Alison Curtis: My 10-year-old and I aren't on the same wavelength musically
Alison Curtis. Pic: Marc O'Sullivan
Recently my daughter Joan and I got into a fight about music. Well, it wasn’t so much a fight as a strong disagreement. She is at the age, 10, whereby the same 10 songs over and over again will do. And they are 10 very similar sounding songs and not what us oldies refer to as “music.”
To me, they are just calculated and formulated songs put together to all be under 3 minutes for Spotify and have the same general vibe. I can only tell the difference between them all because I have heard them a million times blaring out of Joan’s bedroom.
When we are at home, I will put on the Pixies on vinyl and she actively squirms and covers her ears saying it is "hurting" them! I mean, imagine my disgust. Or else I might try some Springsteen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Band of Horses, the Cure - basically anything that isn’t Little Mix (no offence to them).
Nothing works, she just seems to hate them all. My heart is crushed. My dreams of having a little indie girl, a mini-me, seem to be evaporating before my very eyes.
The only middle ground she and I land on, and pump up while cooking, is Lizzo and Taylor Swift, otherwise we seem to fight over what we are going to listen to while making dinner.
Don’t get me wrong, my taste has changed drastically in the past few years. I am digging the new Justin Bieber song, which is something I thought I would never say.Â
But still, I wish I could bring Joan a bit further over to my side of things. To like a few more things that I like.
My husband is also a big muso, having played in bands for years and he has great taste in music. It is more diverse than mine, but sadly Joan turns her nose up at his suggestions too. The other night she made a barf face when he put on Kraftwerk, a sad, sad moment in our family.
I have always been a massive music lover, I also played in bands for many years, and I suppose it is arrogant of me to just assume Joan is going to like the same things I like. Or at the very least, it is impatient of me to want her to love Sonic Youth right at this particular point in time in her life!
So after our recent heated discussion about music, and me begging her to listen to something different, I thought about what I liked when I was younger and if it synced up with my parents. It obviously didn’t.
Armed with my pink and green ghetto blaster, I put Cyndi Lauper on repeat so many times the lyrics are forever imprinted on my brain. I am sure this wasn’t what my mother loved, most of all. She was a Roy Orbison, Elvis kinda gal. And even though I absolutely adore their music now, I am pretty sure it didn’t float my boat when I was 10.
Perhaps instead of shoving Dinosaur Jr into Joan’s ears, I should be a bit more patient. In the car, we have agreed to share the musical rotation between us. So sometimes it is endless BTS, and then other times I get to throw on a bit of AC/DC.
At the end of the day, I should just be delighted and thankful that music is playing such an important role in her life. She asks for the radio to go on the second we get in the car, or land home. So what if it is Doja Cat for her for now? One day I can dream that she will love The National as much as I do.
