Let’s Unite To Reform Our Children's Music Education

Panning over four decades from the sixties to the nineties we felt safe in the knowledge that our children would have an enjoyable and high standard of music education.  Although the eighties bought a slight dip in the league tables with Black Lace, Rene and Renata and Joe Dolce with ‘shut uppa you face’, the 90s restored our faith with A grade results as grunge, Britpop, alternative rock and house came onto the scene. 

However the decade of the noughties did not restore the faith and the high standards set by the 90s vanished, as mainstream music began a decline that has never really recovered. 

The state of the music industry today has now left parents in disarray, with no faith in the system, the real worry is of their children’s education and what the future could bring.

So, has the damage already been done? Or can we save our children from the likes of X Factor, Louis Walsh, Ollie Murs, One Direction and Gangnam style? 

There is belief and hope, but the responsibility can not all be down to the parent(s), support is needed and that must be high on the criteria of schools across the country.

As a father of a teenage daughter myself, I have in the past tried to educate her to listen to The Red Hot Chilli Peppers or Radiohead but I was frowned upon as it being old man's music. The mention of going to see a Frank Turner gig just received the response of ‘talk to the hand’. For her to grasp that Rage Against The Machine being Christmas number One instead of some X Factor contestant was a good thing, was to her totally baffling.

Parents require the schools to be involved and they need to act fast.  Times are always changing, so in the present day is there really any benefit for children to be learning how to play musical instruments such as the recorder or the triangle.  Isn't it more beneficial to hand them an electric guitar from an early age, or introduce them to the drums or mixing decks.  Let’s introduce them to a double music lesson watching highlights of 1994 at Glastonbury or Reading. Educate them that it is OK to smash up the school provided electric guitar and for them to dive into a full drum kit set, this is surely the education that they require.

I have learnt it is key to educate your children as early as possible.  A prime example of this is a friend of mine who educated her daughter at very early age by substituting her daughter’s ‘Nursery Rhyme Collection CD’ with her own musical preferences. So instead of Wheels on the bus and Humpty Dumpty she was already getting down to The Prodigy's Smack My B*tch Up and Nirvana's Smell's like Teen Spirit. At that age however, a more apt version could have been ‘I am the tantrum starter’ by The Prodigy, as well as ‘Smells Like the terrible twos spirit ‘from Nirvana.

It is tough for parents out there though. It is easier for a parent to find out that their teenage son has been hiding a copy of playboy in their bedroom or you caught them red handed cigarette in mouth, after all we ourselves have all been there before.  However what do you do if you find out your daughter has downloaded Olly Murs latest album or find a copy of a One Direction annual under their bed?  There are no support lines, there are no counselling sessions you can take them to, the only real action is send them cold turkey to their bedroom with proper music.

You can not blame children though, we all know it is indeed a cruel and nasty world out there and if your child gets into the wrong crowd at school you as the parent can feel helpless.  I again urge that schools need to act, there needs to be tougher guidelines.  I propose that taking a One Direction pencil case to school should most definitely lead to detention and that anyone listening to Olly Murs on their IPod on the school bus should face suspension.

It is not easy for the kids though, I can recall myself growing up and how I could have easily taken the wrong path and the slippery slope to uncoolness. I look back and wonder why my parents were not more supportive.  It was at the age of 12, I remember asking my step-dad if he could buy me the 45” single of ‘Just Say No’ by the cast of Grange Hill. My step-dad, was well educated, he was a Stones, Grateful Dead and Springsteen man, but unlike the single sang by Zammo and Roland Browning, he didn’t say no, and instead he bought me a copy of the single.

Luckily I eventually fell into the right crowd, I was introduced to Morrison (Jim not Mark), Hendrix, Marley and later I found Cobain, Vedder and Grohl., Some though are not as lucky, from that moment they fell into that trap of a Wham or a Kajagoogoo there was no help available, they then fall into that circle that leads them to Take That and Boyzone and now in their forties they go to Westlife and Five reunion shows..

As I have been writing this blog, a coincidental moment occurred, my eldest daughter told me that whilst washing up she shall be listening to Green Day. She seems happy, she knows I also approve, it appears she has fallen into the right crowd, I now know I can sleep well tonight. For others out there this may not be the case and that is why we need act now and unite together in our fight against the dark side of the music industry.

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