The music in me

Sitting at work yesterday with my earbuds in, trying to listen to some good music from my phone. First song, Adele. Okay. Second song. Big Time Rush. Skip. Next song. Ariana Grande. Skip. Next song. Justin Bieber. Skip. You get the picture.

As I scroll through the hundreds of songs on my phone, it seems that there are very few that I actually purchased and fewer that I actually like. Smartphones are awesome in that I can buy a song the second I hear it, but I realize that those purchases were mostly made by my children.

Some of the stuff on there is so old - like those one time buys you made for a Halloween party or the time you bought a Wiggles song just you could annoy your children and play it over and over. But, the non-tech savvy person that I am doesn't ever seem to know how to delete songs so I am stuck with every High School Musical soundtrack ever made.

Sometimes a song will come on the playlist and not one of us remembers who bought it or why. So we laugh about it. We laugh about it the second time it happens too. But by the third time my kids are like "Dude, can you delete the song or what?"

And while we sometimes (rarely) agree on what music to play on a long car trip, it is clear to me that my daughters and I do not share the same taste in music.

I guess that is my fault. I guess I didn't play enough good music all the time for them to listen to and really get a good taste. My mother introduced me to The Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens. My dad is the reason I enjoy old Motown. But, what the heck have I given my children? My taste in music is so broad that I can pretty much listen to anything. So where do they find their musical home? A lot of kids will say "my parents love country music." I do too, but I don't listen to it all of the time. I like country and Christian and pop and hip-hop and rock. I shy away from jazz, opera, hard-core rap and serious metal. If you looked at my CD collection, you would not be able to figure anything out about me. Yes, it includes Garth Brooks, but also Eminem and Luciano Pavarotti.

So, what the heck can I do? My kids like the weirdest stuff in my opinion. I don't mind Post Malone for like one song a day, but an album? Um no. My kids will listen to good music when it's on, but it's not what they pick as their first choice. The first choice is usually some crap currently playing on the radio or something their favorite YouTuber likes. Most of the garbage on the radio today is the most fake, auto-tuned nonsense. It's sad that there is so much talent in the world, but marketing is the thing that makes you famous. Why should Selena Gomez or Camila Cabello get my money? They should really give all their money to their sound engineers because those are the people that actually make that stuff!

Anyway, I have to find a way to get my kids to know good music in their soul. To reach for it the first time and not just when I play it. I'm thinking I could just take their phones and delete all the junk and replace it with good tunes. But, that would require a person who knows how to do that. You think the guy at the Genius bar would do it for me? With my luck, he would do it for a fee and then give me a playlist made up of Panic at the Disco and My Chemical Romance. Ick.