Music and Family Blog ft. My Dad

In my first blog, I talked about my mom and her influence on my own musical experience. For this blog, I decided to bug my dad for a little while. I realized that for the most part, I didn't know much about his musical preferences and experiences.

First a little bit of background on Mr. Camp. He was born in 1964 and has lived in the same area his whole life. He drives a fuel truck for Spinx. He is a proud member of the pit crew for my high school marching band and drives their trailer to the weekend competitions.

First I asked him about his first memories involving music. His side of the family is not musically inclined, so his first awareness of music was kids playing music on the bus via boombox around middle school. A boombox means there were cassettes involved, and my dad swears they weren't as bad as we've all been told. A specific song he remembers is Another One Bites The Dust, by Queen. His friend Julie (who I am named after) sang this on the bus. 

As he got into high school, he started listening to more music. This is because he was now out with friends, or driving around in his car with a cassette player at his disposal. Since his music was mostly reserved for himself in his own car, he didn't have to worry about parent approval. Music that he strongly associates with this time is ABBA. This is actually one of my favorite bands now. Their music holds strong nostalgia for high school and snowy weather.

As far as music that was generally popular during this era of my dad's life, my dad had more important things going on than keeping up with the top 40. Growing up where he did he was surrounded by good ol country music. By this time we're talking 90s country. According to Davie Camp, country music used to be a good heartfelt genre with meaningful lyrics. Now it has taken a backseat and is a genre full of bad lyrics about cigarettes and beer. Recently we sang along to this country song in the car together.

Next, I asked my dad about concerts he has attended. He has been to a lot more than I expected. He has seen Cher and Cyndi Lauper, Hank Williams Jr, Alan Jackson, and several other country artists.  I think Alan Jackson is pretty cool, but I really love me some Cher. I'm glad at least one of us got to experience her.

The first thing my dad said when I asked him what musical experience he would like to have was "getting you the heck through music school." Fair enough. But in all seriousness, he wishes he could play both guitar and piano. I swear I could teach him keyboard basics, but he swears otherwise. He also would like to see Stevie Wonder in concert. 

As far as my music goes, my dad doesn't really care for it. He can't stand the small amount of rap/hip-hop I listen to. He does however really like The Weeknd. He also likes that one Dua Lipa-Elton John remix situation that is on the radio right now. Our music tastes are like a very interesting Venn Diagram and the stuff we agree on, we agree on strongly. The same goes for the stuff we disagree on. One thing I did discover recently is that an artist I really enjoy has a cover of a song my dad really enjoys. The original by Men Without Hats is a funky fast-paced bop. The Sleeping At Last cover is slow and romantic sounding. It almost sounds like a wedding song. I'll include both of them below. 

Overall I really enjoyed interviewing my dad and learning more about how he relates to certain music. Our conversation and the questions I asked him led to many little tangents and side conversations and I learned a lot of things about him. This was a really fun assignment. 

To bookend this post here's a picture of my sister and the man of the hour :)