Cultivating Musical Taste in Children
It seems that I can’t go a day without a reminder of how proactive I must be as a parent, lest my kids accept the destructive pop culture defaults. Case in point: my wife and I live in a country subdivision, partially to have space for the kids to play (and to garden, enjoy the outdoors, etc), partially for safety, and partially for the sanity of mental separation from both the urban (non-negotiable and unacceptable) and suburban (acceptable but artificial) modes of life. Yet even out in the woods the culture comes to us.
For the first 18 months we were in our house, at least once a day (more often at night), we were treated to the experience of our windows shaking to a hip-hop beat emanating from a twentysomething young man’s Ford Ranger- you know the type who lives with their parents after high school with $3000 worth of speakers and amps in a $2000 truck. He has normal enough parents, successful upper middle class ones at that, yet he identifies culturally with 80-IQ felons and their tribal misogynistic grunts and obscenities marketed to our youth as “music”. How did this happen? How does someone who is heir to the greatest musical traditions in the world degrade his tastes to this level?
The answer is that it happened by default. Unless parents take proactive steps to displace the cultural defaults, the child will simply accept the music of his peers.
Hip-hop and rap is particularly dangerous. Here’s why, and I’ll try saying this as delicately as possible: the IQ of the target adult audience of rap and hip-hop is equivalent to your child’s at age 12, possibly younger depending on how much above average your child is. Thus, a lot of the problem with kids like my neighbor’s is early exposure to a form of “music” that is optimized for their young minds- and since it combines simplistic rhythms with a high level of aggression, it can be quite addictive for a young man experiencing the testosterone surge of early adolescence. Hip-hop and rap are naturally attractive to our children at young ages, and thus we must intervene and prevent their exposure to much of it before it’s too late.
But more than preventing listening to bad “music”, we must cultivate a taste in good music, which is pretty hard and requires some digging.
Much “Contemporary Christian” music is not much help in this regard. While fun to listen to and without the destructive messages, it does little to cultivate better taste in music. Yet many Christian parents, presumably some who homeschool, who would be horrified if their high school child were unable to read beyond a 3rd grade level, accept musical illiteracy as a matter of little concern. While some CC music is artfully done (much of my wife’s Caedmon’s Call and other similar bands is more complex lyrically than any secular music), the danger is the availability of the same illiterate grunting with a Christian label. Grunting for Jesus is still illiterate grunting, regardless of the Christian veneer, and we should expect more from our children. We also must remember that CCM is now a manufactured product owned and marketed by secular companies. We should not let our guard down because it is in a Lifeway store. And it would be an especially bad mistake to insist that this music be the only music a Christian family should listen to.
My call here is not for an elimination of CCM or non-destructive pop music (increasingly rare as the culture continues its decline, but a lot of music from the 50’s and 60’s would qualify), but for deliberateness and moderation. Reading, watching videos, music listening and any other form of media consumption are analogous to a diet, and what we read, watch, and listen to affects us. Not only that, we need to realize that, for our children, there is a finite amount of time available for reading, listening and watching. If we choose to consume one thing, we are choosing NOT to consume another. This is another example of opportunity cost.
Yet it can be daunting to begin to expose your children to better music, chiefly the broad category labeled “classical music”. There’s so much of it, it’s not well-marketed, and the jargon is confusing. In addition, many of the orchestral compositions from the 1900’s are ugly, dissonant pieces, the musical equivalent of modern art, interesting for musical theorists but painful for normal human beings to listen to.
As a person who only really started listening to classical as an adult (as recently as 2001 my musical diet consisted of mostly U2, Metallica, Creed, and the like), I thought I would share advice as to how to get started. First, it’s ok to listen to only the classical you really like. There’s nothing shameful about listening to “popular” classical pieces instead of obsessing over obscure mediocre pieces- like any hobby, the connoisseur of a given hobby is typically more interested in impressing others with trivia and knowledge of the hobby than enjoying the hobby for its own sake.
So first, I’d suggest you go to the classical section at a large store and buy a multi-disc album with a label like “100 Greatest Classical Pieces of All Time.” That will be a pretty good sample of what’s generally been well liked by a lot of people over time. Once you find a piece or composer you like, you can dig deeper into the composer’s work to find more music you enjoy.
