MOM and POP and POP

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I'd like to hear your very early memories of your parents' attitudes toward POP culture, please.

― fritz, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a vague recollection of my father trying to explain Punk Rock to me, possibly because I had seen something about Sid killing Nancy on the news (but I might be embroidering that in there). I do remember that his mystifying definition of Punk included a description of Pink Floyd's inflatable pink pig. I also remember him playing Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On, Reggae Woman" on a tableside jukebox in a restaurant and telling me that I had to listen.

― fritz, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

pink = punk (this is the law of pop on pop)

haha i can remember trying to explain punk to my dad: in the end i cut out an article by TONY PARSONS and made him read it!! which is worse anything fritz's dad did to him (my dad likes the beatles and simon and garfunkel and songs where you can hear the words; he is far too gentle to press his taste on anyone, but he did ask me to take off a rather hard boppish miles davis cd last year)

(nor was it 'kind of blue')

― mark s, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

He also told me Shaun Cassidy was for girls, thereby turning me into a pop closet-case.

― fritz, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember my mum saying something very positive about Billy Joel. Oddly, this would have been about the time of "We Didn't Start The Fire", which I can't imagine her liking.

Also I remember her saying "even I've heard of Bananarama".

― Robin Carmody, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr. Cassidy was my first pop idol as well, but I heard no complaints. Yay!

My parents are a balance between indiscriminate and willful listeners. The Top 40 was never objected to as a choice for listening in the car or at breakfast, but some songs likely raised their hackles. Otherwise, they paid attention as much as anyone -- casually, knowing big names, not having a particular investment in any scene, following their own particular likes and dislikes. I suspect more of that has carried over to me than I know.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(robin, i misread that as billy idol!)

― mark s, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents hated pop music and weren't prepared to have any sort of sensible dialogue about it...just dismissed it. Very annoying. They were very keen on the classics. I suppose they were typical of that pre-Beatles high/low split (before pop was considered as being at all worthy of serious analysis).

― David Inglesfield, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My dad informed me that melody was always superior to rhythm.

― Curt, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Whenever i would play cassettes in my dads car (which i think he actually secretly enjoyed) he would smirk and throw at me the word 'Bop' at various points on our journey. Upon asking him what it meant, he finally condescended: "Be Original, Pal"

― , Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My Dad was WAY into surf rock in the early-to-mid '60s, when he would have been finishing high school & starting college. When I was growing up he still had all the old LPs -- Dick Dale, The Astronauts, Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes, & The ORIGINAL Rock-A-Teens. My brother and I teased him relentlessly about his stupid surf albums, w/ his Dick Dale records being the prime target. All the song titles seemed so lame: "Peppermint Man," "Taco Wagon," etc. Then when I was in college myself I finally paid attention to "Let's Go Trippin'" and decided Dad was on to something. Dick Dale blew my away live on one of his '90s comeback tours, and I got pops an autograph.

― Mark, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My dad will obsessively play a new album that he likes. The following groups have gotten this treatment in our house: Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, James Brown, Average White Band, Prince, The Cure, Seal, Michael Jackson, Sade, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Miles Davis, Buckwheat Zydeco, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Dizzy Gillespie, Harvard Glee Club, Harvard University Choir, LTJ Bukem, Goldie. Conversely, the last album I can remember my mother playing was by Vangelis, and this was 16 years ago.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

my mom lurves disco and funk, as is well documented. eventually i shared her taste, but it took a loooooong time. regrettably she also has a fondness for slicked up 80s slap-bass smoov r&b ala luther vandross. lately she's taken a liking to dmx.

my dad...fuck if i know. i remember he owned a lot of yes albums...including the trevor horn-era ones...

― jess, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Astronauts

Fun story -- one of the bandmembers later in life was a history teacher in my middle school. Cool guy, too!

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's funny hearing about posters whose parents listened to rock. I never heard any rock as a kid; my dad had loads of records, all classical and vocalists like Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan. The most rock he ever got was Neil Diamond. But it did influence me; I always wanted to have lots of records, and indeed I do. I like vocalists as well. Never got into classical, but there's time.

― Sean, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hank, Johnny Cash, Hee-Haw, Merle Haggard... and then the 'bohemian' stuff: John Prine and Doc Watson. No Rock'n'Roll (unless you consider Cash a rockabilly)... my dad walked in on me listening to a DRI album once and calmly said: "It sounds like people fighting."

― Andy, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents were rather fond of Dire Straits, Hall & Oates and the Alan Parsons Project. My dad now digs Radiohead and my mum has the Dido album on constant repeat (it seems).

― DG, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember as a very young kid hearing OMD's "Enola Gay" and my father's friend said he thought it was U2. I remeber them playing records for me like Pete Seeger (I was scared of Abiyoyo) Also I remember my Mother listening to "O Superman" and Philip Glass' Photographer. Now she hates that stuff cause she said she matured and now see's that it's too strange. And in Kindergarden when the teacher made us pick our favorite songs to play at the picnic, my mother brought in "Supercalifragalisticexpialidosious" and I wanted to bring in some Def Leppard. Recently my mother has always said i spend way too much time/money on music, and my father seems indifferent or a little encouraging.

