D-Man and AJ, if you look back and read this someday....
DO NOT follow your mother's teenage example on this one!
I'd like to think we all went through rebellious stages as kids growing up. Right? Please tell me you did.
I remember my mom buying me my first "secular" album. It was *Drive* by the Cars. I love that album to this day. But around my late teens, the rules of the house got a bit tighter. My mom became convicted of the music we were listening to (notice I said my mom and not me) so she decided that secular music would no longer be allowed in our home. So as a cocky, know it all, you-ain't-telling-me-what-to-listen-to teen, I had my ways around it. Remember "backmasking"...listening to the music backwards and hearing the hidden message? I'm not sure who ever thought to do that in the first place, but it definitely became a soapbox to stand on for my mother!
There is a vivid memory in my mind of the first time I drove out of our driveway in my mom's Black Chevy Nova with the I ♥ Jesus bumper sticker. It was my first time alone in the car with my new license and an errand to the store about 2 miles away. Once the house was out of sight I turned the radio to KRSB 103.1 and made that Nova purr with the speakers blasting.
My sneaky ways of listening to secular music continued on my drives. Funny how my one and only secular album was titled that...*Drive*! The Christian High School I attended was 30 miles away. That meant 60 miles of Van Halen, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, Journey, and add in Petra & Stryper to ease my guilty conscience.
I'm sure there were times that my parents got into the car and turned the key, only to find the music blaring and certainly not on the Christian channel. But there were probably other battles to fight with me on at the time.
I have a feeling very soon my boys will be listening to music I don't particularly like or approve of. I hope to respond with grace and love. But I do know now as I look back as an adult and REALLY listen to those words I sang with all my heart....oh goodness. No wonder my mom didn't want me to listen to them. So even though I thought my parents didn't have a clue back then, I do have to admit they were right. After all, when trying to compile my list for this week there were a WHOLE lot of songs I couldn't add because of the words:
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
Here's to being young and stupid and my parents who were patient and let me figure that out!
12 comments:
I remember hearing about the whole play the records backward thing. I believe the song our youth leader used as an example was Another On Bites the Dust...I don't remember what they said it said backward. I was always scared to hear it after that. Now when I hear it on the "oldies" station I can't help but giggle.
Still singing you give love a bad name!
I remember HIDING albums from my mom -- and then her finding them and reading the lyrics! Eeek!! Which, granted, I should NOT have been listening to those songs, but to go in my room and see my mom reading the lyrics (which she did not snoop -- I was the idiot who left them out for her to easily find!) shocked me to the core. And then I had to listen to that wonderful lecture about the music I should listen to...lol!!!
Ah, Guns-N-Roses. Their music was forbidden in our home. So I, of course, copied a friends tape and put it in a "Tony Orlando & Dawn" tape cover. Just recently "Welcome to the Jungle" came on the radio. The kids were in the car, so I figured I would share this fantastic song with them...ah, WHAT?! Were those the words when I was younger? Yeah, the station was quickly changed! :)
Oh, I feel a blog of my own coming on. I listed to (in a deep sexy voice) ROCK 100-THE KATT. I even had a t-shirt from there. Now about 6 or 7 years ago, the boys & I were at Whitewater and they were playing the classic rock station. As I sat there singing away, I was SHOCKED at what I was saying. Good thing little ears were off playing and didn't know their momma knew such song lyrics! Ewwww!
I'm up now. Sorry ;)
I have to say there were no limits on our music, but they would yell things like "Turn that crap off!"
That is what head phones were for.
My sister introduced me to rock, and more importantly Bon Jovi. I was all Tiffany and Debbie Boone and Michael Jackson.
I did love the girl rockers!
Blonde, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper.
ANd YES, it is crazy to me that we would shout these lyrics and not be any wiser as to what we were really saying!
Rob and I have both said "GOd, please help us if our kids get into the hip hop rap stuff!"
I don't mind Will Smith, but that is my LIMIT.
We were at the library on Friday and this sweet faced boy maybe 10 came up to the desk and says "Do you have any rap?"
They lady asked him to clarify Rap.
And he rolled his eyes at her and said "music. Cds."
It broke my heart. Where were his parents???
My parents were the same way about music and it made me want to listen to Bon Jovi and Van Halen even more. We have to find ways around that for our own children, huh?
And my hubby is currently fascinated with backmasking and he frequently tells me what certain songs say backwards (even if I don't ask). There is some website that will "translate" speeches and songs backwards.
I can still remember playing this song over and over. Whenever I hear it now, I turn it up and sing along. Living on a prayer is not a bad idea :)
Oh goodness, is right! Reading your post sure brought back lots of memories.
You mean it was bad to listen to Guns-N-Roses and Bon Jovi?!?! I wasn't a Christian in high school, and didn't grow up in a Christian home, so no music was off limits for me.
I spent many afternoons and nights driving around with these songs cranked up! I can't believe how easily I can remember these lyrics, but when I try to memorize a simple passage of scripture, it's like the hardest thing ever! What's up with that?!
I just hope I do a good job when my little one starts exercising her musical tastes! We'll see:) Thanks again for the trip down memory land!
I used to tell my mom that I listened to certain songs for the music, not the words and that the words didn't matter. And I really believed it! How wrong I was. When I go hear songs from my junior high/high school years it makes me so sad to realize what I was filling my head with. Scary.
Lyrics have always been important to me, so for the most part, I was convicted about stuff that I heard. There was still some fun, basically clean stuff out there- I never got head bangerish, was more or less into fun, pop stuff, country, oldies, Abba- an eclectic mix! I hope to have grace too and not to be so uptight that I frustrate my kids!
how funny since i have been listening to Bon Jovi this week 'livin on a prayer' we were told to find a cover song for my daughter from the 80's and this was the only one i could find that wasnt BAD! lol. i love that song, and i was too a rebellious teen, how i wish for different for my own kids. yikes!
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