Also perspective:

Basically NOBODY over 30 knows who Lil Peep is, who Lil Uzi Vert is, who Machine Gun Kelly is.

Entertainment and pop culture are a distraction and escape from the real world, but one which can only be maximally utilized during puberty and just beyond, before people start developing real concerns about bills, jobs, etc. They also imprint most strongly upon people who are going through puberty because those people are subject to vast emotional hormonal swings, and those explosions of dopamine are what create memories when tied into external stimuli. In other words, songs and other pop culture make their biggest impression upon you when they’re tied in to other strong emotional events — love affairs, graduations, a friend dying, etc.

That’s why the vast majority of the population always thinks that the music of their teen years is the best music ever made. Because they can’t see it objectively, they see it through the prism of their emotional and sexual awakening and those songs tied in with the emotions of those moments.

So in many ways, that opinion of what is good and what is bad is completely subjective and arbitrary.

Not to mention that so much of what we consider good today was completely eviscerated by the know-it-all critics at the time of its release. Led Zeppelin was torn to shreds by those wizened scribes at Rolling Stone, which much preferred Emerson, Lake And Palmer. Even the revered Beatles got terrible reviews for “Let It Be” AND “Abbey Road,” now considered one of the greatest albums of all time — including by Rolling Stone, which dissed it upon its arrival.

Now, what’s my point here?

My point is, let people have their joys. Let them have their pleasures which make their lives happy. Don’t shit on their preferences and opinions just because they don’t align with yours. ESPECIALLY if those people are your kids.

I remember when I was growing up, my Mom being scandalized and thinking — and I’m directly quoting here — that “Prince (was) going to tell me to commit suicide in the Purple Rain.” I must not have gotten the message, being that I’m still here.

(Of course, this was a woman who used to get high with her friends and spend hours talking about the profundities of Fleetwood Mac albums before the Reagan ’80s hit and she and so many of her contemporaries suddenly became bastions of conservatism, but I digress.)

I always keep lines of communication open between myself and my son, who just turned 14. I’m always curious as to what pop culture he and his friends are into — what kind of music they like, what kids are into these days, etc. It’s fascinating to me as a reporter who’s largely covered entertainment during my career, and even more so as a father who’s interested in what his son likes.

A lot of the stuff he’s liked is pretty cool — I absolutely love 21 Pilots, which is one of his favorite bands — and I get a major kick out of these mumble rappers and TikTok stars. It’s fun to me, and I can see a lot of where they’re basically stealing their inspiration for the “new” things they’re doing. Some of the songs I really like, some of them I’m meh on, others I’m content for him to listen to with his ear buds.

But at no time do I judge and say “Music in my time was so much better,” etc. because that’s like saying the color blue is better than the color red. It’s completely subjective and total opinion.

These are the songs that he and his friends will someday look back upon as being the fabric of their lives, as being part of the tapestry of their entrance into their teen years. And so, regardless of my personal musical preferences, they are special to me too, because I love him, and I want him to have those fun memories, I want him to have those songs that will make him smile someday in retrospect, I want him to feel as if his choices are valid, and important, and that he has every right to them. Because he is important, he is a valid person, he is a good person, and he has a right to feel that, to feel that he has a right to his own opinions and preferences.

Because he does.