Why iTunes Can Make You A Hero To Your Kids

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Sean Piccoli says that there's a problem with the way "kids today" can access almost any song performed in the last century: no generation has their own music any more:

... kids today? They know the songs. I see middle-schoolers at rock festivals sing along -- every word -- to '80s covers by emo bands. I watch recent college graduates drop dollars into jukeboxes to play Blondie, the Cars, Devo, Curtis Mayfield, Abba, the Stones and who knows what else I grew up with. Pretty soon they're sitting at the bar with the soundtrack of my life blasting. They're remarking on the songs, discussing them, putting their soft unlined hands all over my cultural reference points.

And I'll provide a data point -- a friend's fourteen year old daughter (in South Florida, too) whose circle of friends are way into AC/DC.

But I disagree with Piccoli's take. Songs about rebellion, identity, and girlfriends have been written over and over and over. Why shouldn't today's kids select the best?

And if it buys some credibility with the kids (or grandkids), so much the better. You may not have stormed the beaches at Anzio, but what about that REO Speedwagon concert in '80 -- think the kids will want to hear about that? Hey, where'd they go?