Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Are my kids unusual in listening to this music?

106 replies

AInightingale · 17/12/2023 09:45

Just wondering last night whether teenagers nowadays have their own pop music culture anymore. I was upstairs and my 12 year old was listening to Kate Bush - streaming the Red Shoes album which I remember having as a CD when I was about 22, he got into Kate via the re-release of Running Up That Hill last year - my 14 year old was downstairs listening to the Pogues and had been playing Eurhythmics songs earlier in the day. In a way it's great, and I remember being really into the Beatles and older David Bowie at their age, which predated me, but I'm just puzzled as to why they don't listen to contemporary stuff. Is it really so crap, or are they just slightly unusual?

OP posts:
Original poster
AInightingale · 17/12/2023 12:12

BrieAndChilli · 17/12/2023 12:00

I remember DD listening to something nm in the car on her headphones and DH asking her who she was listening to - she said oh you won’t have heard of them, turned out it was David Bowie😂

I tried playing the Hunky Dory album one day and they said it was 'rubbish'! Takes a few listens I suppose...Bowie's early albums were reissued when I was about 17 and I bought and loved them all.

OP posts:
Stresa22 · 17/12/2023 12:13

Older music - 70s, 80s - is just better quality. Being able to actually sing was extremely important!

Lilithlogic · 17/12/2023 12:14

One of mine liked listening to Chas and Dave and Brass Bands when he was 12. My youngest now has been listening to Jazz since he was 11.

FizzyStream · 17/12/2023 12:15

My 10 and 7 yo boys love the Beatles and know loads of their songs. They also know a lot of 80s songs thanks to DH. They like the odd contemporary song but generally prefer older stuff. I love it because I can sing along with them Grin

whyamiawakestill · 17/12/2023 12:19

My son's vinyls are a carbon copy of his dad's 54 year old Spotify tunes. It's all older music, they went to see blur lighter, he loves 70,80s,90s music.

AntiHop · 17/12/2023 12:21

When I was a kid in the early nineties I used to listen to the Beatles and Pink Floyd a lot.

ANightingale · 17/12/2023 12:22

@AInightingale As an aside, we have really similar usernames, don't we?😃

Spirallingdownwards · 17/12/2023 12:25

Many of the "older" tunes become popular when they are used in soundtracks to TV shows or films. Then when they stream that artist they are often suggested other similar older songs.

I came home to my son and his uni friends singing along to Franz Ferdinand Take me out in my kitchen one night at 1am.

idontlikealdi · 17/12/2023 12:58

My kids are singing Glen Maderios (sp?) at the moment - TikTok

TheCatfordCat · 17/12/2023 13:13

My daughter is 17 and a HUGE David Bowie fan. Not just his music but his art, his films and his clothes. She also listens to Fleetwood Mac and Florence & the Machine. But she also likes Wet Leg and Hozier. She's not very impressed with Taylor and doesn't much like pop music in general, prefering alternative and rock. She introduced me to a band called I Don't Know How But They Found Me (Razmatazz album) which is excellent.

i was the same, putting Queen and Abba records on the turntable and dancing in the front room!

Girlontherailreplacementbusservice · 17/12/2023 13:19

On the last 18 months I have asked for play lists from years 6 leavers and Scouts for events, I don't think a single song from the last 5 years was suggested by anyone for either list (maybe a bit of Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift) but both had really eclectic mixes of genre's and eras.

It really seems like anything goes.

Rooroobear · 17/12/2023 13:23

My son is 11, he loves Michael Jackson and oasis. Knows more of the songs than me

Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong · 17/12/2023 13:27

When DS was about 8 he became obsessed with rag time jazz. I didn't even know what it was. Inspired by Cuphead, the video game apparently.

TheTurn0fTheScrew · 17/12/2023 13:30

It's the beauty of streaming - they all seem to have quite eclectic tastes nowadays as you've everything instantly at your fingertips. Hear a song on a film, Shazam it, then add to a playlist in seconds.

Swishyfishy · 17/12/2023 13:34

All four of my kids listen to bands, singers and music from 1940s to right through to today 2023 stuff. They have superb access via Spotify and their random specialist music knowledge is top notch. Ska. Frank Sinatra. Jass. 1980s era. Indy. Rock.

KnittedCardi · 17/12/2023 13:40

All things 80's are currently very in vogue. Stranger Things is a key reason, but even before that clothes and music were already going back there.

Girlontherailreplacementbusservice · 17/12/2023 13:45

The chart show and ToTP were such a massive thing when I was a kid is there even any sort of equivalent today?.

SchnitzelvonKrummWithAVeryLowTum · 17/12/2023 13:48

My 2 year old has a real penchant for Nick Cave!

megletthesecond · 17/12/2023 13:49

Not really. Mine have the Beach Boys, Thin Lizzy and the Stones on their playlists. As well as current music.
These days kids can pick anything to listen to, they're no longer restricted by their parents cd collections.

In our house I'm the one who listens to the most modern music as I listen to radio 1 and add it to my running tracks. My dcs don't listen to the radio much.

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 17/12/2023 13:50

Meh, good music is good music...

spiderlight · 17/12/2023 13:50

My 16-year-old listens to 90s rap music, the Beatles and the Who. He doesn't listen to any 'current' stuff at all, really.

Kate Bush is big again because of Stranger Things - our 14-year-old niece is obsessed with her.

exexpat · 17/12/2023 13:52

Tiktok seems to be responsible for reviving some quite obscure oldies and putting them on teenage Spotify playlists. Though I presume the Tiktok creators must get them from somewhere first.

I used to go through my parents' old records as a teenager in the 80s, but otherwise new music came from the radio, and rushing to try and tape things you liked if you couldn't afford to go out and buy new singles every week.

All2Well · 17/12/2023 13:54

I'm a university lecturer - my students love Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Adam Ant, Bowie, Annie Lennox etc...a lot of 70s/80s stuff is cool to them and part of a whole asthetic that they're into...they have mullets, wedge cuts, wear sweater vests and intentionally ugly knitwear.

Then there are some who adore JLS, Steps and cheesy 00s music. They tend to wear Crocs and Juicy Couture and smell perpetually of Lush Snow Fairy.

They prefer the old to the new it seems.

whiteroseredrose · 17/12/2023 13:59

I'm on holiday in Mexico at the moment and everywhere we go they are playing cover versions of 1980s music. It's like being on one of those old Top of the Pops albums!

HerMammy · 17/12/2023 14:05

Think OP was hoping for 'wow your kids are so quirky' replies and now realise they're not. Plenty kids look for different music, much easier with spotify