Don’t / didn’t you hate it when someone calls / called you a kid? I know I did…and I was the oldest, so I was always edging my way into the adult conversation. But invariably I would say or do something that would make them roll their eyes, chuckle or complain that I was so young. In spite of this, I do, indeed, find myself saying (sometimes just in my head, but unfortunately out loud, too) “Oh, you kids!”

There is always, always an age gap when it comes to POP music, but it’s not on the end of the age that you’d think…

Today, the music of the 90s is considered “oldies”. What?? (I remember when my parents were shocked to hear the music of the 60s on the “oldies” station – “hey, we’re not old!” and they weren’t – but neither am I!!)

Earlier this year it was the Kanye fans who “joked” that he was such a great guy for helping out that Paul McCartney guy…

Today, it was when our ten year old sang along to “Twist and Shout” and said how much she loved this song from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Part of me is happy that she knows it at all – and likes it – funnier even that it is from a movie of the 1980s! (Gotta love John Hughes) but – “are you kidding me darling? This is the BEATLES!!” Granted – I was a not child of the 60s – even though I was actually born in that decade (by just a hair – which is just enough.)

Growing up I loved the Beatles, The Who, The Four Seasons, Beach Boys and Don McLean’s American Pie. I loved the Sugar Hill Gang and The Jackson 5. I still have 70s albums in my car and make my kids listen to Jim Croce and have them search for recordings (online) of George Thoroughgood when I am in that kind of mood. Alternative and Madonna in the 80s, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Bizarre Love Triangle and The Indigo Girls. 10,000 Maniacs (remember John O when I told you I saw them on the pier in New York? You told your mom I went to the city and saw a million billion weirdos?? Yea, your mom wasn’t quite sure what to think…)

I love music in general and know that my daughter may cringe when I sing along to the latest Taylor Swift, Cage the Elephant, Pharrell, Mumford and Sons, Passenger, or (oh, gawd Meghan Trainor)…even taking her to see Justin Beiber, Lorde and the DigiFest New York (You Tuber concert with 10,000 13-16 year olds) at CitiField doesn’t get her to think it’s cool.

So, whether it is the Beatles you confuse with Matthew Broderick on a float in Chicago, or a remake of Katrina and the Waves that you perform in your 1980s retro lip sync – actually sung by the Disney duo Aly and AJ – I am allowed to say, out loud, Oh, you kids! Someday, you will understand. When you do… we can sing along, together, and teach your kids whatever you want.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl