Yesterday, I had all of my homework done, so I went out with Angel and wandered about town with her. On the way to drop her off, we picked up my son and introduced him to “My Chemical Romance” a punk-ish band that’s been tearing up the music scene for the last year.
Knowing that my son really likes Green Day, I figured it was a good idea to go out and dig up some more bands for him to listen to. I’ve only recently learned that my son has musical tastes similar to my own. For anyone who has never ridden in my car, you should know that my musical tastes range far and wide and lean toward the obscure. I love anything that could even be remotely construed as rock, yes that includes some pop music. I’m still a huge fan of U2 and have been for as long as I can recall listening to music. My current obsessions are My Chemical Romance and Gorillaz (a hip hop-ish pop band out of the UK). That said, I also enjoy The Stones and The Beatles (you should be proud Dad!). I was a Metallica fan for quite a while, and have a soft place in my heart for Def Leppard. I also really like Nickelback and Natacha Atlas’s work apart from Transglobal Underground which sounds a lot like Egyptian pop music and is sung in Arabic. In the same breath that I admit liking Egyptian pop, I have to confess a secret love for solid Industrial, my personal favorite will always be KMFDM and call me a conformist if you will, but my favorite song is “Juke Joint Jezebel” which is closely followed by “Inane” because that’s one of my favorite words. Tossed all through these heart-pounding bass lines and groovy dance beats is a smattering of old school punk (The Cure back in their punk days, “Standing on a beach with a gun in my hand, staring at the sea, staring at the sand..”, and The Ramones) and a love for contemporary punk. I admit it, I’m a Green Day fan as well. So MCR was a natural fit for my son, as natural as it can be. You see, he likes all of the above stuff too. There are only two bands that I love that my son doesn’t. He doesn’t like U2 (but he does like Coldplay. Score!) and he doesn’t like Gackt-sama. But our favorite Japanese pop band is Asian Kung-Fu Generation.
Angel suggested The Ramones as another alternative for my son, and I wondered why that hadn’t occured to me. The Ramones are good choice for him and I think that anyone who has ever sung along to “Rock and Roll High School” should be proud that I am about to introduce my son to old school punk.
I’ve given this whole thing a lot of thought. There is no reason that my son shouldn’t be able to listen to whatever music I listen to. He’s ready to broaden his horizons even more, because the more music he loves, the more unique his own style will become. My parents were never shy about sharing their music with me when I was younger. My mom and I stole copies of U2’s album “Achtung Baby” from each other until I moved out. I borrowed my Dad’s Beatles’ tapes more than once. As a result, I’m incredibly open-minded about music. I will listen to anything once…
… unless it involves a exes living in Texas.
Now to track down copies of American Idiot and Hey Ho Let’s Go!
