Parents, what is it that your children listen to that you can get into?
I’m not a parent, but for the record I couldn’t get into children’s music when I was a child. At school, whenever I’d hear some juvenile tunes, I’d have a nebulous longing to listen to “real” music, but didn’t have the wherewithal to seek it out.
I like the majority of the music TheKid listens to. She way into alt punk and local progressive rap. I never would have heard Brother Ali, Atmosphere, Pierce the Veil, The Almost and a metric ton of other bands if not for her. Hell, I even like some of the screamo bands.
Plus, she finds it very amusing when I sing along.
I’ve been listening to a few tunes outside of my usual genres when around the Fella’s boys. They’ve cycled through hip hop, Glee type stuff, death metal and techno among them.
On the other hand, the oldest is now fond of classic country and old rock, the middle boy now likes bluegrass ( especially since beginning acoustic guitar lessons) and I have an opera and symphony date in him or the youngest. Goes both ways. 
My kid is into some real nerd shit. I can hang with some of it. She likes some kind of Sonic the hedgehog mix…I kind of dig it. Probably the nostalgia. She likes a lot of video game related stuff, and vocoloid, I think she calls it. Much of it has the same boom bap beat of some older school hip hop, and much of it has a lot of cuttin’ and scratching and sampling of hip hop songs. So I like it well enough. I can jam to it when she plays it, but I don’t play it on my own.
We did just finish jamming toBirthday Cake on skype though, and that is a song she likes that I would listen to on my own. But that one doesn’t count, because her dad and I liked that one before she discovered it.
She recently expressed interest in a song by Azealia Banks, which is a hip hop artist. After some research, I learned that Azealia is sometimes played in the background on one of the games she’s into or something. I was actually glad to see her liking hip hop that I liked, but I realize it was just tangential…pure hip hop isn’t her thing.
When rock music changed in the seventies I switched to country and western for a while.
In the eighties my kids introduced me to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Guns ‘n’ Roses. It was a shock to discover what I had missed. And later I learned to enjoy REM, Smashing Pumpkins and Kurt Cobain.
I think they encouraged me to keep up with the new stuff and there’s usually something I like.
I think it works both ways. When our son was eight he found our Buddy Holly records and just about wore them out.
Sure, I introduced my son to hundreds of bands and now, in his twenties, he introduces me to bands. Alt rock, punk, and americana are the most common themes. My tastes are broader as I get older, but I never understood why they should get blander. He listens to more electronica than I do, but we still have very simpatico tastes.
Same here. My tastes are much mellower than my kids’, and I’m glad they share with dad.
My skater kid’s into a genre that I’ve dubbed “We were half-wasted when we recorded this; we’re counting on you being half-wasted when you listen to it”.
In the past couple years, The Kiddo has accompanied us to see Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, and Black Sabbath.
I like “his” music just fine.
I don’t have kids but I listen to a lot of Pop music. Some is terrible but some is good.
I don’t have children but I’m obsessed with the song Royals by Lorde. I also love Fun.
The poppy/EDM’y stuff on the radio/stream? Not a lot. But Lorde, Jake Bugg, Adele and stuff like that? Totally. I introduced them to Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, and a bunch of other stuff. And we listen to a lot of my music that they like - Beatles, Stones, Zep, White Stripes, Thelonious Monk, Grant Green and other jazz…
I’m pushing 60, and I told my kids about the song Royals. And followed it up with the Puddles Pity Party version (my favorite of about 100 covers of that song already).
And fun. was the last album I bought on iTunes, before my kids had heard of them.
I like what my daughter likes, mostly because she’s not into contemporary music, but loves things like showtunes and the Beatles.
Yeah I listen to everything contemporary and always have.
For anyone who likes Lorde, and for anyone like me who was indifferent, listen to this:
Lorde ‘Everybody Wants To Rule the World’. Hard to believe she’s a child.
Can’t speak for my children (don’t have any) but in my case, most of the music I liked listening to in my childhood was the music of my parents’ generation. I spent a lot of time listening to the local pop stations (which was pretty much all techno/rap crap) on the radio, and I thought all music sucked until my uncle and father introduced me to Hendrix and Zepplin. And then I started working with my dad, who blasted the classic rock channel on the job site, and I realized that most of the good stuff was the music of my parent’s generation. It wasn’t until I started listening to metal that I could say that my parents didn’t like all the music I listened to (well, okay, maybe AC/DC got on their nerves after the umpteenth-bazillion listen of Thunderstruck).
I’m 56, he’s 18. We listen to the same stuff.
I really don’t know much of what my son listens to - this generation’s use of earbuds and headphones has cut down on the “turn that noise down!” arguments, but also disconnected (some of) us from what they’re listening to.
I know a couple of years ago, he was into dubstep, but a couple of years is like archaeological time in adolescence. I can enjoy dubstep in moderation, but it’s a little too close to the techno music I heard way too much of in my own early 20’s when I was working at a dance club. More than about 10 minutes and I’m bored.
My daughter’s into whatever’s on. She’s partial to showtunes, which is fine by me.
My daughter turned me onto Ed Sheeran… and I turned her on to Jefferson Airplane… we went to the Led Zeppelin concert film together… and in turn I went to the One Direction movie… Actually enjoyed it… kids are really likeable right now.
My son is all hip hop… i can enjoy the Kendrick Lamar… but Wocka Flocka and Two Chainz . not so much… but man his friends an him are fickle as hell… they dump rappers faster than i did the one hit wonder eighties bands. THey turn on them quickly… just found out that Soldier Boy and Wocka are now a joke…
I didn’t raise my daughter; she was adopted at birth by a very conservative small-town family. She still grew up to love the same kind of music I loved. She listened to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix, and her childhood idol was Alice Cooper, all artists who had never penetrated into her adoptive parents’ world.
After we met, she introduced me to Marilyn Manson, Gwar, and Rob Zombie, so yes, we’re still pretty simpatico in our musical tastes.