Many 20- and 30-somethings are betraying their kids. Worst part is, most (if not all) don't even know it...In fact, many don't even have kids yet. Bizarre? Nope, stick with the kid for moment.
The parent/child relationship is not merely a testament of love, it's an agreement. For better or worse, when a man and woman (intentionally or unintentionally) have a child, they in effect "sign on the dotted line" and agree to provide nourishment for their child.
But nourishment is to be provided in more forms, other than the standard food and shelter. And one form that is of particular interest to me is musical nourishment.
In today's world of hyper-active marketing, massive numbers of people willfully endure promotional practices that are designed to seemingly shame them into buying products, regardless of their quality or merit. The idea is to just pile-drive the concept of conspicuous consumption into people's minds; turning them into a zombie race of conspicuous consumers, who buy into to the "what's in" without any critical analysis of its worth. And all it takes to set this dastardly chain of consumption into motion is this: take one supposed "taste maker" and/or widely considered "hip" person, have them announce that they like something, (of course using some retro slang that they don't even understand, like "dope" for instance), and boom... product sold, zombies unite!
Parents are supposed to screen their children from becoming zombies. That is to say, in no small degree, they are charged with nourishing the musical education and understanding of their children. In the early part of our lives, mostly everything we learn about music comes directly and/or indirectly from our parents. Well, at least that's how it used to be. These days, the marketers, promoters, hype people, and the media-massives that back them, have figured out that the earlier you can convert someone to a zombie, the better the chance at suckering them into buying woeful products for the rest of their lives! So as it is, on the pop side of things, kids are shot at with boy-band bullets and stabbed with out-of-tune (and autotune) tween Madonnas. On the "urban" side of things, (read black, hip hop/rap, and R&B), the youth are strangled with winey, often incoherent vocals, meaningless concepts, and rampant duplication. And yes, bi-partisanship is in full effect in hip hop/rap and R&B; underground and commercial!
Sometime ago, the notion was passed on that kids are not supposed to like, relate to, feel, and/or understand the music of their parents. Here, I have to provide some sobering context. This "hate your parents music" complex is rooted in the fact that during the middle of the twentieth-century, many white teens were breaking away from the chains of American-style racism, and consciously (publicly) listening to black music, then known as "race music." By the late 1960s/early 1970s, public attitudes towards race and music in America had all but inverted. And the children of these "radical" parents of the 50s, 60s, and 70s received a musical nourishment that underscored as much as 30 years of the highest quality of American popular music. It was these children who would go on to develop hip hop/rap music. It was these children that would get together and form groups like Metallica and Nirvana...
So what about the children of today and the children of the soon tomorrow? Are their parents, the now 20- and 30-something retro hip-stylers, going to be able to provide the quality musical nourishment that they deserve. Probably not. Moreover, by then, these parents will be so accustomed to labeling their own kids as "haters" (some do already) that the brightest kids will simply reject their parents and see to their own musical nourishment. I mean, let's open up the hood on this one: will the children of now be impressed with their parents and their music, finding a new level of respect for their parents? Or will they be so utterly unimpressed with their parents musical choices that they begin to question and reject other qualities about their parents? My grandmother really liked Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin... My mother really liked Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and The Miracles... I like Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, The Miracles, and Curtis Mayfield. But 10, 20, 30 years out from now, will the then "grown-ups" like Lil Wayne and Drake? That's not a knock against these two, it's a valid question from someone who received a great deal of musical nourishment and did NOT ignore and/or reject it...
And as to why I'm not so easily impressed by any of the so-called "R&B artists", of today, well, below, I present to you Aretha Franklin.
-Amir Said
I hope not that those who are born today are gonna like lil wayne 30 years from now. However, i dare to say that that's gonna be the case which is very unfortunate. Simply because their parents don't know anything about music and don't want to know or learn anything about music. If a teenager doesn't know who Aretha Franklin is (yes, there are really people out there who don't know her!!!), i don't even want to know what his or her parents listen to at home. So i believe, parents play a huge part in a child's musical knowledge or taste.
On the other hand though, there are people, myself included, who did not have that musical nourishment from their parents but still ended up with some knowledge about real music. Why? Because there was a certain interest in music - and we were not satisfied when someone tried to sell us yet another lil wayne, bey(n)onsens or any other corny pop product.
Posted by: Mariella | March 07, 2009 at 08:43 PM