Rock N' Roll: The Devil's Music

This photo is of my daughter and one member of the musical duo 3OH!3. If you haven't heard of them, that probably means you're my age, or close by. I only heard them because one evening while my daughter had itunes playing, foul lyrics were hip-hopping out of the Mac. (I read that their music is a sort of satire of rap music, but sheesh, satire can be so heavily veiled sometimes).  This is how the scene went:

What!? Hannah, please turn this music off.

Huff. I like the beat -- that's what I listen to, not the words (or something very similar, I've heard it several times).

You hear the words subliminally. You're hearing the words whether you think so or not (is what I usually say).

So how did I end up asking this character from this band who described their music in a recent "Rolling Stone" article as 'Celine Dion on ice - not the skating ice, the meth ice' if he would pose for a picture with my daughter back stage at his show?

Well, it wasn't as hard as you think.  My good friend, Tina, (part of the Marianne and Tina mountain biking fame) brought Hannah and I as guests of her daughter to the Warped Tour. Tina's daughter works for Capitol Records and was at the music festival representing an artist signed by Capitol, a young woman who sings a song about kissing a girl and liking it. Tina's daughter got us backstage everywhere. We ate lunch with the bands, we went on Capitol Record's tour bus, we stood in line to use the restroom which doubled as the female artists showers. . . etc. But my daughter's best moments, she told me, were getting to be on stage with at least four or five of her favorite bands while they played to a teenage crowd. Days later it made me think how differently my daughter is growing up than I did -- in significantly more ways than just back stage passes to the Warped Tour -- and I wondered how differently this will influence her choices and her life than mine. Growing up in a different generation, raised by a parent with different beliefs than my parents had, and being shown a different outlook on life.

And even while I ponder, I need to go monitor what she is listening to. I can't believe what kids call music these days. Alas, I guess some things will never be different.(One of the musical influences of the members of 3OH!3 is the Beastie Boys. I hope these boys change their "party" image like the Beastie Boys eventually did, because in actuality they are two summe cum laude with a lot of humorous energy on stage. And they even seemed like nice young men back stage.  But their lyrics, ughh.)