― A Nairn, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My mom likes Sade, Sting, Erykah Badu, Keiko Matsui, and most of the stuff my dad listens to.

My dad likes lots of jazz and 60s rock and stuff he can play his bass guitar to.

My mom is more interested in the physique and fashion of pop stars than the music. My dad is completely indifferent to pop culture today. They both dismiss and mock hip hop.

― Honda, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mom and dad were both big rock & roll fans back in the fifties, and while they never took part in the whole big sixties project, music still figured in their lives. During my first ten years, my main source of music was whatever they played on the car radio. Usually Top 40. If mom was driving, it might also be country or oldies; if dad was driving, maybe folk music on college radio, maybe classic rock, maybe alternative, maybe anything.

When I finally started listening to music on my own, they totally indulged me, no questions asked. If my current obsession was Anne Murray, elevator music, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, The Canon, noisy dreck I read about in the Village Voice, techno, hip-hop, whatever...they humored me, and -- more importantly -- showered me with more money than any child could possibly deserve. (They were trying to work out some guilt issues, what with the divorce and all.)

I'm not sure what my dad listens to, if anything at all. Mom likes listening to CD versions of records she loved way back when, and since she remarried, really goes for the middlebrow end of opera and jazz.

― Michael Daddino, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents-both born in the early Thirties--had very little interest in pop. Or pop culture. They didn't have any amusing stories of their teenybopper days following Frank Sinatra or Glenn Miller around New England. They never mentioned anything about Elvis. The whole family would watch Ed Sullivan together, but I don't remember my parents ever commenting on the show. The records they owned were the ones everyone had--million selling MOR hits like Herb Albert, Judy Collins, Ballad of the Green Berets. And I have no memory of my parents ever listening to them. Maybe they bought them for the kids or they were gifts. They did listen to Irish folk music, though, whenever we had guests. "The Unicorn" by the Irish Rovers was a big hit with the Brennan clan, as was, of course, "Brennan on the Moor" by the Clancy Bros. & Tommy Makem. Oh, I almost forgot-they loved Victor Borge! And so did I.

On the plus side, they never ridiculed us kids for our interest in pop. They never made disparaging remarks about hippies or any Sixties pop culture phenomenons. I guess the generation gap was so wide they just didn't care. Which worked out in our favor--we could usually listen to whatever we wanted on the car radio as long as it wasn't too loud. Occasionally we'd be forced to sing the Marine Hymn or some weird family cheer that went "Ecka Lecka Ching! Ecka Lecka Ching! Ecka Lecka Ching Ching Chow Chow Ching! Boomalaka Boomalacka Sis Boom Bah! The Brennans! The Brennans! Rah rah rah!" Is that pop? It was my favorite song till I heard "Sugar Sugar'".

They were fine with my obsessive interest in music--it kept me out of trouble, sort of--till glam came along. See Velvet Goldmine. "That's me! That's me!" Ha ha. And it only got worse with punk rock. I remember my father grilling me about it one night. It seemed embarrasing and pointless trying to defend and explain something he'd never really be interested in. I just wanted to be left alone.

In the 80s, my father did some work with the Italian singer Sergio Franchi, who'd bought a house near where I grew up. And my parents became totally starstruck. It was really cute, they were always dropping his name and they bought all these cheap Sergio Franchi compilations. I thought, "Aha! At last they've succumbed!" Also, I remember hearing my mother sing along to "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and being somehow relieved. She really does like pop music after all.

Wow, I'm making them sound really dour! My parents were really fun-loving, upbeat people, they just really had very little interest in pop.

― Arthur, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As far as I know, my dad has never owned any music. I think he honestly hates music. All of it.

My mom, on the other hand, had a lot of classical and classic rock laying around the house all the time. In the early 90s she loved alternative rock radio, and really loved Nirvana more than I ever did. She doesn't really listen to much music any more though.

― Melissa W, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

riding in the front seat of the big green van with my dad. him singing along to every song on the radio, which was mysterious to me (the radio i mean) (but maybe also his singing, which he never did elsewhere). what happened to this man who knew the words? maybe they stopped playing those songs. now he listens to talk radio compulsively, even the very conservative shows, which fill him with white-hot rage that he never shares. this is pop culture too i guess. but there's no joy in it.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My mother was in boarding school. She (and her friends at school) was given an certain amount of time to listen to music. When doing this, they could not express too much excitement or the music would be stopped. Now as a result she can't enjoy music as much as I (or other people). Sad, no? It made me realize how fekking LUCKY I was.
My father is completely obsessed with Northern Soul. The rest is *crap* to him. He does love some contemporary music. Sadly it's mostly CRAP music like Chris DeBurgh.
As a result of his fascination with N.Soul, I rarely heard ABBA and the like. 70s completely passed me by.

― helenfordsdale, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Apparently, I reacted to "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" when I was in the womb,came out and my first word was "tape"-- I have an old TDK commercial as an early memory. My father listens obsessively to Elton John to this very day, and as much as I love/hate it, it acts as a base to my musical exploration.

