“Glee” And Wii Make It Cool?

Photo Credit: hdw.eweb4.com

I think that I may have mentioned before that my life includes background music.  Seriously.  There is always music popping through my mind.  (Or a movie line – but that is a different blog.)  Here’s the thing about music and me: I love it and have rather eclectic taste.  I love music from all over the spectrum and, depending on my mood, will listen to several “genres” in one day. Satellite radio was made for me.  A John Williams score can bring me to tears. There is no such thing as a bad show tune.  Because of my husband my appreciation for good jazz and swing was increased. (I also now know The Glen Miller story by heart – thanks honey!) From spending time with my grandmother while she watched her favorite show, “Lawrence Welk”, I even have appreciation for an occasional polka. (Don’t judge.  Crank one up sometime and try to keep up with it while dancing about the living room.  Great cardio!)  When we moved to central Nebraska for a while I became a “country girl.” (One of my prized possessions is my Garth Brooks Ultimate Hits CD set. Yes. Seriously.)  I try to keep up on the latest hits and trends.  Yes.  It did take my kids a couple of days to convince me that Justin Bieber was actually a boy, but who am I to judge the latest teen idol.? I remember when I thought Shawn Cassidy was a dreamy and could really sing well.   I’ll listen to rap. I’ll listen to blues.  I love contemporary Christian music.  I love the oldies. I love….well….MUSIC.  I’ll listen to anything at least once.   Of all the genres, however, the one nearest and dearest to my heart, of course, are the great tunes of the 70’s and 80’s.  Those are the years of my youth.  You got it: I can back comb my hair BIG  and jam with the best of them.  This has always been a source of  great teasing from my children. Until lately anyway.

Several years ago we were driving home from a trip to Omaha with only our two oldest children in the car.  Because we own the car we pick the music so my husband had a “Classic rock” (which sounds so much better than old rock doesn’t it?  I want to be “classic” some day.) station playing when suddenly “Bohemian Rhapsody” came on.  We of course did what any good parent would do: turned it up really loud so as to truly freak out our children. Part way through the song our oldest daughter, Brittnie, leaned up in her seat and said, “Oh my goodness! What in the heck are these guys talking about?  Makes no sense. Did you guys really listen to this stuff???”  My husband, never one to miss an opportunity to teach his children said, “This, children, is a musical example of what it sounds like if you drop acid right before you write a song. Makes perfect sense to you but to the rest of the world….maybe not.”   Our children groaned and endured the rest of the song muttering about how incredibly weird their parents, and the music their parents listened to, was.  On another such driving occasion I was informed that Steve Perry sounded like he had a sore throat.  OUCH!  How does one not love Journey?  I had a poster of them on my closet door in my dorm room?? These children!

Fast forward a few years.  My daughter now older and a member of her school’s show choir becomes addicted to Fox’s new show “Glee”.  Somewhere in that first year the glee club on that show started doing old Journey songs.  Suddenly they weren’t so bad.   In fact they were kind of cool.  Okay.  At the conclusion of the first season of the show, lo and behold, they covered the very song that a few years earlier had sent our daughter into a tailspin: “Bohemian Rhapsody.”     To further thicken the plot,  her high school choir preformed that very song at their final concert that year.  It truly was cool and I loved every minute of it.  What I can’t figure out, though, how suddenly the “weird” music her parents listened to was one of the “coolest songs ever”.  I guess because some really cute guys playing show choir characters sang it rather than odd-looking rockers from decades gone by suddenly it was acceptable.  Great even.  I believe I even heard the word “Epic”. Yeah.  That seems fair.

Following suit of her older siblings our younger daughter has long given us lip about how weird “our music” was.  A few years ago I was watching one of the first episodes of  “Don’t Forget The Lyrics” (Again – don’t judge.  I could have been a millionaire had I only auditioned) with her when the Michael Jackson hit “Beat It” came up.  I nailed it. Every word.   With wide eyes she looked at me and said, “Who in the world is Michael Jackson?”  I felt obligated to jump on  YouTube and play a few of his best (80’s) videos for her.  It is my duty as a parent to educate my children right?? “Ummm….Mom….that guy is kind of scary.  You liked him?”  Uh – DUH! How could you not like him??  Oh.  She was eight.  Perhaps a little young to appreciate his genius.  Skip ahead again to two years ago after Michael’s death had pushed him to the forefront again and a game was produced for Wii called “Michael Jackson: The Experience“.  Our youngest daughter who just a few short years before had found Michael’s dancing a bit disconcerting suddenly was in love with the game her aunts gave her for her birthday.  The game that has her doing the same dance moves  that once made her laugh. At me.  How does that even work?  Now she thinks he was brilliant.   Because of a game. She even challenged me to that game just a few weeks ago.  The little stinker has mastered about every one of those dances and while I can belt out every word to his songs I can not begin to imitate his moves.  Never could.  Does anyone else see the unfairness of this situation?  I so need to find a Karaoke game.

I suppose that I really should be thanking the producers of “Glee” and the makers of Wii games for helping me round out my children’s musical tastes but I’m not quite ready to do that yet.  I’m still reeling from the irony in it all.

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