Friday, September 20, 2013

~ battle of the bands ~





I visited some old friends in Perth - they've had another little boy since I saw them last - and between half-finished conversations and cups of luke-warm tea (as she referreed their fights/fed them snacks/found that lost toy and I revelled in being momentarily child-free) she offered me an apology.

She remembered being childless and sitting in our car 6 years ago on a trip round Bruny Island absolutely horrified that my CD choices were limited to Playschool, The Wiggles and the Hooley Dooleys.  She thought I'd sunk lower than she could ever imagine going.  She's now there - Rhys from Play School sings her favourite songs now.

6 years on, though, and I'm still not in charge of the music selection in my car - or my house.

Somewhat sadly Jack has not grown up on a diet of Wiggles and Playschool - he was the 2 year old singing along to Katy Perry and Pink.  His big sisters took control of the music a while ago and I still haven't got it back.

In the car we have 6 CDs on rotation.  They've been there unchanged for about 3 years now...because we can't agree on any others.  And so we have Norah Jones,  Crowded House, The Finn Brothers, an odd compilation that's only there because Jack's favourite song ever is on it (Daydream Believer!!) and sometimes we have that on repeat the whole way to school.  The other 2 are mixtures of stuff another friend plays during her spin class and we all now know off by heart.  This is where Katy, Pink and Guy Sebastian come into their own.

I'm too wussy to go with the radio stations.  The song lyrics are horrifying (so often) and if they're not the announcers are just unbearable.  One friend is permanently stuck on the relgious station as they screen their music for "unsuitable" lyrics but that's not for me either.  Another just has classic FM on in an effort to calm her kids down - they just retreat to their ipods. 

At home we've got a Sonos system that streams music from itunes or MOG.  On the rare occasions I'm home alone I actually get to choose - Sarah Humphreys, Lisa Mitchell, Agnes Obel, Paul Kelly, Mozart - all top of my list at the moment.  The rest of the time its a battle to queue up your playlist before anyone else.  And so we have Lily with Oly Murs, Owl City and Glee,  Gracie is my country girl - she's more likely to choose Kasey Chambers or Taylor Swift.  And then there's Jack who's so obsessed with the Lanterns song (its the song for the school's 60th birthday celebration next week) that he just has that over and over and over (it's by Birds of Tokyo  - great song - for the first 100 times anyway) or he's back to Daydream Believer**.

Who chooses in your house/car?

What are you listening to and loving?



*the shell clearly has no relevance to this post but I liked the colours

**he always used to call it the sleeping queen song - took me ages to work out that he heard "sleepy Jean" as that...I need to remember this






 

7 comments:

  1. Haha, I like the shell too :)
    We compromise on the music choices here, but when I'm by myself, it's me singing along full blast!

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  2. The Sleeping Queen song - gorgeous. Usually whoever is in the kitchen (cooking or cleaning) chooses the tunes at home, and whoever is driving in the car. We don't have a CD player in the car! So it's usually the radio for us.

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  3. I have a four year old obsessed with Katy perry as well. They each have their "dance hits" albums on iTunes and that is all we are allowed to listen to.

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  4. I'm thankful that our boys (a bit older than your kids) enjoy the same music that we enjoy. In fact we're going to see Cat Empire tonight with the 18yo & the 13 yo!

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  5. It is not often I get to choose when there are others around, which I kind of get. My favourites include Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers and Meatloaf. Far from everyone's cup of tea!

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  6. I'm like you... I don't like the rubbish in the lyrics or the commentary on the radio. In the car, it's either Play School or the CD of Disney songs with Sophie demanding the 'Rella' songs (Cinderella Songs) and Grace wanting all the Mary Poppins ones :) I smiled to see artists like Lisa Mitchell, Sarah Humphreys, Crowded House and Norah Jones on your list... all ones on mine too :)

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  7. I'm in command of the music in our car and the boys don't know any differently! I didn't realise how bad some of the lyrics were though until Mr 4 started singing the other day (I often can't hear lyrics but like beat or melody). I think I might need to change my car music.... Oops!

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