Music, then and now

I've started rewatching music videos with my daughter. Some pertinent observations from there.

I’m happy to report that I’ve restarted an old tradition - watching music videos with my daughter. I think we started this sometime during the pandemic, when she was three, where I would keep showing her music videos (mostly live performances) on YouTube.

Somewhere over time we lost the habit, but (I hope I’m not speaking too soon) we’ve revived it this week. In fact, I’ve decided to make this her bedtime routine - cosying up with her in my study, watching music videos. The main difference between then (2020-21) and now is that she now has an opinion on what music should be played.

Yesterday went off well, as we watched Bohemian Rhapsody (the trigger was that we were watching an episode of Only Connect, where there was a reference to Brian May, and I happened to tell her that there exists a rock star with a PhD in astrophysics. And she wanted to see him perform), and then Yuve Yuve Yu by the Hu.

In fact, if you have a wide screen monitor (did I tell you we watch this in my study?), this is an absolutely brilliant music video.

Today, she said she wanted to listen to “shake it off”, by Taylor Swift. Now, despite all the hullaballoo about the Eras tour, I’ve never really listened to TS, and had no clue what her music is like. Shake it off, though, is a fairly familiar song. I found this performance of hers to watch for tonight:

The production quality of the video is absolutely something else, but the music left me rather underwhelmed. I didn’t understand what the big deal is about Taylor Swift. Then, my daughter said that there is “one song that my friends keep talking about. It’s called Cruel Summer”.

My mind immediately went to the 80s song, and was wondering why schoolgirls nowadays like it. It turned out that there is a song of the same name by Taylor Swift as well. Anyway, I convinced my daughter that she should watch the one by Bananarama. And told her that it was composed around the time I was born (fairly close - I see it was released in 1983. I was born in December 1982).

We then started talking about old music. I’ve written earlier about how my daughter typically goes to bed listening to Black Sabbath. For many years in a row now, when Spotify sends me their “wrapped”, the number one song is Iron Man - the first song in my daughter’s Lullabies playlist.

I’m happy to report that my son has also taken to going to bed to the same playlist (so I don’t need to maintain two).

In any case, we continued to talk about music today and I told her that Iron Man is from 1970. “That’s twelve years before you were born”, she exclaimed. “I suppose Ozzy must be dead now”.

“No, he is very much alive”, I replied, adding that he is now planning a revival tour. “When was the last time he performed?”, she asked. “In 2022, at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games”, I replied.

For the last song of the night (after Bananarama) I gave her a choice - she could either watch Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift or Black Sabbath’s latest. It turned out like it usually does when you give your children a choice - you end up doing both things.

I still continue to be less than impressed by Taylor Swift. I don’t find any musical qualities in her performance (that said, being the father of a 7 year old girl, I might be forced to change this opinion sometime soon). Again, the production quality of the Eras Tour is brilliant. The settings seem enormous. But the songs seem flat.

But I can possibly see why teen (and tween) girls are a fan of Taylor Swift. And who knows - I might be forced to go to one of her concerts sometime, as a chaperone.

The evening ended on a good note. We watched Ozzy and Tony Iommi perform at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

“But Appa, why do his eyes look so strange”, Berry remarked. “It looks like as if his eyeballs have popped off”.

And she happily went off to bed, having listened to her favourite bedtime band. And I sat down to write this.