Saturday, December 20, 2008

Catchy Tune

Three times a week, I drive my oldest child to school, along with four other kids- 1 female first grader, 1 male 3rd grader, and 2 male seventh graders. All are LDS and their parents are a lot more stricter Mormon than I am.

Given that, I always try to be conscientious of what is on the radio when they get in the car. When I started carpooling, I cranked the country music. Originally, I thought that that was tame enough (even though it is not my first choice). I finally switched over to the trendy stations playing the latest hits after the kids started singing a couple different songs. (In my mind, I thought- oh! their parents let them listen to regular music, so it must be ok for me to play it in my car...)

A few months ago, a song really stuck out to me... its kinda rock-y, and while I don't particularly care for the tune, the dude croons about something "between the sheets" and how he loves those little sounds she makes.... ugh. I can NOT stand this song. I mean, try driving down the road at the crack of dawn, this song comes on and all I can think of is how to keep from wrecking the car while I scramble to change the station. Seriously. I feel like I am blushing and HOPING that my two deacon cargo are not noticing the lyrics. (wishful thinking, I know).

A week or so ago, I heard another catchy tune. This time, some girl is singing about how she tried kissing another girl and she liked it. She goes on to describe the taste of the kissee's cherry flavored chapstick... I don't know what else she sang about because I had to change the station since my first grader was riding along.

I have to say, I am really disappointed in some of the crummy music that is coming out. As I was contemplating the 'girl' song, it occurred to me that the gist of the song was suggesting that people 'try it' cuz they might like it. The fact that such a topic (for this entry, I'm going to refer to it as SSA) is treated so casually, as if a person could simply choose a lifestyle like you would choose a pair of jeans, is troubling to me. Later, when the song was played again, I found myself singing along in my head because the tune IS so catchy.

I won't even begin to rant about "Kid Bop" albums and the fact that they have KIDS singing the words to Beautiful Girl, about how the girl is so pretty, I am just suicidal because its over.

I think I am entering a season in my life where I must censor mainstream music so that my kids are not exposed to questionable lyrics and I, myself, are not singing along as if its no big deal to be kissing on other girls or no big deal to be suicidal over someone else's looks.

I'd like to hear what you have to say...?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When my girls were younger, we listened to a lot of Dan Zanes and Ralph's World. Good clean family music.

We also like the Beatles, which is pretty tame.

Caroline C. Bingham said...

And that's why we now listen to country. It's nice, non-suggestive music. And lots of CD's.

Laurie said...

Right now, we have the radio on for the Christmas music, but usually we only listen to CDs. There's a definite influence for good and a definite influence for bad right now, that's for sure!

Sarah Blue said...

I had that same problem. I decided to switch to CD's. I bought a CD of the Judds. I remember listening to them growing up and liking their wholesome music. Whatever! I put their CD on and several songs deal with cheating. Ey-ya! It's a hard battle to fight, but one that needs to be!

Holloway Family said...

I understand the dilemna of music in our homes, but all we can do is change the station, select good CDs, and pray the children learn more from our example than what they hear on the radio. Great post!!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Satellite radio is my friends. My kids are growing up listening to Frank Sinatra and the like. Love it.