Rock and Roll Children

When I was a kid, I was exposed to a lot of Doo-Wop music, especially on car trips.  My siblings and I didn’t have iPods to listen to our own music.  Truth be told, we were happy just to have a window seat to avoid “the hump.”  If my kids are in the car alone with my wife, she will give them a chance to pick the music, whereas I have carried on the tradition of my dad.  You can probably imagine what is being played on the radio when Hard Rock Daddy picks the music.  For a while, my kids were truly rock and roll children, but like all kids, they have started to discover music on their own as they are exposed to other influences.

As a 6-yr old hip-hop dancer, Little One has started to gravitate towards music that she can dance to, and also to the songs that she hears on the television shows that she watches.  My 10-yr old son, on the other hand, has been influenced by his older cousins and has started delving into the world of underground hip-hop.  While I can’t fault them for going out on their own and developing their own musical tastes, I wasn’t going sit idly by and let them forget their hard rock roots.

In an effort to rekindle their interest in hard rock music, I decided this weekend to let them each create their own playlists on the Hard Rock Daddy YouTube channel (www.HardRockDaddyNetwork.com).  The only caveat was that the songs that they chose had to fit in with the other music featured on Hard Rock Daddy.

My son created his playlist first.  He had a number of songs that he was able to name right away, and then began to increase his list as I reminded him of others that he had forgotten about.  By the time we finished, his playlist had 60 very worthy hard rock songs on it ranging from his favorites of today like Rob Zombie’s “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown” to classics like Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” and Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”  His list also includes the latest Sabbath release “God Is Dead?”.

Little One needed a little more guidance when it came time to make her playlist.  She likes a lot of songs, but couldn’t recall the names of most of them very easily.  Her playlist also ranges from songs of today like 10 Years’ “Fix Me” to Guns N Roses classics like “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Welcome to the Jungle” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley.”  Her list is significantly shorter than my son’s (20 songs), but she ended up with a very cool playlist, especially considering that she is a 6-yr old hip-hop dancer.

Both rock and roll children have songs on their respective lists that hold special meaning to me.

My son’s list features songs from concerts that we have seen together, the most meaningful being Nickelback’s “Rockstar.”  It was the first concert that he ever saw when he was 7-yrs old, but more importantly, he used to sing the entire song when he was 3-yrs old.  Needless to say to anyone who knows the lyrics, it was the source of a lot of laughter at family get-togethers.

Little One’s list features songs that made an impression on her at the age of three also.  She used to sing parts of “Mr. Crowley” and get excited that “Ozzy Osbournes” was on the radio.  In her version of name that tune, after a few guitar notes of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” she would yell out Guns N Roses and make her rocker face while flashing Dio’s horns up (a.k.a. metal fingers).  The song that will always remind me of her is “Fix Me.”  She was only 5-yrs old when it was on the Octane Big ‘Uns Countdown.  Whenever she heard the chorus, she would scream and clap uncontrollably.  It was a moment of pure joy that I will always remember as long as I live.

Check out the playlists that my rock and roll children have put together.  Please feel free to share any thoughts about their selections.