As a general guide, I would start with piano sonatas- these are pieces that involve only the piano typically, and avoid the sensory overload of orchestral music. Beethoven is still the best IMO, and is the composer I keep returning to as the greatest, even though Wagner is my favorite (unfortunately, I don’t get to listen to Wagner much, as it is too emotionally intense for background music while I work- Wagner’s music must be listened to loud with one’s full attention- maybe I should get a massive amp and speaker system for my car and drive past ghettoboy’s house at 5 in the morning with Ride of the Valkyries turned up till my ears bleed). Chopin’s solo piano music is also excellent, esp. if you enjoy melancholy themes- you might want to avoid Chopin’s etudes, as these are pieces intended to build piano technique, not primarily for listening pleasure.
From piano pieces it is very easy to expand to violin sonatas, esp. Bach’s solo violin works. A little bit of searching on Amazon can yield a lot of leads in this area. Both violin and solo piano music make excellent background music for study and dining.
Next, you can add string quartets by various composers, as well as piano concertos, which are typically pianos backed by an orchestra. Finally, consider Beethoven’s symphonies and some Mozart and Bach masses- if you’re learning Latin at home (still undecided on this one), this can be a great exercise to look at the words of the mass, typically printed on the album insert. Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor and Mozart’s Requiem are both great starts for choral music.
If you’re deciding between pieces, I find that something in a minor key is usually much more emotionally complex and nuanced. This is an interesting phenomenon, as minor keys are “sad” in tone, yet listening to them makes us happy, even transcendent (Beethoven’s 9th being the greatest example). Most Christmas carols are in minor keys- esp. the ones that move us most powerfully, like Silent Night and Little Town of Bethlehem. There’s something about the starkness of the minor key that is comforting, esp. in these songs we sing every year.
In addition to exposing children to this great music, it’s important to cultivate a real, emotional connection to it- not as a museum piece, but real, living music that expresses the highest ideals of our civilization. Here are a few things I’m doing. First, when we listen to classical, I describe it to my girls as “pretty music.” Now the oldest one will often volunteer this (as a near three-year-old, she gives a play-by-play commentary on everything) when I turn it on. I do a couple of other things, at the risk of sounding silly, but it’s worth mentioning.
I will take great classical themes, while they’re playing, and work the girls’ names in, singing the tune. So, for example, the famous first four note theme of Beethoven’s 5th is sung to the lyrics of my youngest girl’s name, repeated over and over again as the tune progresses. Fur Elise, perhaps the most recognizable Beethoven piano piece, has its theme sung as the three-syllable name of my oldest daughter. Children are really attached to their names, and music at the toddler stage being rather abstract, this is a way to help them emotionally connect to the music. Now the oldest, when she hears Beethoven’s 5th, says “that’s baby’s song”- or will even sing it to her sister in a sotto voce, doing the best her little voice box can at imitating my baritone.
I also will make use of Chopin and Straussian waltzes (Richard Strauss was an exception among 20th century composers, in following the traditions of his German forebears in producing real classical music, as opposed to the “modern” variety- Strauss is the composer of the 2001 Space Odyssey theme, Also sprach Zarathustra), and do my awful best to “dance” with the girls, which they really seem to enjoy. The youngest, who is too young to fear anything, especially likes being dipped. The oldest will jump around herself “dancing” if the Nutcracker theme is played. Waltzes in general are wonderful light classical pieces, with a nice rhythym and pleasant melodies.
Anytime you can help small children do something active instead of passively listening, you stimulate more neurons in their sponge-like brains and make more of a permanent impact.
I also believe children should be exposed to the folk music of their culture. Country music and particularly Bluegrass are the folk music of our country (as Country/Bluegrass is the only genre that appeals to a wide age range, as opposed to pop/rock and its dependence upon rebellious youth for its marketing appeal)- not all of it is worth listening to, but if you pick and choose (hint: iTunes is esp. nice for country music, with its 30 minute albums with one good song) you can get the very best with no compromising moral messages. George Strait, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, etc, all have good songs and bad songs, so pick the good ones (moral and appealing). As for Bluegrass, and I know I’m simplifying, but all you need to know is to order every album put out by Alison Krauss- much of it is moral and uplifting, some of it explicitly Christian.
