Is That A Twisted Sister Pin On Your Uniform...

I never thought this day would come... the day I am no longer cool.

When I was a kid I remember my mother never being able to listen to anything she wanted on the car radio because her choice of music was so uncool. There was no way I was going to sit in the car, in all of my coolness and listen to her old-people uncool tunes. Therefore my mother was never allowed to even touch the radio dials. I was in complete control of the station choices and I believed I was doing her a favor by making her listen to my cool music and not her old stinky music. I was educating my mother in cooldom.

I had carried this need for control over the radio dials throughout my life and I have always thought that my choice of music was far superior than anything a mere passenger in my vehicle wanted to listen to.

That is until recently...

For years my kids have happily sung along to my music. I was proud of the fact that they could name singers like Freddy Mercury, or Paul McCartney just by listening to the first note. I thought I was teaching them to have an eclectic sense of music. One that is neither dictated by teeny boppers or MTV.

Well... my 13 year old daughter thinks my idea of music is prehistoric and totally, like completely uncool right?

As of a few days ago, I am no longer allowed to touch the dials on the car radio. If I dare to put my old people music on her ears may just start to bleed and she will keel over from embarrassment for my lack of music coolness right there on the spot.

So now instead of Journey I have to listen to Will I am (that is William for those of you who think his name is stupid like me), and other people who pretend to sing but have not an ounce of talent in their little voice boxes and in 2 years from now no one will remember who they are or what they were singing.

Music today just does not have the staying power that my cool music does.

I fully admit that I like Rihanna and I know who Leona Lewis is... but this past weekend we went to a festival that was 45 minutes away. We stayed at the festival for a little bit and then headed home for the 45 minute drive again. In that time, we heard the same 10 songs played over and over and over again on the radio... on the same station of the radio.

What in the world has happened to music and why do my children think that Metro Station is cool and Duran Duran is not? They look a lot a like to me... and you can still hear a Duran Duran song on the radio. I seriously doubt we will hear Metro Station ever again after today's youth have been so saturated with "Shake Shake Shake."

This all feels like a bad Twisted Sister video to me. Only instead of being the cool rebel in the video, I have somehow morphed into the parent screaming at the cool kid "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE?"