Rock, Pop, Baroque.. What's Your Jam?

Rock, Pop, Baroque.. What's Your Jam?

On a bank holiday weekend, my family and I went to the cinema to watch ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’.  If you haven’t watched it yet don’t worry I’m not going to give away the storyline, what I’m going to talk about is the soundtrack.  The soundtrack is made up of 70s/80s music.  Now I grew up listening to this music and it brought back many memories.  My son, who at the time was nearly 15, after watching the film had really got into ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac; he even discussed with his GCSE music teacher about playing this piece as a class performance for a concert.

The Chain comes under the genre of ‘Rock’ music, this is my son’s favourite style of music and has been from an early age.  The influence of Rock music doesn’t come from me as I’m definitely a Pop, Classical, Jazz person.  Although he has been encouraged to listen to lots of music from an early age.

So how is this relevant to you?

Do you have a favourite genre of music?/What’s your jam?  Do you ever share this with the children in your care?

Children need to listen to a wide genre of music: Pop, Classical, Rock…  From the research that has been done, it has been found listening preferences are made early on in life, therefore we need to ensure we are giving the children in our care the opportunity to listen to lots of different genres of music.   Go for a rummage through your CD, MP3s or even tape collection.  Yes, I still have tapes and two players that just about work.  My two children have listened to many old tracks on these tapes.  My son has also gone very retro and asked for a record player for Christmas to listen to his loved music!

What can you do?

Don’t limit the children in your care to just listening to children’s music. If the lyrics are suitable let them listen to any of the music you may have.  I’d love to hear what music you are currently sharing with the children in your care.

If you would like to learn more, please take a look at my 'Musical Discoveries: Listening to Music in the Early Years' online training: https://www.musicintheearlyyears.com/musical-discoveries-listening-in-the-early-years

Happy music making!