Aahhhh! My autistic son's new special interest is late seventies disco music.....

[WaggyTailsWetNoses]

Between the hours of 6-8 and 4-8 my house sounds like a roller disco in about 1982. I can practically smell the Brut and Babycham.

He's mercifully keeping the interest to his own room, so it's only a faint sound (so more like the sound of nipping round the back for a snog and a ciggie than hurtling round the floor in a rara skirt). But I'm a light sleeper and was this morning awoken at 6.02 by Ra Ra Rasputin.

Oh, how I yearn for the silent days when he was busy creating a complex taxonomy of Daleks.

Please send support, sympathy and ear plugs!

Thanks, I'll take a look and see what he thinks. He has liked some songs in the past, he likes the songs Night Begins to Shine and Rise Up by BER in Teen Titans Go. He also seems to enjoy a bit of Metallica now and again!

Sounds amazing to me, my type of music😀

😂😂😂

We've also been through the Doctor Who phase, which I quite liked, although David Tennant is more my cup of tea than Tom Baker - DD was mainly a Lalla Ward fan, and still reads Romana fan fiction now, although her interest has now moved on to musical theatre (via serial killers!!).

Try also Tina Guo "Game on"

She's a classical cellist, also known for crossover into metal and blues, and this album is a compilation of video game themes (with Budapest Symphony Orchestra).

I've just spotted an intriguing one in her discography "Cello Metal" but I'm not sure if it would be a kindness to encourage obsessively minded DC towards that!

my 13 year old has started going to a "just dance" group at school on a Friday lunchtime. What was the music like you were dancing to? - well they played "Ra ra Rasputin". Oh ok then.

DS11 is obsessed with pom poms. Yes, pom poms, the things you make with yarn/wool. He learned how to make them FOUR years ago and it has been nonstop with them since. Dh calls the bits left all over the house after making them 'pom guts'. There are over 100 different types of poms now, each with their own habitat, look, diet, etc. He has created a homemade pom encyclopaedia and pom 'top trumps' cards. It's always an advantage when two interests collide. DS is also super into comics so now Pom Comics exist. DS writes endless pom comics. Topics include the PPP (pom pom police), 'oh no Corono' (as in covid) and other. For world book day he wrote 'All hail the pom pom king', laminated it and then dressed up as a pom pom king and went to school. When will it end???

Lucky you.
Send him round to mine.

Your son sounds brilliant! DD used to love making pompoms too (although never created a whole pompom world, missed a trick there).

The trouble with pompoms are that they are essentially without function. We have repurposed several as cat toys and Christmas tree decorations, but they are pretty disappointing as both. If you have discovered any more uses for the pompom, the three hundred and fifteen pompoms DD is harbouring in the drawer under her bed would be most grateful to have a mission in life.

Ra ra Rasputin featured in a recent-ish episode of Dr Who.

As I'm sure you already knew.

Imagine this if there's ever a need for dressing up as a human pom:

-paper macheing a blown up yoga ball, letting it dry
-popping the ball and cutting a 7y.o. body-sized hole in the top and bottom
-glue gunning hundreds of poms to it
-clipping suspenders to it
-sliding it over child's head and letting them walk about town in it

Senior school starts next year. Thank all of the gods that world book day ceases to exist there.

Yes. My enthusiasm for crafting finally has a purpose.
I give you

makeanddocrew.com/how-to-make-pom-pom-rug/

The Pom Pom rug, I actually wanted to make one but didn't have enough Pom poms.

I feel for you OP - but be grateful its not rap and techno!

@icefishing you just need to up your pom obsession. It can be done. Be forewarned, poms have guts and those guts have it out for the hoover. Poms have one purpose and that is to attract dust. How will you hoover that rug?

Sounds awesome. Introduce him to polyphony. 🤣

My 17 year old autistic son loves jazz, a music genre that really drives me mad

Oh this is simply magnificent.

I just love hearing about the obsessions. They are so varied and so interesting (although I know more about the Titanic than I ever want to hear again).

My DS was into confetti for a couple of years. That nearly brought me to my knees weeping though as everything was ripped up (books, wallpaper, any paper he could get his hands on) and then tossed around as 'confetti'.

Ds gave up on "old" music when I introduced him to the Chicken song, followed by Startrekking. That was following a conversation where he didn't believe me that one of the lines was "boldly going forward... we can't find reverse".
He had his head in his hands saying "tell me you're joking. People didn't really listen to this..."

I do regularly point out that our music was the best as they still play 80s music at their discos. He isn't convinced.

DH would definitely be up for a son-swap. He loves jazz, and DS - despite being very musical and having otherwise eclectic tastes - hates it. He puts his hands over his ears and shouts to drown it out.

This is the best thread I have ever read on MN. The pom pom king particularly! We have a 90s grunge and metal phase happening in our house currently - but I'm joining in so it's all good ☺

Love Rara, can't go wrong with that one

I was into jazz at some point. My dad hated it. He once allowed me to choose what we listen to in the car. I chose various things as well as jazz.

We now listen to the radio because we don't like each others taste in music

Oh I would love this!!

My son just wants the mob song from beauty and the beast on repeat 😅

This really is the thread that keeps on giving.

Ds has had many special interests in his seven years on the planet. Currently it’s a PC game called Feed and Grow Fish… I know so much more about mosasaurs than I really care for!
It does beat the years of rock collecting though. They were his friends and each had their own name that started with Mr… (apparently there were no females in this rock universe!). Mr bashy and Mr smashy were quite close I recall.

Music wise there was a period of about a year where the only songs Alexa was allowed to play were Blue Oyster Cults Godzilla and that really catchy Walk the Dinosaur song. At least feeding fishes is quiet!

OMG you just reminded me of the Kiwi phase. It lasted for years, started with the Smithsonian's National Zoo Kiwi webcam and just expanded. Ended up with the character Kool Kiwi the star of Kool Kiwi Komics, then there were posters, fashion items and even a show filmed on phones using LPS figures (yes they have a kiwi) which had a theme tune 'Ki Da Dee Da'. Wish i'd managed to save some of the comics, they were ace but they were purged when he 'grew up' and got into music. I do have one of the clothes catalogues though. How cute are these.