Monday, November 8, 2010

We Hear The Playback, And It Seems So Long Ago

It’s my fault.

On my IPod, I’ve created several playlists that are labeled as radio stations. So when I want to listed to reggae, I might play my reggae playlist called “K-JAH.”

If I’m in a metal mood, I tune to “K-IRON.”

And if I let the kids sweet talk me into “their” music, I may dial up “K-KID.”

There is very little actual kids music on it. It may have a couple of Laurie Berkner tracks and it may have a song or two from Yo Gabba Gabba, but it is essentially a bunch of tracks that I remember liking as a kid and lots of cutesy cuts that I imagined that my kids would find endearing.

I’ve had luck with my selections, proving that if I know you long enough and if I know a little about your musical tastes, I could probably whip up a good mix-tape that you’ll enjoy.

Except my wife. I still haven’t figured out her.

But the little ones are easy. The only thing that’s annoying is how when they find a “favorite,” they’ll want to hear it over and over again.

If you check out my Last.fm track listings, you’ll notice that The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” is my most played track ever.

Want to know how it got that way?

Because some three year old girl keeps requesting it in the car.

My wife receives the brunt of it, mainly because she doesn’t say “No.” For me, music is important enough that I have a firm line drawn in the sand so that my ears ignore the request line in the back seat.

As a result, if you look at my wife’s IPod tally, Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” is the number one most played track on her device, and it continues to add up because of a certain princesses daily request.

I’ve stopped the growth of “Cherry Bomb,” but there’s a new fear with another song.

The song is The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star.”

Ironically, The Buggles have undertaken a reunion, to which I’m curious if their set list is anything beyond that song. I actually think that the reunion thing is merely a one-off performance, as I’m sure Trevor Horn understands quite well that The Buggles’ notoriety is as a one-hit wonder that kicked off MTV.
My three-year old daughter doesn’t know this.

Hell, my wife was born when “Video Killed The Radio Star” was first released, so I’m sure she doesn’t know it either.

And all I know is how cute it is when my little girl is in the bathtub singing that chorus.

Then, just as I’m conditioning her hair (I did mention she’s a princess, right?) she looks at me and asks.

“Daddy, what does ‘rewind’ mean?”

Before too long, she’ll want to know what the word “video” means too.

2 comments:

anita reynolds said...

I wish you were my dad.

Chris said...

“Daddy, what does ‘rewind’ mean?”

Funny and sad all at once. Aside: I told my daughter once that she sounded like a broken record. She had no idea what I meant by that.