Down with the kids!

This morning I decided to do an experiment to find out which genre of music Mabel likes. I am constantly playing her, 'baby classics' and G Kisby obviously exposes her to his wide and varied range of 'music' but I wanted to see if she had any real preferences.

So we lay on the bed together, I pulled up iTunes, and trying very hard not to sway her by my facial expressions we turned up the volume (not too loud Mum, don't panic).

And I discovered two things...
1) It is incredibly easy, without realising it, to try and influence your child (or in my case believe that she must only like the same as me)
When going through the genres I got to rap.
"No need to stop at this one" I thought...then I remembered the point of the exercise and chose what I hoped was the least offensive 'tune'(?) to play.
I went for The Fugees and some Kanye West.

And yes, she loved it. Big smiles, legs kicking (to the hip hop beat).
What the hell? I play you a bit of gentle Rachmaninov and you look away, a bit of hardcore rap and you are all ears. It would appear Mabel is very much down with the kids!

2) There will be times ahead when I am disappointed

Yes I know this sounds harsh but hear me out. I thought it was a given, I turned it up that little bit louder (yes i know I said I wouldn't influence but after Kanye I felt a small amount of 'help' was required). It was my personal favourite, a bit of Kylie.

I watched her movements. I looked in her eyes. Nothing.
"Ooh bad song choice" I thought, "lets try another"
And another
And another
Nothing.

Well how about a bit of Madonna? Nope. Girls Aloud? (clearly getting desperate here, note the latter is G Kisby's album not mine). No reaction whatsoever to any 'pop'.

"She must be getting tired of the game" I justified, "let's read a story instead".
I turned on Adele (whilst I found a book) and got the best reaction of all, huge smiles.

"Ooooh o.k Adele is fine. We can work with that"
Thank goodness, I had a horrible feeling I was going to have to blast rap out of the family saloon - I really can't pull that off (and for the record G Kisby, neither can you).

Notably the other bit hit was Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush. Though I think this may have been because I acted it out in an Alan Partridge style, including climbing onto the bed for the window scene - YouTube footage available below if you want a comedy reminder or don't know what I'm talking about...