The struggle to stay on key

My son was singing in the bathtub. This is not new. What was new was what he was singing. There, echoing off the bathroom walls, in his slightly off-key, boys soprano came the classic lyrics of:

Who let the dogs out? Woof, woof, woof, woof-woof! Who let the dogs out? Woof, woof, woof, woof-woof!

Clearly this 2000 summertime Baha Men cover ended up on one of those Kidz Bop albums at my son's school. And the lyrics became an earworm for him that he just couldn't shake.

We play a lot of music in our house (although I am pretty sure we have never played that song). And I've even done experiments in the past where I've tried to expose my son to different music types. He definitely has his own preferences for music - he tends to like upbeat, happy songs.

My music tastes have definitely stalled a bit. Yes, I still incorporate new artists into my iPod playlists, but the rate is much slower than it used to be. And, not surprisingly, there is plenty of research to back this up. This post from Skynet and Ebert has a pretty compelling breakdown of when men and women stop keeping up with popular music. Spoiler alert: Our tastes mature in our 30s and men stop incorporating popular music into their playlists before women do.

The surprising note in the research (which was entirely based off Spotify users in the U.S., so take all this with a grain of salt) is what happens to parents. Evidently, the years you spend listening to children's music marks an end to your keeping up with music trends.

So, it's finally time for us all to admit that those radio stations we listen to that play the hits from the 80s and 90s are the equivalent of the "oldies" stations our parents used to listen to in the car.

What type of music do you listen to? (I hope it's not all Disney all the time.) Tell me your preferences in the comments.