My son has been singing a lot of "pop" song lately. One of his favorites is a song by a band called The Wanted, "Glad You Came." He's got the lyrics memorized and even does the sound effects. It's starting to drive me crazy, actually. But the interesting thing is that I started listening to the lyrics and asked him, "What's this song about, anyway?"
"It doesn't have any meaning, it's just a song" he replied.
"But what's it about?" I pressed. (And then gave him my teacher mini-lecture on the difference between plot and theme. It has to be about something, but doesn't necessarily need to have a meaning.)
"I don't know." he answered. But obviously he was thinking, because he went on to add, "Miss Laura Mae at Play-N-Learn said we lost our innocence by singing this song."
We went on with our discussion, and it became clear to me that he didn't understand that the singer was trying to seduce a chick, offering to bring her another drink so she could "drink it if you can." He even quoted his sister, using One Direction songs as another example of songs that are "just songs."
Its funny because, although I censor what he watches, I never feel its right to censor what my kids read or listen to. In my mind, a visual is hard to erase, but a book can be closed and a song turned off. I think about what I listened to, especially in high school. Even though the stuff was weird, prone to sex, violence and necrophilia (Hey - it was Alice Cooper and Skinny Puppy) I didn't really pay attention to that. I just liked it. In fact, the only lyrics I pondered were sappy, true love songs. I must have listened to Sister Christian or Don't Stop Believin' a million times. They probably did more damage than the Dead Milkmen.
It's strange to be entering this phase with my youngest child. I'm sure we have a lot of music to come. And who knows, maybe I can share some of my favorites with him. It's been fun as Ali has discovered that I have some cool music of my own from back in the day. Although she was a bit tripped out by that old DMX cd... hey, even an old white lady likes to get the freak on once in a while.
"It doesn't have any meaning, it's just a song" he replied.
"But what's it about?" I pressed. (And then gave him my teacher mini-lecture on the difference between plot and theme. It has to be about something, but doesn't necessarily need to have a meaning.)
"I don't know." he answered. But obviously he was thinking, because he went on to add, "Miss Laura Mae at Play-N-Learn said we lost our innocence by singing this song."
We went on with our discussion, and it became clear to me that he didn't understand that the singer was trying to seduce a chick, offering to bring her another drink so she could "drink it if you can." He even quoted his sister, using One Direction songs as another example of songs that are "just songs."
Its funny because, although I censor what he watches, I never feel its right to censor what my kids read or listen to. In my mind, a visual is hard to erase, but a book can be closed and a song turned off. I think about what I listened to, especially in high school. Even though the stuff was weird, prone to sex, violence and necrophilia (Hey - it was Alice Cooper and Skinny Puppy) I didn't really pay attention to that. I just liked it. In fact, the only lyrics I pondered were sappy, true love songs. I must have listened to Sister Christian or Don't Stop Believin' a million times. They probably did more damage than the Dead Milkmen.
It's strange to be entering this phase with my youngest child. I'm sure we have a lot of music to come. And who knows, maybe I can share some of my favorites with him. It's been fun as Ali has discovered that I have some cool music of my own from back in the day. Although she was a bit tripped out by that old DMX cd... hey, even an old white lady likes to get the freak on once in a while.
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