Music and Family
Me: Hi Grandma! How are you?
Grandma: Hey baby, I’m doing alright, how are you doing?
Me: I’m doing good! I wanted to call you to see if you’d be up for an interview about your experiences listening to music.
Grandma: Oh! Of course, I’m free to
.
Me: Great! So my first question for you is when was your earliest memory of listening to music, and if you remember, what song was it?
Grandma: Oh, that’s a good question, I’d have to say, my earliest memory of music was when I was around maybe 3 years old (This was 1963) And I don’t know what it was called but the words were ‘Take out the paper in the trash, you won’t get your money back, don’t talk back yakety yak,’ Side Note: (We were both so tickled by this because the lyrics are so funny. I looked up the lyrics and eventually found the song and it is actually called ‘Yakety Yak by The Coasters’. I’ve linked the song down below if you’d like to listen!) But other than that, I remember listening to your typical nursery rhymes and children's songs.
Me: That song is so funny, I’ll have to look it up later. My next question for you is what is your opinion of today’s music?
Grandma: I think the music today is much more diverse in the sense that there’s more cultural music now than back in the day. See, back in the day, there were a lot of bands and they used instruments, you don’t hear that nowadays in music.
Me: Yeah, that makes sense. What did you think about the music Granny (her mother) listened to when you were coming up?
Grandma: Oh I loved her music growing up. They had a nice diverse collection of music, we didn’t just listen to one genre we listened to Country, jazz, R&B, the Blues, and Soul. (Another side note! My dad’s side of the family is from Mississippi so the Blues was hot when my great-grandmother and grandmother were growing up) We listened to a lot of The Temptations growing up. And a lot of the music she played when we were growing up, we ended up listening to a lot of. Granny actually really liked our music and would take us to the record shop to get LPs and 45s every other week and we could pick out whatever we wanted. Now I really didn’t like your dad’s music growing up.
Me: Oh really, why’s that?
Grandma: Just because it was so vulgar and the way they talked about women, especially in rap. I didn’t too much care for it, but now all he listens to is the music we played when he was growing up.
Me: Yes! I think that’s so funny how that works. Personally, one of my favorite memories is during the holidays and you and Auntie would be cooking in the kitchen, singing and dancing to The Temptations. That was always such a fun time. I think that’s just a silly full circle kind of thing. Okay, well my last question for you is what has been your favorite concert you’ve ever been to?
Grandma: Oh, that’s a hard one, haha. I think I’d have to say Sade. She has an R&B jazzy kind of style to her music and such a beautiful voice. That’s probably been my favorite concert I’ve ever been to.
Me: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share your music experiences with me. I enjoyed taking a nice trip down memory lane.
Grandma: Oh you’re welcome, you know I’m always available to talk to. I love you and I hope you have a good rest of your day.
Me: I love you too, Grandma. Mean it!
Here's one of our favorite songs as a family that we listen to by The Temptations!
Hey Angela, really did a good job with the interview! I really liked that you chose your grandmother for this assignment. The first question was great and her response was better, the lyrics are actually so funny, and loved the song she chose. I want to say that Sade in Smooth Operator, I listen to the song a lot and find it awesome! And The Temptations is a great choice too. Good job
ReplyDeleteHi Angela, I really enjoyed reading your post. I also love listening to Sade as well. R&B music is probably my favorite genre of music. I'm kind of jealous that your grandmother got to see Sade performed live. I also found it interesting that some of her music tastes are song I like listening to as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Angela, First off I really enjoyed reading your blog. I am also glad you put the song yakety Yak by The Coasters in the blog, it was very funny to listen to! I loved hearing your grandmothers opinion of todays music! Good job
ReplyDeleteHi Angela! I really enjoyed reading about your grandmother's taste in music. I also chose to interview my grandmother. I love listening to the oldy goldies that our grandparents loved when they were young. The Coasters and The Temptations are perfect examples! I also loved how you included bits of the conversation that weren't part of the interview; it definitely made me smile. Thank you for sharing! Wishing you both well :)
ReplyDeleteIt was really cool to see how you interviewed your grandmother and to see how different her perceptive of music is so different to our parents’ generation. I also enjoyed how she mentioned your dad’s music and her opinion on his taste of music. I definitely think my grandma would say the same thing about my dad and his brothers’ music as well. I also love how you mentioned how music by The Temptations is something that all of your family loves!
ReplyDeleteYour grandmother has such good music taste! That first song was is such a fun listen and I can tell she was very amused by it too. It feels so nice to catch up with the older generations, especially with something as fun as music. It seemed like you and your grandmother had a really great time getting to know each other throughout the interview. Also, Smooth Operator is such a banger, amazing vocals and instrumentals!
ReplyDeleteHey Angela! I really liked how you chose your grandmother for this because she had it way different then most of us and even our parents did. I also love her taste of music because I know most of us have heard these songs already coming up as little kids so for her to chose these bring back childhood memories. I also love smooth operator because of the tone and the melody of the song.
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