It took me many years to finally embrace pop music. I realize this every time a classic Madonna song plays on the radio and I think to myself “this is damn good” while recalling my utter disdain for all things Madonna when she actually mattered.
Failing to appreciate good pop music is like saying a comedic film is somehow innately inferior to a dramatic one. I was probably guilty of that for a long time, too.
Closing out my week of songs favored by my daughter Fiona is another 80s hit, Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing.’ This one didn’t come courtesy of her neighborhood friend, however, but through an animated film.
Specifically, the 2016 movie Sing, which features a group of animals competing in an American Idol-style singing competition.
Fiona’s friend down the street, a boy she’s known since kindergarten, has recently demonstrated a real appreciation of 80s music. An appreciation that has rubbed off on her. Thank god he isn’t into heavy metal.
Apart from a healthy dose of Bon Jovi, one of the songs Fiona has (re)discovered through this kid is Rick Springfield’s ‘Jessie’s Girl.’
With me as their father, it’s impossible for my girls to have escaped The Beatles during their formative years. I sang both of them to bed with ‘Blackbird’ and ‘In My Life,’ regaled them with the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack, and just this year took them to the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil performance of LOVE.
But Fiona expanded her Beatles education on her own through theme episodes of Glee, which she has streamed extensively on Netflix.
Rihanna’s ‘SOS’ is another “old” song loved by my daughter Fiona. Given that is was released in 2006, her birth year, I guess that qualifies as an oldie in her book.
Fiona has played this song a lot recently, but her affection for it goes back at least eight years. We unearthed a Facebook video from 2009 of a 3-year-old Fiona dancing like crazy in the backseat of our car to this song.