Ok, after reading this, my editorette said that I have probably overwhelmed my audience here with suggestions (music is one of my hobbies). Let me give you a really easy way to take action on this, with two words: satellite radio, or any commercial-free radio source. Thank goodness we no longer have to listen to liberal public radio, begging for money every 20 minutes, to get good classical music. XM or Sirius both have two dedicated classical and one bluegrass station. For the most part, you can turn this on and forget about it, as neither genre will have anything very destructive that could come on by accident. Of the two (I have both), XM plays a better mix of real classical, while Sirius plays more 20th century modern junk. However, the bluegrass station on XM seems to have a lot of compression (like listening to a bad MP3), whereas the Sirius bluegrass station sounds more like a CD. So each has their ups and downs, but since I listen to much more classical than bluegrass, I would consider XM to be the superior choice. The nice thing about this option is that you don’t need to know or buy anything- just start listening. If you pay for digital cable or Dish or DirecTV, you already have CD-quality music stations which include these genres. Make use of them.
I’m not saying certain types of music must be the exclusive things we listen to, but that we should at least choose the proportions. My goal is that at least 1/2 of the music I enjoy, and 75% of what my children enjoy, be either classical or legitimate folk music. Much like the mind must be stretched before one can read full-strength literature, so must the mind be stretched to appreciate good music. Those who advocate the moral and technical equality of all forms of music are as ridiculous as someone arguing that People Magazine is equivalent to Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. Music is not some abstract cloud of personal preference, but rather has a discrete language than can be studied note by note, chord by chord (or in the case of hip-hop, grunt by grunt)- and it is anything but equal. To say so reflects a lack of knowledge or a leveling, Marxist mindset- and we should be trying to teach our children to be better, not equal.
March 17th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I would add one suggestion - make sure your children see - early and often - this music performed LIVE. This will really make it it “hit home” with them. We have a classical music CD that my little girl LOVES to listen to because she knows it’s the music she heard “on the stage” (at the Nutcracker performance). It is possible to see these in child-friendly venues, but I would suggest even braving the sour looks you might get at adult venues. It’s worth it for your kids - and yourself!
Mainly, relate it to whatever is going on in their lives. My little girl loves ballet, so to her, this music is ballet music. My oldest son is a baseball fanatic - we find ways to show him how this music can help him play baseball better. (Incidentally, if you want your children to be good at sports, teach them music EARLY EARLY EARLY. It integrates all the functions of their brains in ways that are excellent for hand-eye coordination.) That’s why I integrate classical music into EVERY Children’s Choir class we have at church. It exposes children to the music in a Real Life Way - not just an abstract “that’s-grown-up-music” kind of way.
Finally, one other recommendation I’d make on the ‘folk song’ category is this: HYMNS, HYMNS, HYMNS. Not only are they musically well-written, the texts reinforces the basic tenets of our belief system in a way that will stick with our children throughout their entire lives. It’s almost like classical music at it’s best: well-written, well-structured music with timeless truth mixed in.
I LOVE this line of discussion - it’s a passion for me as well.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Tom,
In addition to your and Lindsay’s very important comments, I would add the importance of musical participation. I’m sure that my children gained even more from making music. Lyn and I have always felt that the emphasis on music for children should attempt to rival the emphasis on sports. In our culture that has been a difficult goal to achieve but in retrospect, their (fewer) hours spent developing musical skills seem much more important than we thought compared to the many more hours and dollars spent on childrens team sports.
Beyond that, we are tempted to worry about the current young families in a culture that has been reducing emphasis on music in school as well as in churches who have weak children’s and youth choir programs.
I have become convinced that music is the highest form of human communication, fully involving the intellect, body and emotions in a shared way with others. And that music in worship must be the very highest value in music. We must plan to encourage our children in this! Thanks for the discussion!
Bert
July 5th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Hello,
I am a scholar of Ethnomusicology and Social Anthropology. I have looked at many different musics around the world, both “high art” and courtly styles and folk styles. I was quite annoyed with your argument, because it seemed to advocate a very narrow way of experiencing music, and also a racist way of looking down upon the music of other groups.
Instead of denying your children hip hop, why not recognize where it becomes hyperbolic posturing and where it might say something truthful about the nature of society today?
You seem to be putting all hip hop into the same “illiterate” basket, while allowing for the fact that although some classical music is interesting some is also unpleasant and harsh to listen to, because of your own musical illiteracy and inability to comprehend it.
Hip hop started a poetry movement in the early 20th century, led by such erudite figures as the poet Langston Hughes from the destitute area of Harlem, New York. Just because people sing about thier difficult situations in life, it does not mean they have low IQs.
