Re: what I've been grooving to, lately, these days, these years

Much thanks for this, Ben!

When my lads first started listening to the music of their times this 
suddenly introduced me to what current "rock" music was... which I'd 
been happily oblivious to. This would be around Blink182, and what 
was most notable to me was the dominance of the aggressive rhythm 
guitar and the diminishment of the lead voice under this (boring!) 
guitar. As opposed to the more open (less muddy) texture of 
arrangement, esp guitar arrangement, and the prominence of the lead 
voice and the use of back-up voices &/or harmonies in the songs that 
I'd grown up with: the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the British 
Invasion. (Eventually I learned, reading MacDonald's superb 
_Revolution in the Head_, that this shift had come about with punk 
and post-punk. Lamentable, from my standpoint.)

I think the first current song that all three of us enjoyed was 
Fastball's charming "The Way." (Which reminds me of "Besame Mucho"!)

The band of my youth that they listen to the most (on their ipods) is 
the Beach Boys. I don't know if this is typical of their generation. 
There's a definite sonic continuity between the BB's and the Animal 
Bands (as I call them) that they enjoy: Fleet Foxes, Panda Bear, Grizzly Bear.

One big thang that I've had no luck in introducing them to is 
classical music. When I was in high school, I was already enjoying, 
tremendously, the four early Stravinsky ballets, and much else... and 
I've played these for them, lent them the CD's, but it hasn't taken 
at all. This despite the case that their mother is a choral 
conductor, so there was/is much classical music in both of our houses.