Amy’s Nano

The contents of Amy’s Nano, (all are albums unless otherwise noted):

• ABC, SOS (iTMS download)
• Amy, A Slowly Ticking Clock (track sung and arranged by Amy on Garageband)
• Avril Lavigne, Let Go, Under My Skin
• The Beatles, 1962-1966, 1967-1970
• Feist, The Reminder
• Gorillaz, Demon Days
• Hercules and Love Affair (iTunes free track downloaded by Dad)
• Hot Chip, Coming On Strong, Made In The Dark, The Warning
• Junior Boys, Last Exit
• Kraftwerk, Minimum Maximum disc 1 and 2
• Kraftwerk, Autobahn
• KT Tunstall, Eye To The Telescope, Drastic Fantastic
• Ladytron, Witching Hour
• Lily Allen, Alright, Still
• Madness, Divine Madness
• Madonna, Confessions of a Dance Floor
• Mika, Life In Cartoon Motion
• Moondog, Elpmas
• Mum, Summer Make Good
• Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Signs Of Life
• They Might Be Giants, No!
• Tony Orlando and Dawn, Tie A Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree (iTMS download)
• The Whitest Boy Alive, Dreams
• ELO, Mr Blue Sky (iTMS download)
• Abba, Gold
• OST, Hairspray (iTMS download)
• OST, The Sound Of Music (iTMS download)
• Various, Studio One Rockers

My daughter Amy is ten and a bit years old and I’m struck by the variety of music she listens to. I think I began listening to pop music (apart from things like The Jungle Book soundtrack and Autobahn by Kraftwerk) at the age of 12 or 13. My parents didn’t approve of my spending my pocket money on records so my first actual single was a Christmas present - Gary Numan’s Complex on 7″ vinyl (with the brilliant Bombers on the ‘b’ side! “Bombers fight at zero, feet, feet…”) Before then I remember buying Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells at a jumble sale, sneaking it in via the garage and surreptitiously playing it on my parents stereo when they were out. They did relent after that first single though and here I am today drowning in music like the proverbial pig in…

I guess the point of this post is to record Ames’ listening habits at age 10 and a bit and to remark - entirely unoriginally - upon how different her experience is from mine at a similar age. She owns a few CDs, but they do seem a bit of a waste of plastic - the iTunes Music Store is her local record shop, her stereo are the speakers she bought for her Nano. Amongst her peers she’s not remarkably precocious in this - after all, a boy in her brother’s class (8ish) is a big expert on The Who, Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Hendrix. I blame the parents.