My 14 year old son was sweeping the kitchen, doing a few other things around the house. He plugged his iPod into a speaker to keep himself company.
I heard him singing along to Hotel California, including the guitar solo. Just like I did at his age. His older brother has told me that Hotel California is one of his favorite songs. Despite the fact that I do think it’s one of the best songs ever recorded, I swear I didn’t play it repeatedly for their entire lives. They each discovered it on their own.
Funny the things that cross the generational lines. It seems like our kids appreciate the pop culture my husband & I grew up with so much more than I ever did the culture of my parents. I wonder why that is? Is there something more timeless about the music and humor that emerged during the 60s, 70s, & 80s that wasn’t there in the 40s & 50s? Is it just a personality thing? Are we just really cool (heh)?
I’m sure if you asked my boys they’d have a different take on this. But the fact is that I was able to take my son Nick to see U2 a couple years ago and we both enjoyed the concert equally. My son Andy watches 70s and 80s era comedy & films with my husband.
When I was their age, pop culture was a clear dividing line between myself and my parents. There was zero commonality there. I honestly don’t see that with my own children. Of course, I’m happy about it! I do try to be careful to not step on toes, and there are definitely things in their lives I’m pretty clueless about (like the appeal of most rap, or most video games.)
I’m really curious, though, if this is a common thing with this generation?
5 Comments
I recently took my 17 year old cousin and her friends to see Bon Jovi - who would think a kid would like them? But it was great and definitely cross- generational.
And Hotel California is just one of those classics. You have to love it.
Ashley loves Hotel California and most anything by the Eagles. She also loves Pretty in Pink and 16 Candles. She’s been into watching the “horror” movies from the 80’s too. I’m pretty sure we’re just that cool!
This is so true! My 15 year old son’s ultimate favorite song these days is House of the Rising Son and he’s also hot and heavy into the British Invasion. He’s been raiding my cd collection and burning them all into iTunes this past week. Now, if he had a way to import all that vinyl that I have he’d really be in heaven!
TJG & Lisa, I think it’s that the Eagles are pretty timeless, smooth harmonies with biting guitars!
Karen, my husband loves to dig out the vinyl and expose our kids to it, they play it in our basement during ping-pong matches :).
Our son likes classic rock, but wrote a newspaper column about Hotel California that I’ll have to send you. Our daughter, on the other hand, is still at the age where she’ll insist she doesn’t like a song simply because my husband and I do.