Which albums should kids be sat down & forced to listen to?
Discussion
I truly despair of the music my kids listen to.
I was looking forwards to being a curmudgeonly old man, my fist shaking, bellowing up the stairs 'turn that rubbish down', 'call this music?', 'can't hear the words', 'what a racket!' and so on.
If anything, it's the other way round.
There's little or no fire in the popular music industry today. Everything's written in boardrooms, by men in suits with flip charts and venn diagrams, designed to appeal to the broadest demographic possible. The end result, a sugary sweet, bland, sludgy, meaningless mess.
Phew, I'm glad I've got that off my chest, now to answer the original question.
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back.
Crass - Feeding of the 5000
The Fall - Grotesque (After the Gramme)
Wire - Pink Flag
David Bowie - Station to Station
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi
Bob Dylan - Desire
Not necessarily in that order!
I was looking forwards to being a curmudgeonly old man, my fist shaking, bellowing up the stairs 'turn that rubbish down', 'call this music?', 'can't hear the words', 'what a racket!' and so on.
If anything, it's the other way round.
There's little or no fire in the popular music industry today. Everything's written in boardrooms, by men in suits with flip charts and venn diagrams, designed to appeal to the broadest demographic possible. The end result, a sugary sweet, bland, sludgy, meaningless mess.
Phew, I'm glad I've got that off my chest, now to answer the original question.
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back.
Crass - Feeding of the 5000
The Fall - Grotesque (After the Gramme)
Wire - Pink Flag
David Bowie - Station to Station
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi
Bob Dylan - Desire
Not necessarily in that order!
ks, I second It Takes A Nation of Millions, Rage Against The Machine.....just off the top of my head.Well it depends how old the kids are. Some of the above will help their musical appreciation. But not by much.
You should force feed them some of Handel's Concerti Grossi. They'll hate it, but 30 years from now they will thank you in a way you never knew was possible.
It's why I make a living from music now.... 30 years later.
But if you have to play them stuff from the 20th Century, then Leonerd Bernstein, Thomas Newman or Donald Fagen - then they will at least have an inbuilt feel for harmony. Sadly lacking from most pop and rock.
All IMHO of course.
You should force feed them some of Handel's Concerti Grossi. They'll hate it, but 30 years from now they will thank you in a way you never knew was possible.
It's why I make a living from music now.... 30 years later.
But if you have to play them stuff from the 20th Century, then Leonerd Bernstein, Thomas Newman or Donald Fagen - then they will at least have an inbuilt feel for harmony. Sadly lacking from most pop and rock.
All IMHO of course.
Edited by GetCarter on Wednesday 6th November 16:24
I truly despair of most modern popular music. Don't get me wrong, there's some good stuff out there but it's getting harder to find. The vast majority is engineered and lacks any true musicality. It's just not expressive or emotive.
So, if we want our kids to grow up with any real appreciation of music then we're going to have to go beyond the modern mainstream.
In no particular order:
Bruch & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos
Led Zeppelin - VI & Physical Graffiti
Tchaikowsky - Nutcracker Suite (when they're young) & Piano Concerto #1 (when they're a bit older)
All of Pink Martini's albums at some point
Carlos Santana - no particular album
Beethoven's choral symphony - ideally as a concert performance not a recording. As an aside, the last couple of performances of the 9th that I've been to did have some kids in the audience
For fun, maybe some 80's Madness & Squeeze
I'd focus on two things - musicality, and variety. Ultimately, everyone develops their own taste. But if people are never exposed to different types of music and other art, they can never develop an appreciation of them. I guess we have to give kids plenty of opportunity to experience differing styles of music, and form their own opinions.
So, if we want our kids to grow up with any real appreciation of music then we're going to have to go beyond the modern mainstream.
In no particular order:
Bruch & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos
Led Zeppelin - VI & Physical Graffiti
Tchaikowsky - Nutcracker Suite (when they're young) & Piano Concerto #1 (when they're a bit older)
All of Pink Martini's albums at some point
Carlos Santana - no particular album
Beethoven's choral symphony - ideally as a concert performance not a recording. As an aside, the last couple of performances of the 9th that I've been to did have some kids in the audience
For fun, maybe some 80's Madness & Squeeze
I'd focus on two things - musicality, and variety. Ultimately, everyone develops their own taste. But if people are never exposed to different types of music and other art, they can never develop an appreciation of them. I guess we have to give kids plenty of opportunity to experience differing styles of music, and form their own opinions.
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