Education in pop culture

At breakfast this morning, my daughter Elizabeth reported on her exploits in introducing bits of music to her daughter Opal — by way of putting them in a playlist on iTunes for Opal. This involves lots of trial and error; you can’t really tell what will move Opal.

The latest experiment was in rock music. E scored big with the Rolling Stones and with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Oh, I said, all that intense energy! O essayed bits of the oeuvre, with evident pleasure.

Then E reported on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”, which O just detested. E and I helplessly went into the boys’ chorus from part 2 (“We don’t need no education …”), in our best attempt at doing the dialect (this in the University Coffee Cafe in Palo Alto, relatively crowded at the time). O pulled a sour face. E said, forbearingly, Well, in seven years or so.

E and I mostly don’t know which bits of popular culture we picked up separately (she and her friends discovered many of her three parents’ favorites on their own — very gratifying on all sides), which she got from us, and which we got from her.

I didn’t tell Opal that I used to have an 8×10 printout of

Dark sarcasm in the classroom.

Teacher, leave those kids alone!

Pink Floyd, The Wall

posted on the wall of my Stanford office (along with lots of language- and gay-related cartoons).

 

3 Responses to “Education in pop culture”

  1. arnold zwicky Says:

    From Aric Olnes on Facebook:

    Maybe O will be more receptive to Meddle or Wish You Were Here. The Wall is a far cry from Pink Floyd’s roots. Even better have O try “See Emily Play” from 1967.

  2. arnold zwicky Says:

    And Tim Pierce on Facebook suggests The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (“very playful and mischievous and energetic”).

  3. On the culture beat « Arnold Zwicky's Blog Says:

    […] fortune, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Joan Jett, and Captain Beefheart (though I don’t think Opal is ready for Captain Beefheart yet). Plus several tracks from Bronski Beat’s Age of […]

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