The Music Man

Like me, my son has a passion for music. Unlike me, however, his taste in music is limited. So limited, in fact, that if I play anything other than one of three albums, he lets me hear about it.

John Patrick's playlist consists of Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight, The Baby Einstein Music Box Orchestra - Lullaby Classics and his favorite (and mine), Barenaked Ladies - Snacktime!. If he's fussing, sitting in his high chair, all I have to do is plug in the Ipod and upon hearing the first few notes of the first song on "Under the Blacklight" or "Snacktime," he smiles and starts to bob his head from side to side. A boy after my own heart.

We have portable Ipod players throughout the house and several Ipods. If John Patrick is playing or preparing to eat in the kitchen, he'll point at the Ipod player and say, "ma, ma, ma . . ." until I play one of his three favorite albums.

The Rilo Kiley album is actually quite good, though it's not a children's album. It's a pop record with very catchy songs. The lyrics on some of the songs aren't necessarily age appropriate, but it's the music he likes at this stage of the game. I stumbled across the band in an interview I heard on a podcast of the Bob Edwards show, where Bob spoke to Jenny Lewis, the lead singer. Our nanny, Carley, discovered the "Under the Blacklight" album after I'd added it to my Ipod. She played it a lot and John Patrick fell in love with it.

The Barenaked Ladies album is fantastic. It's a children's album - the Canadian's band's first -released after a decade or so of putting out great pop music. BNL is knows for intelligent, witty lyrics on all their songs, and "Snacktime" is no different. Even though it's a children's album, the music is so good and the songwriting so clever that Jude and I rarely get tired of listening to it. That's good, because John Patrick insists we play it almost all of the time.

As much as I love the fact that John Patrick is into music, I'm anxious to expand his playlist. With that in mind, today I downloaded from Itunes a couple new albums I think he'll like - The Verve Pipe - A Family Album and Caspar Babypants - More Please!. We'll see how he does with those.

It's hard to believe I'm trying to find music to fit my 21 month old son's tastes. Clearly, though, he's heard music he likes and other music he doesn't like. Has he already developed an affinity for a certain type of music? Or, does he like those three albums because he's heard them a lot. Interesting question.