Music and Family

For this blog, I decided to interview my mom on her views of music. She told me many interesting things not just about her taste in music but about her life too.

Hayley: What sort of music culture did you grow up in?

Mom: In the 1960s with acid rock and Casey Kasem top 40.

Hayley: How has your relationship with music changed over the course of your life?

Mom: It expanded to other genres as I grew up and went through my college year. Then I listened to my kids' music and now I am back to my roots. I love everything back when I was a child. It's gone full cycle.

Hayley: Are you listening to the top ten stuff again?

Mom: I'm back to listening to the sixties and the top forties from when I was a kid.

Hayley: Do you have a favorite artist from the sixties?

Mom: Jimi Hendrix.

Hayley: How did you listen to music when you were growing up? What technology did you have?

Mom: We had record players. I used to go and buy the top forty records and that's what I have started collecting again.

Hayley: Was the kind of music you listened to popular at the time? Or at least popular in your friend group.

Mom: Yes, so music and friends went hand and hand because what we used to do is we would talk about music a lot. We also played music when we hung out. Kids today I have noticed don't do it a lot now but we used to play music and records. We did a lot of that as friends.

Hayley: Is the sixties music nostalgic for you?

Mom: The nostalgia for the sixties is, well, I was young in the sixties. I would listen to music because my sister Colleen would have all her friends over when she was in high school. She would listen to Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, and Carole King, and all of the sixties music. I would sit on the stairs and watch her and her friends play pool and listen to music and kind of hang out and have fun. That music is nostalgic for me because I was only seven at the time. But I remember my sister listening to it with all her friends.

Hayley: Did you go to concerts?

Mom: The first concert I went to was Styx's Paradise Theater in the early 1980s. It was a rock concert. Everybody was stoned, throwing frisbees and balloons and beach balls.

Hayley: Are they like concerts now?

Mom: Concerts are the same now as they were then. But now I prefer more theater and local bands than I do large rock concerts.

Hayley: I think I know it, but do you have a least favorite genre?

Mom: Bluegrass! I hate twangy sounds so I can't stand anything with a banjo.

Hayley: Has any musician inspired you?

Mom: II like piano music and for singers, I really high ranged voices like Maria Carie and Celine Dion. But I really love sad songs. Sad Songs inspire me which is ironic cause I don't like sad things. What I love about it is that people think those thoughts but to me, I can't comprehend being able to formulate them to write it down. I can't fathom how artistic that is. You just can't be sad listening to music, even sad music. You just can't be unhappy listening to music, unless it's banjo music. I think music can change the world if people lived music.

Hayley: What was your first memory of music?

Mom: Listening to Lawrence Welk with my grandmother. Oh, he was so cheesy!

Hayley: Have you ever met any famous musicians?

Mom: well you and I met Mac Powell and Marc Martel. I hung out with Hootie and the Blowfish before they were popular down in Columbia. They bought me that little duck remember?

Hayley: Aww I remember it.

Mom: I also got to hang out with R.E.M. and the B-52's before they were popular in Athens Georgia. They were local college bands. Aside from them, I haven't really met anyone. Although, I saw Elton John at a restaurant one time in Atlanta. And I saw John Denver die.

Hayley: I'm sorry, what?

Mom: John Denver? He was in a plane flying over Monterey, California. I was running that night and I saw the plane go down. Only after I watched the news did I know that it was John Denver's plane.

Hayley: Ok then. Did you ever want to be a musician growing up or play an instrument?

Mom: I wanted to learn to play the piano but that didn't happen until my later years. My fantasy growing up was to be a solid gold dancer.

Hayley: You wanted to be a dancer? How come you don't play just dance with me?

Mom: Get back to the questions!

Hayley: Do you like popular music today?

Mom: I love popular music today. I don't like gangster rap where they talk about murder and drugs and all that crap but the rest of the pop music is so funny and ironic. They make fun of themselves. There's no good classic rock bands. They don't have rock bands like they used to back in my day but I like pop music today. I like the youth of it.

Hayley: When you've traveled did you hear any interesting music along the way?

Mom: When I went to Europe I heard all sorts of different music. But one of my favorite things about traveling was years ago on airplanes they had radio stations. But they weren't your typical car radio. These stations were focused and it'd be like they showcase an artist every week. And I used to travel a lot so every week I'd listen to songs from one particular artist that the planes showcased. At the end of the week, I'd go out and get their album and I exposed myself to artists like Anita Baker, Van Morrison, and so many different artists because I listened to them on the airplane. They don't do that now, unfortunately.

Hayley: Did you have a piece of favorite cultural music when you went to Europe? Like, did you prefer Italian music?

Mom: Italian music was too dramatic for my taste. Pop music is the same all around but cultural music I'd have to say Switzerland because it was very hearted in strings. I love string instruments even though I don't like the banjo.

Hayley: Is there a special piece of music in your life?

Mom: Hark the Harald angel Sing. I wanted to learn the piano just so I could play that song.

Hayley: Last question. If you had to explain your life in one song what would it be?

Mom: Good question. It'd have to be either I Get Up by the Teskey Brothers, Invincible by Kelly Clarkson, or I Am by Nichole Nordeman.