# Did you gain significant Pop Culture exposure from your Babysitters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-gain-significant-pop-culture-exposure-from-your-babysitters/728067 "2015-08-17T13:21:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-gain-significant-pop-culture-exposure-from-your-babysitters/728067/1 "2015-08-17T13:21:00Z")
[In the Thread about the Meat Loaf album _Bat Out of Hell_](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=765039), **adaher** says: > [@Can someone over 50 explain to me the Meatloaf "Bat Out of Hell" phenomenon?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-over-50-explain-to-me-the-meatloaf-bat-out-of-hell-phenomenon/727816/15): > > BTW, I’m 41 and my first experience with Meat Loaf was the 2nd album. Note: The “2nd album” **adaher** is referring to is the second _Bat Out of Hell_ album, the one from 1993, not the second overall Meat Loaf album. Now, I am just a little bit younger than **adaher** but by the time _Bat Out of Hell II_ came out in '93 I had already known _Bat Out of Hell_ for years. This was because it was a favorite of my babysitters when I was very young. I almost knew the entire album by memory without even owning a copy of my own, then I bought my own copy on cassette probably around 8th or 9th grade. My babysitters were great about getting me into the pop culture they loved (particularly music). I’ve come to realize over the years, though, that I was particularly lucky in this respect. Maybe babysitter pop culture sharing isn’t rare, but it seems it certainly isn’t to be taken for granted. Lots of people get turned onto music/whatever from a cool older sibling but (typically) this gives you a 3 to 5 year extension at best. Exposure from a babysitter can give a 10 to 12 year extension. Yes, some people have decade+ older siblings but it’s not typical. I was born in 1975 but I was already familiar with Elvis Costello’s full catalog (up to that point) by the time I was starting middle school. This, thanks to a cool babysitter. He’s still one of my all time favorites. The same babysitter got me into Tom Petty. Tom Petty has actually been my younger brother’s favorite artist ever since my younger brother was about 10 years old. Thanks, babysitter! My babysitters loved Jackson Browne, Pat Benatar, Blondie, The Talking Heads. When I first started listening to “Weird Al” Yankovic, my babysitters made sure I knew all the original songs that “Weird Al” was parodying. The Knack became one of my favorite bands when I was in middle school- which was about the halfway point in the 10 year gap between their 3rd and 4th albums. When Run-DMC released their version of “Walk This Way”, a babysitter brought over her Aerosmith albums. I had two babysitters who didn’t like each other. The cooler one of the two described the other using song lyrics “Everybody loves you so much girl, I don’t know how you stand the strain” and “I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes, You’d know what a drag it is to see you.” Before I was old enough to stay up for _Saturday Night Live_ I already felt like I knew the show just from listening to my babysitters describe the sketches and recite the dialog. I could perform full Eddie Murphy Buckwheat and Gumby sketches without ever having seen Murphy’s performance. In the mid-80s our local video store started carrying _SNL_ “Best of” compilation tapes for the original cast. Our babysitters made sure we watched the Best of John Belushi, Steve Martin, Gilda Radner. Also thanks to the local video store, babysitters showed me _Young Frankenstein_, _The Blues Brothers_, _Meatballs_, and _Stripes_. When I was 11 years old, thanks to a babysitter, I saw Monty Python’s _The Holy Grail_ for the first time …and it pretty much changed my life. Soon enough, I figured out that PBS was playing episodes of _Flying Circus_ and my favorite babysitter bought me Monthy Python’s _The Final Rip Off_ compilation double album for a birthday or Christmas maybe. So, anyone else lucky enough to have babysitters who were good stewards for pop culture? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-gain-significant-pop-culture-exposure-from-your-babysitters/728067/2 "2015-08-17T16:22:15Z")
Not the babysitters (we didn’t have many) but the older kids next door. The oldest girl was a teen in the 80s and I was just a little kid who didn’t even have MTV. So I would go next door and she’d be watching MTV and I specifically remember being awed by it. I also remember that we (as in, my mom!) borrowed her \*Thriller \*album so we could all listen to it at home. The older boy next door was really in to prog rock and “heavy” bands like Pink Floyd so he turned my brother on to that. My parents actually introduced us to \*SNL \*and _Monty Python_ and weird old movies and TV shows. I think they really dug the 70s and were happy to share it with us. In the 80s. The 80s seemed very kid-centric to me. I don’t feel like I missed out on much pop culture by being a cable-less kid in the 80s. The adults sure weren’t doing anything fun. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-gain-significant-pop-culture-exposure-from-your-babysitters/728067/3 "2015-08-17T16:24:32Z")
Not really. I had a shitty one once who brought over a tape of _Maximum Overdrive_ which traumatized me for life. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-gain-significant-pop-culture-exposure-from-your-babysitters/728067/4 "2015-08-17T17:37:21Z")
I did. Two summers in a row with teenage girls watching MTV all day.