You site country and bluegrass as being the folk music of America, completely overlooking blues, which had influence on the forementioned genres. Blues is another music of exclusion, like some hip hop is today. Young people may be attracted to the “outsider” messages of these musics because they feel they don’t have a place in today’s society or they feel like thier opinions are not respected or listened to. If you really want to get them focusing attention on Beethoven’s 9th, Doc Watson, etc. just let them listen to what they want and play what you want around the house. They might covertly enjoy it and bring it back into thier listening environment later in life.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:41 am
White liberals like yourself crack me up. Rap is about people talking about their difficult experiences???! It’s obviously a self-glorifying peacock strut of young males seeking to impress others in the group of their superior machismo, material wealth and sexual potency. It’s as significant artistically as fighting dogs or two deer butting heads with their antlers to determine who gets mating privileges. Only white liberals could take what is essentially a animal mating ritual and turn it into some sort of esoteric art about oppressed people expressing their grievances, etc. And when it’s obviously degenerate, you make excuses for it being “hyperbolic posturing”? How many rappers could even define the word “hyperbolic”?
However, those of us who still want to have a civilization are trying to overcome our baser, animalistic instincts and teach our children the values of hard work over easy money, thrift over showy displays of wealth, meekness and quietness over loud bragging. These are the traditional hallmarks of our Christian civilization and stand in stark contrast to the values promoted by this “art”.
No thanks, but I’ll let my children be deprived of its influence.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LYRICS BELOW
just a random selection from this week’s rap charts:
(Feat. Webbie & Foxx)
Hey!
Mr. wipe down ya heard me Foxx-a-million
This one be the reeemix!
Badass, Savage life, Foxx-a-million
Man you already know what it is ya heard me
We still on, we still ridin on chrome, we still pullin up
Verse 1 (Foxx)
I pull up at the club VIP gas tank on E but all drinks on me (wipe me down)
Fresh kicks fresh white tall tee fresh NFL hat fresh bauds wit the crease (wipe me down)
pussy niggas wanna hit me wit they heat, real recognize real real niggaz gon speak (wipe me down)
Jiggalatin I been rollin bout a week you can tell i got cake by the diamonds in my teeth (wipe me down)
Black shades so you know a nigga rollin they ain’t check me at the door so ain’t no tellin what im holdin (wipe me down)
bad bitches they gon bust it wide open niggas flashin they lil bread but im the nigga they approachin (wipe me down)
Small nigga tall figures yall niggas crowd niggas we gon get mac elevens and dawg niggas (wipe me down)
Yall niggas call niggas but my nigga all killas get ya issue and whoever fall wit ya
Chorus
Cuz im on (wipe me down)(8x)
Shoulders, chest, pants, shoes (4x)
Verse 2 (Lil Boosie)
B.O.O.S.I.E. B.A.D.A.Z.Z. that’s me (wipe me down)
[Wipe Me Down lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com
Red bones caramels all of em stop and stare all of em try and steal my underwear (wipe me down)
Like to floss like Rick Ross got a hit called set it off when i sing it everybody set it off (wipe me down)
Black mink im yea im on play wit me i bust ya dome 8 whips on chrome you can gon (wipe me down)
Fresh fade fresh j’s on the corner playin spades im an ordinary person but im paid (wipe me down)
Foxx flippin Webbie smokin and we chokin off a whole pound of purple famous like tha ninja turtles (wipe me down)
Just left New York City hooked up wit P. Diddy finna blow past 50 you gon have ta (wipe me down)
We the best im a fool im the hemi man red light green light yellow light get it man
Chorus
Verse 3 (Webbie)
Hot drop drop top top drop hoes drop it like its hot yea nigga im the shit (wipe me down)
You see this ice on my wrist how it glist soon the light hit you can’t lie the ice sick (wipe me down)
Purple got me smellin funky red monkey 500 dollars on em you ain’t seen these yet (wipe me down)
Beatin you can hear me way around the corner paint wet wit the 24’s on em that’s bet (wipe me down)
Ol lady’s baby momma’s few fiance’s niggas wife savage life who i’m gonna f**k next (wipe me down)
And i don’t use the lifestyle or the magnum or the trojan i’ll go head and use the barrel of the tech (wipe me down)
Man this chain hit me for a couple grand oh no i ain’t complainin just watch how you wipe my chest (wipe me down)
A bad bitch wanted me to stay lil longer i put that dick up on her but i had a flight to catch (wipe me down)
(Foxx)
Shoulders, chest, pants, shoes (8x)
Chorus
July 12th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I think the above lyrics speak for themselves. And as for letting kids “listen to what they want” and hope that they eventually develop a like for better music - that goes against everything that parenting is about. Do we let kids just eat what they want, while offering healthy food options, and hopefully, someday, they will develop a taste for good food?
