describe your kid’s/kids’ taste in music.
alicia the aislers set / magic trick: well, she is very moved by music. her current favorites are journey, katy perry, elvis presley, david bowie. she’ll occasionally ask for alice cooper, the ramones, joan jett, stevie nicks, the grease soundtrack. her first vinyl lp that she would put on and dance to was steely dan. she knows what’s good when she hears it. nothing but honesty from that kid! if it’s a bad song on the radio, she’s like “turn this off! put on some journey!!!”
jessica would-be-goods: bowie, t rex, early elvis costello, classic disney songs (e.g. “everybody wants to be a cat” and “I wanna be like you”) — and the would-be-goods, which is very touching. she used to threaten to kill me if I told any of her friends I was in a band but now she thinks it’s OK and even plays them our music.
mark teenbeat/unrest: one likes lady gaga and the other classical music, though they won’t complain when the kinks are on the hi-fi.
corin tucker: it’s ever changing, but this week it’s skrillex and deadmau5.
dawn cf / agoraphone: it’s a strange mix. folk music of all sorts: woody guthrie, pete seeger, fairport convention, laura viers. then wild flag, ramones, and the fave david bowie (mostly ziggy stardust). I can’t really explain it.
daniel handler: otto started out loving late-period kraftwerk, went through a beatles phase, is now a big fan of stars, metric and (not my fault) chromeo.
andrew eggs/talk it: my oldest son likes music with loud guitars and melodies. he loves melodic punk music like strike anywhere as well as airborne toxic event and stuff that comes on DC101. my younger son’s two favorite songs are “donald where’s your troosers [sic]” and “tie me kangaroo down,” so he’s harder to classify. sometimes he requests music with “people screaming.”
claudia the magnetic fields: I think at this age, the parents dictate that. my friends keep telling me to play her shonen knife or the ramones, or other upbeat punk music. and she does respond well to that. she also seems to love rihanna, from her outbreak of dancing in restaurants to her. but at home we play pretty much peaceful folksy kids records, elizabeth mitchell, putumayo collections, dan zanes, some other kids records like wiggleworms, a bit of latin female vocalists like cesaria evora, some country female singers, some classical, some joni, etc. I think if I were a jazz fan, eve would probably be into jazz right now. she just attaches on to whatever’s playing, including dancing to embarrassing electronics that make little songs.
matt lorelei: ursula likes the family cat, vince guaraldi, polyrock, and burl ives. stephen’s son niko has a brazilian nanny so he’s listening to and digging os mutantes quite a bit.
kim baxter: his current favorites are vampire weekend and the english beat. I play nick drake in his room every night as he’s going to bed but the other night he asked for jeremy enigk instead.
kelly velocity girl: whatever it is they like, they listen to incessantly. here is the honest to god play count from itunes for the past few months from songs the girls picked themselves:
“goody two shoes” – adam ant 146 plays
“sensible”- small factory 154 plays
“dancing queen” – abba 192 plays
“choco la la la” – mr. g 137 plays
“crystal days” – echo & the bunnymen 140 plays
“under the rotunda” – the lucksmiths 138 plays
“suggestions” – small factory 105 plays
“do they know it’s christmas” – band aid 169 plays
“the ramblin’ rover” – silly wizard 146 plays
when they’re born one thinks please let them like good music. when they do they listen to music, good/bad/indifferent it is with such repetition that one prays please let them take up literature.
pete paphides: our 11-year-old is obsessed with coldplay. which is fine. I’d rather not have “edgy” children. she also loves goldfrapp. the 8-year-old is partial to dexys’ too ry-aye album.
gordon the fan modine: my littlest is always turing the radio up and bobbing his head no matter the genre. his older brother can’t get enough rick james.
mike black tambourine / manatee: theo’s gone through a few phases, getting really into one band of genre for a while and then moving on, though he always likes the old stuff too. the first music I think he stated a strong affinity for was jazz, specifically late 50s/60s hard-bop. then he went on a beatles jag, concurrent big troubles and teenage fanclub crazes, and has more recently moved on to punk rock, which he will happily state is the best music and that he’ll “love punk music forever” and “funky” music like james brown and the meters. a chip off the kid frostbite block, I’d say!
bridget st john: definitely in spirit and in desire to play different instruments. she has a great feeling for and love of music. and is an extraordinary poet and writer.
tim dagger: the beatles.
photograph of alicia the aislers set by tae won yu.