Come to think of it, my dad has always had a like for piano--about 5 years back, when we lived in Vancouver (I live in Edmonton, Canada now) my dad had me program the CD player to play Frank Mills' "Music Box Dancer" and "Peter Piper" over and over again...Ah me...

― Ashley Andel, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My mom's always been pretty up-to-date with music... I remember her playing lots of good synth-pop in the early 80s when I was a toddler, then getting into "alternative" later on (though certainly not with the same vigor as when she was younger, I'm sure).

Dad never really seeks out stuff, and I don't remember him buying anything much, but he always sided with mom pretty closely. When I'm home for breaks and stuff, I'll play records for him--he seems to enjoy it, although I'd love to know what he *really* thinks of some of my stuff. I know, though, that he loves Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2... oh yeah, and the Cluster and Eno record! I remember playing that like last summer, him popping his head in the door and asking "What is this beautiful stuff you're playing?"

― Clarke B., Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

my ma slapped me for siniging like a virgin around the house, and she was not happy when i wainted to sing i'm on fire for my audition for the town choir at the age of 8... lots of simon and garf, lots of peter paul and mary, lots of willie nelson, elvis, and glen cmapbell and sinatra and bassrey that i never appreciated until i was much much older....

mind you my mum likes yanni and rikki marritn at the moment, so we're having issues.

― goeff, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Jesus, that's sad-oh, Goeff. I performed for'em. Actually I think the first time I did this was in the bath thub. I stood up and start shaking my ass belting out a Supremes song or something. I was about four years old.

― helenfordsdale, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Frightening reading all these stories about posters' parents listening to rock/pop - makes me feel OLD :-(

Sideways question for Mr "Embezzler About To Step Into A Submarine Non-Stop To Brazil" Sinker:

does Pink (i.e. "Get This Party Started" etc.) = punk?

― Terry Shannon, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Classical. Paul Simon. Queen. I think that about covers it.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My dad described the video of Firestarter as 'dangerous' when he caught me watching it on Top of the Pops.

― Daniel, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one time a die kreuzen record (their S/T i think) made my mother violently angry. she actually tried to stop me from playing it. It was that good. I can't remember any other parental reactions to the music I listened to.

― g, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yes terry: pink = punk in ALL cases

indeed i believe the floyd part of the eqn was explained to me by your good self in a sam smith pub!!

sadly my creative account transfer plan misfired

― mark s, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents banned my 7" of Hüsker Dü's version of "Eight Miles High" from the family stereo. Mother, an opera singer, has always been impressed by Steven Tyler and Freddie Mercury's vocal technique.

― Colin Meeder, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents had a secret cool past which involved going to see Beach Boys and Rolling Stones play at very small clubs in the early 1960s. My dad was massively into rockabilly-type music although now he likes Thorogood/Hank Jr-type things and ran a blues bar for a while. Whenever my sister and I meet up with him he spends/wastes time talking about Delbert McClinton. This siphons off every last bit of my life energy, I find it *that* boring.

My mum likes singers she can relate to on a first-name basis: Neil, Lionel, Kenny etc. Weirdly, she has friends who were in Chaka Khan's group Rufus and another friend who was in Sounds of Blackness. She hated everything I played on our stereo *except* for Spoilt Victorian Child by The Fall - I know, go figure.

Neither of them were restrictive about what I listened to or were very disdainful about pop culture because they knew it would be a complete waste of time.

― suzy, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

She hated everything I played on our stereo *except* for Spoilt Victorian Child

I think that's the most wonderful (& frightening) thing I've heard on this board in a long time. That's just beautiful.

Makes me weepy....

― Dave225, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Your folks are all so fuckin trendy.

My parents don't own any CDs. Honestly. Not one.

― Ronan, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

six years pass...

Some nice MOM and POP photos from the 70s on the Guardian site here.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/1/16/1232104539505/Gallery-Rock-Star-Parents-002.jpg

― Yehudi Menudo (NickB), Monday, 19 January 2009 09:02 (sixteen years ago)

She has a bit of a moustache problem there...

― Mark G, Monday, 19 January 2009 09:17 (sixteen years ago)

eric clapton is richard hammond, seemingly.
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/1/14/1231947774232/Gallery-Rock-Star-Parents-006.jpg

― tomofthenest, Monday, 19 January 2009 09:46 (sixteen years ago)

I like it that he and his mum obviously swap knitwear.

― Yehudi Menudo (NickB), Monday, 19 January 2009 09:48 (sixteen years ago)

I wouldn't trust Grace Slick with anybody's baby.

― Gorgeous Preppy (G00blar), Monday, 19 January 2009 09:59 (sixteen years ago)

My Mom and Pop live in DC. Tonight, as part of the inaugural celebrations, they will be at a show with this lineup: Andrew Bird, Ted Leo, Tortoise, Waco Brothers, Jon Langford, Sally Timms, David "Honeyboy" Edwards and (ringer) author Thomas Frank. I don't think it's at all appropriate for them to be cooler than me.

― dad a, Monday, 19 January 2009 21:35 (sixteen years ago)

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