My Boys and Rock and Roll

I like to play music while I drive, and I’ve been using family travel time to introduce my boys to my old 70s and 80s tunes. So now, every time we load up in my car to go somewhere, the boys tell me what songs to play and in what order.

Stuff they like and request first every time we get in the car:

Heart – Magic Man
Heart – Barracuda
AC/DC – Back in Black
Duran Duran – Hungry Like the Wolf

Suprising, to me, they don’t care for Wild Boys by Duran Duran.

“Dad, play Magic Man, Hungry Like a Wolf [sic], and then your song,” they tell me. “Dad’s song” is Love’s Theme by Barry White. I’m not sure exactly how that song became known as particularly my song — all the songs are from my CD collection.

I couldn’t get either of them interested in any Waylon Jennings music. They haven’t taken to Rick Springfield, either. Calfgrit9 likes She Blinded Me with Science by Thomas Dolby a little, but Calfgrit5 isn’t taken by it at all, so it doesn’t get played unless I call for it, myself.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what attracts them to certain songs. They do seem to like rock and roll, and not country or bubblegum pop. Although, Calfgrit9 used to like, (he said it was his favorite), A Horse With No Name by America, when I played in through my cell phone. But I don’t have that song on CD in my car, so we haven’t played it in a long while. And even though they really like two Heart songs, they’re not interested in others — like Crazy on You and Straight On.

I’m thinking that getting them interested in particular music is more a matter of attaching the song to a particular activity the first time than a matter of the qualities of the song itself. Then every time we do the activity, (like just riding in the car), they want the designated music to go with it.

This concept has some serious implications for psychological manipulation. I’m not sure if this potential power, in my hands, as their father, is a good thing or a bad thing. I’m not sinister, but I do have a sense of humor.

Bullgrit