Hear Hear

 

How do you listen to music these days? For us, Alexa is the main delivery system.

Obviously, it’s changed since the 1970s when the first thing I remember is our huge stereo in the living room that had an eight-track player in it. The choices weren’t many, so I had a good dose of my parent’s Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

As I got older, we morphed into cassettes and record players, with Billy Joel’s “Glass Houses” the first album I ever got. I also received Steve Martin’s “A Wild and Crazy Guy” album one year for Christmas when all I really wanted was the “King Tut” 45. I’m not sure how many shades of red my face got when we played it (unheard) in front of my Grammy.

I’m assuming those of you reading this are getting the references to equipment and the like. If not, ask your parents.

Walkman, Discman, iPod MP3 players and more set the stage for where we are now with phones and the aforementioned Alexa. I think we have a CD player in the house somewhere, attached to a boombox, as well as a CD player in my car. We don’t have a sound system attached to any of our TVs, but we can turn them up loud enough that even I can hear them.

So, our kids are growing up getting the majority of their music from Alexa. It worked better when Alexa couldn’t understand them and they were basically subject to listen to what was on. Now, they are both old enough to say ‘Alexa, off’ if I subject them to Jimmy Buffett or 80s hair bands, but I have been able to get a few Beach Boys songs snuck by them.

We have to listen carefully when they ask for songs, especially Harper, because she can use one word and Alexa will bring up any number of options.

The first song Harper used to play over and over for her dance parties was Kelly Clarkson’s version of “Run, Run Rudolph.” That has been replaced in the rotation by tunes beginning with poop or butt, since that gives her the biggest giggles. Those songs (and there are many) are halted quickly, however. One good alternative we’ve found is “the Party Freeze Dance Song” by the Kiboomers, creators of “The Tooty ta Song.”

Who knows where we’ll be decades from now, and I assume we’ll be relying on Connor and Harper to keep us in the loop.