10 Life Lessons Taught Through Music – With a Bonus
By: Keith
Each of these songs teaches a life lesson that is worth absorbing. Music is expressive in ways that other forms of communication are not. This list contains almost all the important lessons I want to teach my kids as they get older. Sure, I’ll have my kids sit in a classroom to listen to a teacher drone on and bore them to death with required knowledge. But, I don’t want to forget that there are people like Johnny Cash, Freddy Mercury, Sinatra, and Rodger Waters who have whole collections of lessons that are actually entertaining and just as important.
1. Boy Named Sue (Johny Cash)
Parents can seem incomprehensible and cruel. But, more often than not we’ll thank them later in life.
2. People are People (Depeche Mode)
Disagreement is part of life, but hate is unproductive. In the end we are all more alike than we are different. Teach children to think before they feel.
3. These Are the Days of Our Lives (Queen)
Remember that kids are at a time in their lives that they will never get back. Give them experiences that they can carry through life and look back on with fondness. Allow them to live for the moment and to carry as few regrets as possible into adulthood.
4. Learning to Fly (Pink Floyd)
There will come a day that our kids will fly alone. Prepare them well so they will go fearlessly into new experiences.
5. My Way (Sinatra)
How we conduct ourselves in life is entirely up to us. Teach kids to go through life as they see fit, not how someone else wants them to.
6. Lose Yourself (Eminem)
Grab life by the balls and don’t let go. Don’t shrink when opportunity knocks because we never know when it may return.
7. Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)
Watch Rocky I-VI about a hundred times (skip V because it was an embarrassment). Life is not easy and it can be rough. “You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward.” – Rocky Balboa
8. Lean on Me (Bill Withers)
Everybody needs someone to lean on sometimes. Be available to kids and let them know how much we want to be a person they can rely on in times of trouble.
9. Taxman (Beatles)
It is good to have a healthy disrespect for authority – especially government authority. A child who bows to authority without question is in danger of becoming a closed minded adult. Taxes is just one example of life’s absurdities that goes unquestioned.
10. Opportunities (Pet Shop Boys)
Where there is no opportunity, make opportunity.
BONUS:
11. 1916 (Motorhead)
A song to remind us all how easy it is to get wrapped up in emotion and propaganda. We should never stop thinking for ourselves lest we find ourselves senselessly dead for a cause we never understood.
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Great music videos- I hadn’t taken the time to think about the meanings behind the words. “Learning to Fly” by Pink Floyd is my favorite.
Keith, These just keep getting better.