My daughter (who is 4) loves both Hannah Montana and Lady Gaga. When I say loves, I mean LOVES them. She has never watched the show, Hannah Montana but has heard some of Miley Cyrus' songs and tries to dress the way she thinks Hannah Montana would dress. She also loves Lady Gaga. Especially Bad Romance.
One day, I turned on some music on Pandora Radio (maybe the best thing ever invented for people who love music) and Olivia started dancing around the living room, stripping down to her skivvies! I couldn't believe it. I got a vision of the future-and it looked pretty terrifying. However, she loves listening to Lady Gaga and even asks me to turn on "The Gaga Lady" when we're in the car. I generally do, too, because I love Lady Gaga too (but it doesn't inspire me to strip down whenever the music comes on)
On the other hand, she loves Hannah Montana, too. One day she asked me to turn on a Hannah Montana song and I reacted with such vehemence that it surprised me. I had to ask myself, what is going on with me? If you listen to the lyrics, one is not much worse than the other. So why do I dislike one so much and enjoy the other?
Could it be simply because Miley Cyrus is a teenager and I am an adult? I can't think of what else it could be. When I think about it, I don't want Olivia watching Hannah Montana because some of the language is a little salty for a four-year-old (they say "stupid" a lot) and because I don't think that she would be able to understand the context of the sarcasm. So, that's not an issue. She would be fine with just listening to the music.
Lady Gaga, on the other hand, is far less appropriate for a four-year-old to be listening to. The lyrics are more explicit and the themes are more adult because the music is geared to adults. I tell myself that it is really okay that Olivia walks around singing Bad Romance because she doesn't understand what she's singing...but is that really okay? I think so. I have fond memories of singing The Sweetest Taboo in Kindergarten for Show and Tell. While I think my teacher may have been shocked, everyone agreed that it was the best performance of The Sweetest Taboo that they had heard from a 5 year old. (Okay, I may have made the last part up). I just know that when I was up in front of my class with my Fisher Price Moraccas, singing to the tape my mom had made, I loved that song and I loved singing it. I had no idea what I was singing about. I also turned out to be a pretty good person, and still love music.
So, from now on, I'm going to try to keep my prejudices to myself, let her occasionally listen to Hannah Montana, and hope that she doesn't have any idea what we're singing about for a long time.
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