I am a child of the 80's and the dawn of the MTV era. I was actually watching the very first day they aired on cable TV in August of 1981. (Don’t tell my mom, though---I was probably on TV restriction at the time!) I was 10 years old that summer, and on the brink of discovering a love of music that I hold dear to this day. So many of those lyrics and images strike me today with such nostalgia and emotion that I can literally remember what I was doing and who I was with when I first heard the song or saw the video. It brings back so many feelings and memories of my adolescence and developmental years…most of them good, some of them dramatic and definitely a few less-than-shining moments in my history.
Anyway, the song was by Pat Benetar, "Love is a Battlefield." It came out in 1983, when I was 12 years old...just a little older than Michaela is right now. I hadn't heard it in a good while...and it made me remember that it was always one of my favorite music videos. I decided to come home and find the video on YouTube to show her. She seemed in awe that the video told an actual STORY that had MEANING. (She was also in awe that her mom could remember how to do the entire dance routine! Hah!!) It was a really cool mother/daughter moment for me that I know she won't fully appreciate until she's older but I'm so happy that we had it.
Today was a good day.
My mother always had different kinds of music playing in our house and I adopted a lot of her favorites as my own over the years. I suppose that is normal for most kids who have music as a big part of their households. I suppose now it is my turn to watch Michaela develop her own tastes in music and am happy to find that she is following in her Mama’s footsteps. I was in the car with Michaela today and as usual she was playing my iPod on the car stereo. A song came on that triggered for me a forgotten request that she wanted me to add this particular song to her iPod. She often asks me to add music to her iPod that I always loved, and it constantly surprises me that she has adopted my love of different genres of music and it makes me SO happy. We're talking blues, jazz, old-school funk, 80s pop, even a little country. She is learning what REAL music and REAL music videos are all about...not just the half-naked, booty-shaking hoochie mamas on a blinged-out set with R&B and Rap artists hollering about s*x and violence.
Anyway, the song was by Pat Benetar, "Love is a Battlefield." It came out in 1983, when I was 12 years old...just a little older than Michaela is right now. I hadn't heard it in a good while...and it made me remember that it was always one of my favorite music videos. I decided to come home and find the video on YouTube to show her. She seemed in awe that the video told an actual STORY that had MEANING. (She was also in awe that her mom could remember how to do the entire dance routine! Hah!!) It was a really cool mother/daughter moment for me that I know she won't fully appreciate until she's older but I'm so happy that we had it.
Today was a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment