I used to tell my daughters that no good music had been produced since sometime in the late 1970s. I didn’t really believe it, but they were younger then, and at the time they were listening to some truly horrid stuff. I won’t name names, but really you don’t have to work to hard to think of musical acts that 12 and 8 year-old girls would like and that their Dad would hate.
Well, they have set out to prove me wrong ever since, and I am ready to concede the point. There is some truly terrific music being put out these days, and my daughters have introduced me to a ton of it. My favorites? Well, I really, really like the John Butler Trio — funky rock with some incredible guitar work. But I have also enjoyed Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes, Avett Brothers, Sublime, Jeff Buckley, Ezra Koenig, Jack Johnson, Gotye (and Walk off the Earth), and a bunch of other stuff that I’m still learning to recognize.
I’m not looking for more recommendations (though feel free to make some if you’d like); I have more new music than I can get through in the next several months. But I have to admit that I love learning about new music from my kids. It’s fun to hear what they like, and to find out that their tastes are developing, maturing, becoming both more sophisticated and more reflective of their personalities. It’s one of those aspects of parenting that I had never really considered and that has been a wonderful surprise.