In light of recent events, I started thinking about the lack of exposure to music in my children’s lives. Now, I love music and am always playing something around the house or in the car. But, I would like my children to grow up liking, or at least appreciating a broad range of musical genres from older generations.

For instance, my daughter was a bit bewildered about all the hype regarding Michael Jackson’s death. She understood that he was famous and famous people are on television a lot. But, why did everyone love him so much? All she really knew about him was that “he was that guy who turned into a monster with the yellow eyes.” I realized that I failed to share all my oldies but goodies from him going back to the Jackson 5 days.

The good thing about artists is that their work does live on. I still have time to share his talents with her and hopefully she will see more than just the monster with the yellow eyes (or black man whose skin turned white). I’m also going to take the opportunity to share Miles Davis and Nina Simone, as well as some of my parents’ favorite konpa bands.

Do you think these sort of activities are beneficial? If so, how are you keeping diversity and long established music or cultural arts in your child(ren)’s lives?

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