Q: Can parents influence their children’s taste in music?

Although my six-month-old is probably still too young to be subjected to my record collection (note: during those first few sleep-deprived weeks, various CDs were thrown on in desperation with mixed response from baby – more on that in a moment), basing that question solely on my own childhood is enough to answer it with a resounding ‘yes’. Just not in a straight-forward way…

Perhaps the more compelling question, then, is the one raised by Alexis Petridis in today’s The Guardian newspaper: ‘Should’ a parent even attempt to influence their children’s taste in music?

“Thanks to my desperate ministrations, my three-year-old now likes pop music, but I wouldn’t describe it as a wonderful shared experience,” writes Petridis.

“The first time she heard it – when I stuck the recent Madonna greatest hits set on in the car – her face lit up in a really magical way, but even the joy of seeing my child have a totally genuine, entirely unmediated response to music was tempered by the crushing realisation that I was now going to have to listen to the track at least seven or eight times in a row, on a daily basis.”

The undeniable truth

And there lies problem number one: repetition, and the risk of your loved ones rendering a part of your own, beloved record collection unlistenable.

The second problem is realisation: in my short experience, Kings Of Leon’s last album Only By The Night seemed to do the trick in stopping baby crying (until I read that using loud music as a pacifier was a form of ‘accidental parenting’ – booo). But the realisation i’m referring to is the undeniable truth that all parents know: our babies would much rather hear that loathsome nursery rhyme CD. Even if Caleb Followill’s croon did work temporarily!

Fast forward a few years to Petridis’s example (and rewind back to my own childhood) and surely this is prime ‘influencing’ territory? My dad loves Bob Dylan, but I have no recollection of hearing his music as a child. Instead, my earliest musical memories are filled with Dr Hook & The Medicine Show, Abba, Hot Chocolate and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

So kids like fun, theatrical music (or at least that’s what they remember, anyway). Hardly a revelation, is it? And in reality, nothing we play – however regularly – will change that (I have a hard enough time convincing my wife to like LCD Soundsystem as it is!).

What next for DJ Dad?

The bottom line is that despite our best efforts, kids could (and should) rebel through music. I did, but have since learnt to appreciate Dylan on my own. That Andrew Lloyd Webber cassette tape, however, is unlikely to see the light of day again. So what will I do as my role of DJ Dad approaches? Exactly the same as my dad did: ignore everything and play my music anyway. Why? The same reason we make silly faces and don’t really mind getting up at 5am: in the hope of sparking “joy” and that “genuine, entirely unmediated response.”