Thursday, May 24, 2007

In Their Shoes...

One of my favorite classes in college was Child Development. Apparently, I am very interested in why we are the way that we are. The big question swings asking "nature, nurture, or a combination of the two?" Just as in all things, the pendulum swings. I'm even interested in the biology of our make up. I am reading a book right now called The Female Brain which discusses the neurological changes that women go through at various stages in life and how if affects her attitude and emotions. It's a bit heavy at times but I'm really enjoying it.

"So what brings this up?" you may ask. Tonight I was sitting at my desk grading papers and listening to my iTunes. Back to back, the following artists come up: Michael Buble, Willie Nelson, The Weepies, Tegan and Sara, and Rocco DeLuca. At that moment, I stopped grading and thought, "Where did that come from!?" We all know that Mom and Dad did not instill a love for Michael Buble's style let alone anything by Willie Nelson. I think that Papaw was a country music fan but I don't remember listening to the radio with him. Does taste in music skip a generation? While I can attribute some of my outstanding taste in music to my folks, I am lost as to where the rest of it came from. In fact, I'm confident that they have never heard of most of the artists in my Nano.

I guess this is one of those nature and nurture things....

2 comments:

andrew said...

My love and appreciation of music comes from my birth mother. She loved opera. She was apparently well known in the opera circles of Cincinnati, Ohio. While I do not particularly care for opera, I do like music and I appreciate different genres. My personal preference at this time is contemporary jazz. However, by awakening to music was through rock (60s, 70s). I have several different styles of music in my collection. While I like mainstream music I am developing a taste for groups and individuals that are not so well known. I am always exploring different labels and publishers of music over the internet. My favorite instrument is the acoustic guitar (and there are different types of acoustic guitars)and the piano (and there are different types of pianos, also). The bottom line is that I like music and will like what I choose to listen to if it appeals to me.

Amy said...

For your mom, here, music was SO much a venue for self-expression during my growing up years, the 60s. Everything was about the message, the "feel" of the song - Vietnam, assassinations, social issues. Sounds really depressing as I read it, but it was a time of real liberation and coming to grips with what the world was going to end up being. Only Neil Diamond brought me pure romance of songs, and later other people brought in the fun.

Now, if I could just get your Dad to dance with me to one of those songs!!