No, unfortunately, the laws of thermodynamics tell us that anything, left to itself, tends to disorder. That includes human nature, and especially the appetites of children. We must order their lives while they are young in order to protect them - first, physically, from the damaging affects of junk food, for example. But this also extends to shaping their desires and tastes, stretching their ‘comfort zones’ and teaching them to value things of meaning, and deferring instant gratification for something of better value.
Any philosophy that advocates letting children do what they want, and hoping they magically crave the better things, is fundamentally flawed. The argument and reasoning does change a bit as they become teenagers and young adults - I do think that parents in the past have rejected music solely because they didn’t like the sound of it (and therefore ascribed some evil motivation to it), so we need to be thinking adults that raise thinking kids - kids that we can disagree with, but know that we can trust to make sound decisions.
It seems to me the comments made say more about a philosophy of raising children than they do about a particular style of music.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I listened to rap music until I was 15. One day I magically thought, I should broaden my music horizons. I happened to be someone who had tried food from all around the world, and met many different styles of people by that age, so my point is that its not just about music when it comes to music horizons. If your kids don’t get a variety, of life, how can we expect them to have this liking for a variety of music?
I believe if your kids are well educated in many aspects of life, the low iq music thing will fall to pieces in itself.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Variety is not the highest value in life. Children can experience other cultures, but more than anything need a sold cultural identity of their own. Rap is not so much cultural as it is a manufactured entertainment product catering to low-IQ young males and their desire for self-aggrandizing criminal behavior, being unable otherwise to attain high status in the mainstream economy.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I am a 23 year old male college graduate and I must say that in order to reach my present preference in music which is intelligent and very thought provoking, I must have first went through that phase of crappy rap, I now realize that they were saying absolutely nothing but simply had a decent beat. I now listen to independent Hip hop, which I must say is the farthest thing from pointless sexist stupid rap ever and the only thing in common is a much more mature beat. Take it from me, if your child likes bad rap/hip hop introduce him or her to the good stuff (i.e. the underground stuff).
November 27th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
You know the truly creative stuff….
November 28th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I have to disagree. I had the unpleasant experience of visiting a Foot Locker in the past month to buy some sneakers. The constant “thump thump thump”, blaring rap, and hyperactive music videos on plasma televisions effectively shut down my ability to have a coherent thought the entire time I was there.
Rap and hip-hop are associated with lower-class lifestyle, and so reflects the high time-preferences of that group, i.e. their inability to delay gratification, even for something like aural stimulation. Instead of listening to Beethoven’s 9th for an hour to get to the greatest musical climax of all time (if we except Wagner’s Ring cycle), the rap listener demands instant gratification for musical stimulation.
In our media-saturated world, the most important thing to teach children is to delay gratification, particularly in the area of information and experience. Thirty years from now, the world will be owned by the few with dopamine receptors sufficiently sensitive to the real-world that they aren’t addicted to 24/7 World of Warcraft while listening to 4-measure repetitive trance beats. To be clear, I want my children to be part of the ownership group.
Classical music and the folk music of their people (Celtic/bluegrass/traditional country) will give them both a sense of identity in their own culture and will not overstimulate them into media-dependent ADHD.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I agree in principal. The problem practically, is that you can’t make someone enjoy something. We can make our children listen to classical music, and forbid other forms of media, but we can’t make them enjoy it.
I think that a healthy balance is the best that can be achieved. I personally enjoy rock music - I enjoy the freedom of being able to sing in a crowd of worshipers without having to worry about how I sound - I think there is some freedom in making a joyful “noise”. But I wouldn’t want a steady diet of it, and would not desire that for my children either.
I want my kids to be able to enjoy and appreciate all kinds of music. I think that this will help them to relate to all kinds of people as well, because there is something about musical taste that can connect people.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I don’t mean to sound extreme, in that only certain styles of music are ok to listen to. I’m just advocating a sense of deliberateness in determining the primary influences on children. Legalism is a dead-end just like “anything goes”.