My Mom Loves Country and I Don't

My mother's music taste seems to have been the same for as long as I can remember-country and rock and roll. I remember when I was younger, I would wait for those rare days where my mom, now a retired Navy commander, would be able to take me to school or pick me up from school. As we drove, I would watch the world go by as musicians like Jason Aldean or Journey play in the background. Now, I got to interview her about how music has been in her life and how it's influenced her. 

Honestly, I wanted to start by asking my mom how her love of country (which is all I can remember her listening to) can transfer to me in the form of my strong dislike for country and a love of alternative pop, indie, and Kpop. However, I think she would've been more stumped than I am, so I started the interview by asking what her first memory of music was. 

I was curious because I could remember mine-a CD with lullabies with an underlying heartbeat sound that's for infants and toddlers to help them fall asleep. My mom's was similar. She remembers an old record player that was in her home's basement that her older siblings would listen to music, most likely rock and roll, on. One song she mentioned that her father, my grandfather, picked was "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. My mom continued by saying that she thought it was an odd song for him since the song was very touching by he was a very gruff hands-off father. 

I continued by asking if she thinks music impacted her childhood at all, to which she responded no, she doesn't think it did at all. However, she listened to country in high school with her and her friend's favorite group being Alabama. 

Besides listening to music, my mom was in band from 7th grade to the end of high school. She started on the trumpet but struggled with reaching the high notes. On her teacher's recommendation of switching to something in the Bass Cleft, my mom started playing the trombone. Ironically, one of my mom's sisters and two of her brothers played the trombone as well. Though due to age differences and other things, none of them were actively playing the trombone when she started. While listening to music didn't impact her, playing the trombone did. My mom mentioned it was a good influence on her since the classes weren't challenging and she went stir crazy in study hall. 

After the detour about instruments, since I knew she played on, I turned back to questions about music. I asked her about how she listens to music, now and in her past. Now, my mom listens on Amazon Music, but before it was on CDs and sometimes cassettes. Where she listened to music was another question-she listened to music on the radio in her room or the car with her friends. 

Her favorite genre since a child has been country. Like I previously mentioned, her favorite band was Alabama. In college, she started listening to bands like Guns and Roses and Def Leppard, though once she joined the Navy she went back to listening to country music. 

Because getting sentimental is incredibly hard and easy at the same time for me, I asked her if there were any song lyrics or songs that have a special meaning to her. My mom's first answer was the Nora Jones album Come Away with Me. It was very popular when she was pregnant with me and it won many awards after I was born. She said it calmed me down in the evenings before going to bed and that she would rock me in her arms and dance around the living room. Whenever she listens to it, she thinks of me. Her second answer is the CD that I mentioned was my first memory of music. She knows it comforted me and got me to sleep a lot over the years and it relaxes her to hear it as well. 

I also found out that we are similar that we both use music to fill the silence in our lives. Also that we are both more tolerant to types of music we don't normally listen to and are open to change.

I wrapped the interview up with one final question, "Are cassette tapes really as crappy as we're told they were?"

And the answer? Yes, absolutely yes. When they would get caught in the player it was incredibly frustrating and it was a pain to rewind them. If there was a section of the cassette that had a crease in it, the player would make a funny sound. Though for as painful as they were, there were apparently benefits too. They made it easier to pirate music and share it with your friends. My mom also recalled when she would attempt to record a song off the radio if there was only one song by an artist that she wanted and didn't want to buy the whole tape or CD.

And with that, the interview concluded.

I enjoyed catching up with my mom and interviewing her. I got to learn things that I never knew, like how she would play Come Away with Me and rock and dance with me around the living room. Now that I know that, I swear that's why I like to dance so much. I hope I can do this again one day years from now, and maybe I'll find the answer to my question of how my mom's love for country transferred into my love for alternative pop, indie, and Kpop.