What’s My Mom Listening to?

With so many songs about the hardships of growing up and rebellion, parents are sometimes cast in the role of antagonist. In many forms of media, parental figures are often portrayed as old, out of touch, and unable to comprehend the music of today. Going through life, I have had countless encounters with people who believed their parents had little to no impact on their musical taste. This notion has always been foreign to me as I grew up with a mother who had a direct impact on shaping me and the music I have grown to love. Since I was a child, my mother has shared her knowledge, experience, and love of music and helped me develop my own love for it.   

 To this day, my mother, Rosie, and I have so much in common and the music we listen to is no exception. Rosie had me at a very young age and aside from being a mother, she was developing her own sense of self and discovering her musical preferences. From the time I was born, Rosie taught me about the classics, took me to concerts, made sure I listened to multiple genres (except country) and encouraged me to explore the music I liked. Memories of my childhood come with a soundtrack curated by my mother; a heavy rotation of bands like No Doubt, Korn, Jay-Z, Deftones, Tupac, Daft Punk, Biggie Smalls, Bjork, Snoop Dog, N.W.A., and more. Today, the core of what I listen to is still what I grew up with, but with a few new additions of my own.

 For the last few months, I have been visiting with my mother and not much has changed. Music is still an integral part of her daily life. Every chance she gets she is blasting music and belting out lyrics in the car, while cleaning, and even getting ready for work. The only thing that has changed is who she is listening to. For this article, I wanted to do something a bit different and shed a new light on parents. With Rosie’s permission, I decided to look at a few of my mom’s Spotify playlists and share what she is listening to. Upon inspection, they were very diverse, with a lot of different ages of music and I even discovered a few new, cool artists to add to my rotation.

By hanging out with my mom and checking out her playlist, it’s easy to conclude that her current favorite artist is Latto, a The Rap Game alum, with her top two tracks being “Big Energy” and “B*tch From Da Souf.” It seems that every time I walk into her house, Latto is on the speakers full blast with my mother rapping along. Other top artists from her daily rotation include Drake, A Tribe Called Quest, Deftones, Kanye West, Madonna, Lil Baby and Mos Def. As expected, each playlist she curated is vastly diverse and covers music from every decade. The most recent playlist she created contains artists Todd Rundgren, Latto, Carole King and LL Cool J. When asked who her favorite top five current emerging musical artists were, she replied with Latto (of course), Madonna, Lil Baby, Bjork, and Radiohead. 

This little experiment was interesting and validated what I already knew about my mother. She has a great love for music, listens to a wide variety and she will always explore the new and unknown. She has contributed so much to my love of music and is still turning me on to new sounds. Next time you are visiting your parents or just hanging out with your mom or dad, check out their daily jams, you might just be surprised. Let us know what your parents are listening to in the comments and check out my mom’s playlist linked below. 

Rosie’s Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1PML36oledlysDHVGDbvmT?si=6c7f6488af5444a3