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Dear care and food,
My husband works in the music industry and we play all kinds of music at home. We have a huge record collection, which we keep in our living room.
About 8 months ago, my youngest son (now 3 and a half years old) became obsessed with metal music. Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne are his favorites. He asks Alexa to play music every minute while he's not at daycare. He pulled out their record and looked at the jacket. He loves them if they look creepy and wear makeup. Every time we try to steer him into something more wholesome, he flips out (actually, I think that's what makes him more into them). He has two concerns.
1) How harmful are offensive lyrics to children? Metal is known for explicit lyrics of a gory or sexual nature. Although he is too young to understand many of the references, he is starting to learn the actual words as well as just sing the songs phonetically.
2) Other people. When he sings “You're a classy tramp,” it's hard to tell the nursery that it's from the music he loves most and that we can't bear to take it away.
—Heavy Metal Powerless
Dear Mr. Heavy
Why is it so difficult to communicate this to the nursery school? So A lot of music has lyrics that are “inappropriate” for kids, and parents don't restrict their kids from listening to songs that were explicitly written (or rewritten, Hello, Kids Bop) for kids. As long as the child is likely to sing something outrageous that comes out of the baby's mouth. (I know some parents severely limit what their young children listen to, but I always feel bad that my kids don't have access to a lot of great music. all ) What's wrong with laughing, shrugging, and saying, “Sorry, he's into metal right now”?
It's no surprise that the album cover fascinates him. Some kids really get a feel for the eerie images. And I don't know what “saner” means (Peter, Paul & Mary? The Beatles? Pharrell Williams? Disney?) anything You try to keep your children away from things that are more desirable to them. Continue to play lots of different types of music in your favorite genres. (If he protests when you switch from Black Sabbath to Aretha or Voygenius, calmly tell him it's mommy's turn to choose, and she'll choose next.) (Don't say too much, though; I'd be shocked if his next favorite thing is hip-hop or punk.) And before you know it, he's going to push the envelope, even if it's just a song. He will be old enough that you can talk to him about language that is inappropriate for school, even if it's in school. But unless you put him in a daycare center with strict rules about what kids are allowed to say or sing (I hope not!), when he yells I can't imagine how surprised his childcare worker would be. , “Plug it in and turn it on.”
As for the question of whether these lyrics are dangerous or not, here's what I think. With some exceptions, such as derogatory adjectives, words are not harmful unless used against someone (such as rock). Daughter—not harmful per se. It only turns into a weapon if you pick it up and throw it at someone. ) I don't think it's good to listen to songs that mention sex (so many Songs from country to R&B) and violence (country, hip-hop, metal, Americana murder ballads, etc.) can sexualize children and make them violent. Just don't let him keep eating angry songs. Mix in a little Joni Mitchell.
—Michelle
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