Sing Along

I have a love/hate relationship with music. I have been surrounded by music of all kinds all my life. Both of my parents are very musical. My mother is a great pianist. She also sang with a group of her friends. My father can play most every instrument he picks up, he also sings quite well. They both have written beautiful songs.
My older brother was always interested in music. He was all the time listening to the "new" groups. He is also a huge concert lover. If you look at his Facebook it is filled with pictures of concerts, snowboarding, sporting events or his dog.
My younger brother I know likes to blare music from his car. But I don't know about his current music relationship.
The three of us were forced into Piano lessons in elementary school. I hated them back then. I hated the practice. I hated that I could not get it. My mom made it look so easy. You just sit down and put your fingers on the keys and beautiful notes come out of it. Not with me. I was never fluent with piano. I can read music and can sit down at my piano and pick out song (very slowly).
Finally my mother gave in and let me change my instrument and I began to learn the flute. That came more easily. (hehe get it...i can carry it easily! hehe) Because of the change in instrument I got to join the GCA school band and loved every minute of it. My three best friends and I all were in it. Band trips were the best. Some of the best memories of that time in life are on a band trip with my friends and enjoying life. (what happens in the bus, stays on the bus).
In college I was very intimidated by the SOUTHERN musical groups. I was mediocre and did not want to be an embarrassment. I did not join anything and kinda gave up on my musical skills.
Backtrack to elementary school. Mom and dad were kinda in charge of what we would listen to. Most all of it was christian music or Disney theme songs. As I got older and my older brother went away to school he would bring back tapes (yes tapes, this was before cds). Alanis Morissette was my favorite. She was the ultra angry girl and then No Doubt was next. I had a tape player with two slots for tapes so those got worn out almost at the same time. I remember sitting in my pink room (that I HATED) angry at someone or something and putting on headphones, blasting my tapes.
In high-school I was really into the alternative music and leading into the Punk stuff. BSB, N'Sync, Savage Garden, Sum 47, Offspring, Third Eye Blind, Chumbawamba, Greenday, Cake and my list can go on and on. Late 90's music was the best ever. I had a Cadillac DeVille and a great sound system. Back when gas was cheap and we could go cruising to nowhere just to listen to the radio or the mixed tapes in the tape system. (by the way, mix tapes were the greatest, cause if you did not like the song just tape a new one over it.)
When I started Southern I was loving the Top 40 on the radio. Southern had a network and you could get any song, album or even movies or tv show to put on  you computer (along with the viruses that traveled with it). Loved that network.
I started getting into techno later on in college and when I moved up to MA, I started hearing reggae, and reggaeton. I started to listen to spanish artists. I could not understand what they said but I liked the beat.
Then music on the radio changed. To me now days it sounds all the same. Partying, getting black out drunk, Sleeping with everyone, drugs, and the list goes on.
Now as a parent I am in charge of what I let my son listen to. He loves the christian kid songs, and the sing along cd's he has. He also likes some of my music I play with him around. He is a Backstreet boy fan. (my husband hates this) Gavin knows a few of their songs. He dances around to my 90's music I have and thinks Numa Numa is awesome.
I can't listen to the radio anymore. I can't do it. I keep my radio set for NPR. (yes I am an old person.) I like talk radio. Or I play my music in the car. Even then I am sick of the same stuff.
So thanks to Pandora I am expanding my musical world. I made a station with Irish music. I FREAKING love Celtic Thunder. They are on PBS all the time and I have never paid attention to it and skipped over it to the PBSCreate channel. Now I am kicking myself. I love this style. Celtic/Irish music is my new hook. If you need a new song to listen to I highly recommend Black is the Color by Celtic Thunder.
I bet in a few months I will be looking for a new style. I just know that with the way pop culture is headed I am going to stay away from the radio. I want songs with soul and depth and lyrics worth listening to.