Day 345
We listen to The Disney Channel on our car radio. Which SOUNDS like it should be playing It’s A Small World and The Lion King Theme Song.
But, it doesn’t.
Instead it plays the Disney ingenue of the moment singing her “hit song” that is most typically the theme music to her sitcom on the Disney television channel (many cross marketing opportunities here). There are also several obligatory boy bands and teen heartthrobs with their own catchy ditties thrown in for good measure.
My kids can sing many of the tunes by heart.
I suppose there is some point when every kid eventually starts singing pop songs into a hairbrush. I just hadn’t expected it to come this early.
The other day I was listening to them belting out these lyrics:.
Let’s go crazy, crazy, crazy till we see the sun I know we only met but let’s pretend it’s love And never, never, never stop for anyone Tonight let’s get drunk And live while we’re youngSo, I said, “What did you say?” I mean given that the Disney channel launched the careers of famous drunks like Lindsey Lohan, Brittany Spears and Miley Cyrus it didn’t seem like that far of a stretch.
But, I had misheard. Apparently, when the kids sung it back slowly the words were.
Tonight let’s get some And live while we’re youngOh, yeah that’s much better for my first and fourth grader to be singing. But whatever, at least for now, I’m pretty sure they don’t quite understand the lyrics.
This band that is advocating “getting some while they’re young” is called One Direction and consists of five young men with skinny jeans and shaggy hair. It is the classic teen heartthrob look that has been handed down through the ages. It is always paired with weird pouty looks and creepy synchronized choreography.
At some point, my kids figured out that One Direction was coming in concert this summer and pleaded to go.
Now, I can remember really wanting to go to a Rod Stewart concert (did I mention I was a weird kid?) and my mom telling me no. Clearly I was disappointed enough to still remember it, so I figured I would at least check it out.
Yes, apparently the One Direction band sold out like they were the Rolling Stones in about 30 minutes when they went on sale in December. I told my kids the bad news.
Then, because she didn’t believe me, my oldest did a quick internet search and was very pleased to show me that indeed, I was wrong and we could actually purchase USED tickets which were OK with her and perfectly acceptable under The Simple Year rules.
Which, I guess is technically accurate.
But given that USED tickets started at $195 each, they still aren’t going.
Ok…. I resent the ‘Rod’ comment!!! I DID see him in concert and it was great! ‘DO YA THINK IM SEXY’?!
My younger one has been begging to see Taylor Swift. I tried to get tickets, until I figured out it would cost us minimally $600 to go. When on earth did concerts get so expensive? I remember going to see bands like Aerosmith and Rush back in the day for about $30 per ticket. Oh, and the good news, I guess, is that my teenaged daughter no longer thinks One direction is cool. She was a huge fan until all of a sudden, she just wasn’t any more. We all listened to Do Ya Think I’m Sexy and survived. I remember being in elementary school some time when that was my favorite song!
This probably won’t make you feel better but I realized in the car yesterday that apparently my 5 year old son has heard the UNedited version of Maclemore’s thrift shop . . . boo – parenting fail on my part I guess. He was singing the unedited version along with the radio’s edits . . .
Is that your grandma’s coat? That’s funny, I didn’t know that that was played on the radio (probably since they don’t play it on radio Disney–yet). I have heard the song because people have actually sent me the link to the YouTube video since I am such a thrift store junkie. It happens, we had a similar incident with a Lady Ga Ga song a few years back except my child sang it to her preschool class, something about taking a ride on your disco stick. In any case, it will be a great story to tell when he is a famous rapper 🙂
And yet they edit out the word “whiskey” in the extended version of Anna Kendrick’s Cups song from the movie Pitch Perfect. Makes no sense. And, yes, we have that same issue, too. My daughter is 8 going on 16. It’s ridiculous.
Really, that is strange. Who knows why they do what they do…
I feel your pain. My nine-year-old son is constantly singing “Gangnam Style” with the “sexy lady!” lyrics, and has taught it to my five-year-old daughter. He did not hear it on our radio–the kids at school were singing it…sigh…there’s just no escaping it!
I think they know when lyrics make there parents uncomfortable, it’s a sixth sense kids have. It could be worse, there was a six-year-old on my daughters soccer team last Fall that would stand on the field and pull up his shirt, wiggle a bit and sing “I’m sexy and I know it.”
It is awful, I hate the Kidz Bop, there is no reason why kids should be singing Rihanna, Kesha and other songs that are all about getting wasted, sex and drugs. Man I feel old saying that and even older writing it out, but its true. The other day I had Pandora on a childrens station and Kidz Bop came on with the Kesha song Tik Tok, now the majority of those lyrics are not G rated. I don’t understand. What happened to some good old fashioned kids music! We listen to a lot of Caspar Babypants, Laurie Berkner and Elizabeth Mitchell in my house!
Caspar Babypants? Isn’t that the front man for The Presidents of the USA?
I just heard a song from my teen years that I used to belt out at the time. I knew the words but never really put together their meaning. If you’re interested, the song was Too Close (You’re Making it Hard For Me) by NEXT.
“Baby when we’re grinding, I get so excited, Ooh how I like it, I try but I can’t fight it, Oh you’re dancing real close, now swing it real slow, you’re making it hard for meeeee..”
Um, yeah I was like 14 and had no idea what I was saying….flash to last week (I’m now 28). I was in the car belting out the words, trying to impress my husband that I knew all of them then about halfway through I choked up for a second and thought aloud “Oh my god we used to sing this around our parents!!”
They Call Me Gypsy Queen
I thought my Jelly Bean was pretty sheltered, but when we were in Grand Haven last summer, she started singing along with the musical fountain, “Hey, I just met you–and this is crazy–but here’s my number, so call me maybe.” Yes, my barely-verbal 5-year old. Oy veh.
Used tickets! That made snort my tea. Thanks for the laugh. My favorite singer as a toddler was Madonna. I can just imagine the things I blurted out.