Hooking Into It

I’ve mentioned this to several people lately, so I figured I’d post it here, as well. I drive my three-year-old to school most days, on my way to work, and while it’s less than a 10-minute commute (for her, anyway), she always seems to enjoy listening to non-specifically-“kid” music in Daddy’s car. Generally, it’s the louder/faster, the better — I get a lot of requests for “rock music,” with disapproving grumbles when I put on something slow or mellow. Her favorite CD of late has been Andrew W.K.‘s I Get Wet — and yes, I know how horrible that may sound, but dang it, it’s a good CD, and as friend Marc pointed out the other day, in a way it is kid music, really.

So anyway, I was driving her to school early last week, playing The Killers’ Sam’s Town on the stereo, when this exchange occurred, pretty much verbatim:

The Munchkin: Daddy, is this a man singing or a lady singing?
Me: Oh, it’s a man singing.
The Munchkin: Oh. [pause] I think you need to listen to more lady singers.
Me: I do?
The Munchkin: Yeah. You need to hook into it, to hook into lady singers.
Me: O-kay…

When I laughingly recapped the conversation that evening for my wife, with the midget present, she elaborated by saying, “You have to hook into it, like when you got a hook in your head that pulls you to the song?”

I dunno why, really, but this blows me away, mostly because while her way of expressing it cracks me up, on another level I totally understand what she’s trying to say. Which is amazing, cool, and a little terrifying, all at once. I’m glad to be raising a kid that honestly loves music, but it’s a bit freaky that she can grasp it like that at this age. As a friend smilingly noted this evening, it’s like I’m raising a miniature A&R person. Very strange…