Music and Family

 Music and Family

When we first started talking about this assignment in class I am not going to lie, I was not too happy about having to do it. I just think that having to interview someone in your family is awkward. In the beginning it was hard for me to choose who to interview because I was honestly just too embarrassed. I eventually ended up just sucking it up and decided that I would interview my mom! Just for some reference my mom was born in 1975 and was not born in South Carolina. She was actually born in Wisconsin, so a little over 1,000 miles from here. In high school she was a cheerleader so she didn’t really do anything with music. I am sorry in advance for how much writing there is in this blog post. I would highly recommend getting a snack for yourself and maybe a nice warm beverage for you while you read.

Question 1: How would you define music?

I thought that the best way to start out the interview would be to ask my mom what her definition of music was. To my surprise she went with the route of music being a sense of expression. To be more specific she said that there was a t-shirt that accurately describes what she thinks the definition is. The shirt says, “Where words fail, Music speaks.” It was interesting to hear that my mom was more connected to music in an emotional sense.

Question 2: What’s your earliest memory of music?

This second question seemed to really stump my mom. I thought that the defining music was going to be the hardest question in this interview but I was sorely mistaken. In the end my mom talked about her earliest memory being listening to music while she was at home with her mom. She more specifically said that she thinks of older country like Johnny Cash. She also wanted me to include her earliest memory of music with me. That being a little 1 year old me in my carseat listening to a song and absolutely headbanging to it in the back seat. Needless to say this wasn't the first time that I have heard of that story. 😅

Question 3: What’s your favorite memory of music?

My mom seemed to have two different directions when answering this question and I thought that it would just be nice to include both of them. Any of her favorite memories she said were those when me or my sister were playing in a band. Our mom is our biggest cheering section when it comes to any performances and she gets really offended when you don;t tell her about a small performance such as a student recital. Getting more specific to her and her childhood however she said that she remembers quite frequently going over to her grandma Grace’s house and they would listen to all kinds of 50’s and 60’s country. My mom was really close with her grandma Grace so I would understand any memory of music with her would be her favorite. Some of the songs that she gave me as an example were “Big Bad John” by Jimmie Dean and “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA” by Donna Fargo.

Question 4: If you were able to erase one song from your memory what would it be and why?

She didn’t give me a specific answer like I was looking for but instead talked about songs that she said reminded her of people who are deceased. People like her dad and grandma Grace and even her best friend who just passed this previous year named Denis. After asking if there was one song in particular that she would want erased more than anything she said the song “Amazing Grace”. She said that any time she hears that song she becomes very sad and melancholic since it was played at both her fathers funeral and her favorite grandmother's funeral.

Question 5: Did you play an instrument/sing in choir while in school?

I am not going to lie, the answer to this question actually shocked me. Other than playing the recorder when it was required of her she didn’t play any sort of instrument in her childhood. She did however do choir from grade 6th-8th. I never knew that my mom did choir when she was in school, she even said that she was like the section leader for the Alto section which was even more interesting. She stopped after going into high school though because she opted to start taking more business classes instead of staying in the arts.

Question 6: Do you wish that you had played an instrument?

This was one of her more straight forward answers of the interview. Basically she said that if she could go back she wouldn’t change a thing and would not want to learn an instrument. Her reasoning behind this was the fact that her schedule wouldn’t allow her to since she basically had a job as soon as she turned 16 and because learning wasn’t really her thing while she was in high school/middle school. She knew that she would have the time needed to be able to practice so she didn’t continue with the arts.

Question 7: What is your favorite type of music?

She said that her favorite genre of music right now is old jazz, think Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. That was something that I got her into because ever since I was in 8th grade and took a jazz class I have loved listening to jazz in my free time. Eventually I listened to it so much that she ended up falling in love with it too and listening to it more. When I asked her what her favorite song was from our favorite jazz station she ended up saying “In the Mood” by Benny Goodman. When I asked the reason she said it was because it reminded her so much of her dad.

Question 8: Who is your favorite artist? Why?

You can’t have a proper music interview without asking the person who their favorite artists is so that was the next question that I asked. She actually surprised me when she said Dwight Yolkam but thinking back on it it makes sense. Older country was very important to her during her childhood so since he was popular when she was school age I could see how he would have a special space in her heart for him.

Question 9: What was your music taste while you were in school? Was it different from kids your age?

During the time that my mom was in high school was the time of the “big hair bands” meaning that the genre of music that was widely popular was rock and roll. Thus that was a lot of what she listened to. Not only was she listening to rock and roll but when she went home she was listening to country since that was what her parents would listen to while they were home. Her taste in genre was a little different since at the time a lot of people her age were listening to bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana. She said that she just couldn’t stand listening to music like that and that it was just unpleasurable to listen to but there is a big BUT to this. At the time these bands were so popular that she didn’t dare say anything because if you ever so much as hinted that you didn’t like these bands then you were bullied and shunned. At least that was what my mom said lol. 

 

Question 10: What genre of music do you like the least? Why?

This was a really easy question for her to answer that she practically screamed the answer as soon as I was done asking it. She absolutely does not like listening to ALTERNATIVE, which is really funny because I really love listening to all kinds of alt music. She didn’t really like the music of the 90’s and early 2000’s since the majority of it was alt. When I asked what she didn’t like about it she said EVERYTHING. The words, melodies, the voices of the performers, among other things were things that she didn’t like about the alt genre.

Question 11: Who introduced you to some of your favorite types of music?

Most of the people who introduced her to her favorite music was her parents and grandparents which was to be expected because whether you like it or not your music taste is in some way shaped by your parents and family. In a little bit of a deeper cut though she said that her oldest brother was  very important to her musical journey as well. She told me a story about how she was out on a camping trip with her brothers they were going to put music on and her oldest brother told them to put The Mamas and the Papas on. When my mom heard that she tried to fight against it and say that she didn’t like their music. When the first song came on it was “California Dreaming” and that’s when she realized that she did actually like them and their songs. So she says that even though her older brother doesn’t really influence her music taste, he still made her stop and think about what she really enjoyed listening to.

Question 12: How did you listen to your music?

She said that during her time of wanting to listen to music she mostly used a cassette player and a boombox. That and the radio were the two main ways that she listened to music. Along with the occasional 8-track.

Question 13: Do you like my taste in music?

She said that there are some things that she does like while there are other things that she really doesn’t. For example she really likes my jazz music that I listen to like I talked about briefly before but she isn’t the biggest fan of the band Sleep Token that I listen to, mainly since there are times where they start heavy metal screaming (example at timestamp 7:17).

Question 14: Did you have any restrictions in what you could listen to?

My mom didn’t have any sort of restrictions on what she could and couldn’t listen to as a kid. She said that the main reason that this was was because most of the time her parents were working so they didn’t really have time to dictate what she should listen to. She did say that even though she loved to listen to rock and roll that she was more considerate at home and most of the time listened to country music instead. 

Question 15: Do you think that music should be a core subject in school or at least more supported?

There was a whole long discussion about this and her viewpoints but I am going to try and sum it up as best as I can. Basically she doesn’t think that it should be a core subject but she thinks that it should be something that is a little more financially supported throughout schools. She said that if it were up to her that athletics and the arts should be funded in the same way and have the same opportunities.

Thank you all for reading this rather long blog entry and joining on this journey through my moms views on music. <3