Anna Grace, our dancing seven year old, said with excitement, "Dad, listen, it's Vivaldi!" Sure enough, when I blocked out the busy noise of the crowd I could her the distinctive sound of Antonio Vivaldi's violin being played from the speakers overhead. What a great moment!
I could go on and on with this subject. My four year son loves music. When I'm jamming out in the van I often catch a glance of my son in the rear-view mirror playing the air drums and rocking his head to the beat. He loves Matt Redman, Jack Johnson, Rich Mullins, and Queen. Katie came up to me the other day and said, "Eric, how come Elijah is singing 'we will, we will rock you!?" Maybe I should be more selective with what I play in the van when little dude is in the back! That story just goes to show that our kids, no matter how old, listen to music. They really listen. They interpret the time, tempo, rhythm, lyrics, etc. Because they listen, we would do well to give them something worth listening too.
I'm sorry this response is so long. I've got to go now and listen to my Move cd.
later.
weaver
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