I Want My MTV ... BACK!

He may have been born in Virginia and lived in Florida, but Clarence Clemons was as much a part of New Jersey as the Garden State Parkway and "going down the shore." His passing this past Saturday was much a loss for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band as it was to the Garden State and the rest of the world. He had a smile that could light up the last row of Giants Stadium, and his saxophone could bring you to your feet dancing or reduce you to tears with its beautiful sound. You will always be loved and forever missed, Big Man.

Can you tell? Music is my life. In my 30 years in the entertainment business, I have had the honor and pleasure of sharing the stage with some legendary performers. The Beastie Boys. Todd Rundgren. The Smashing Pumpkins. Heck, even Huey Lewis & The News. (That gig was just to get my mom backstage to meet Huey.)

Needless to say, we raise our kids with music constantly being played. In the house, in the car or wherever the family goes, the tunes are on.

And I know we listen to good music. My wife and I travel for shows and festivals and we get into NYC every chance we get for concerts. Even our honeymoon was on Jam Cruise, a week-long music festival at sea.

So, why do my kids know the words to every Ke$ha and Lady GaGa song on the radio? I can assure you, we live in a Gaga-Free Zone. Why listen to a pale imitation when they can listen to Madonna, the original Material Girl? And Ke$ha? Don't get me started on Ke$ha. For starters, what is with the dollar sign in her name? No real person has a "$" in their name. I think it's just a statement to the fact that she has no real discernable talent and is only in it for the money.

I knew there was a problem when I caugh the 11-year-old singing along with the recent Rhianna song, "S&M." Yes, there's nothing a father enjoys more than hearing his precious fifth grader singing the line, "Whips and chains excite me".  Oh, hell no!

"Where did you learn that song?" I asked her.

"They play the radio at SKIP before school. I heard it here."

Nice to know that before heading into the classroom my kid is getting her ears filled with not only bad AM radio but inappropriate songs, as well. All that time I have spent getting her into bands and singers who put forth a positive female image just got flushed down the tubes.

I have spent hours filling her iPod with the classics: The Pretenders, Blondie, The Go-Go's, Wanda Jackson and Joan Jett. And don't think that I don't find any new music acceptable for her young ears. She was surprised on her 10th birthday with VIP box seats to see Taylor Swift for her very first concert. Of course, now the problem is she thinks every concert she attends will come with $400 seats and an all you can eat buffet with ice cream sundae station. She is in for a big surprise. This "daddy" isn't "Puff Daddy," so be prepared for regular seats in the future, hun.

This problem could be alleviated if MTV actually played music anymore. Remember when MTV stood for "music"? I can't even begin to name how many bands and artists we discovered and fell in love with because we saw them on MTV the first time. We used to sit glued to MTV for hours watching nothing but music videos, and it was incredible.

Seen MTV lately? Nothing but teenage pregnancies, Sweet 16 parties with bigger budgets than Kate & William's royal wedding, and tours of NBA players' multi-million dollar "cribs." The last time I saw a video on MTV it was a Lil' Wayne video that was filled with undressed women drinking in a nightclub while guys made rude gestures at them. Not at all in the same league as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video by a long shot.

On the plus side, my boy has discovered rap music and break dancing. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when I told him the Beastie Boys were Jewish. So, after a few hours watching Breakin' II: Electric Boogaloo and Krush Groove, it was all we could do to keep him from bringing in a piece of cardboard to breakdance on at his bar mitzvah in February.

Yes, I listen to and appreciate rap music. Just because I am a middle aged white guy living in the suburbs doesn't mean that Run-DMC or Tupac don't make me groove.

Bob Dylan once said, "Music is the highest form of prayer" and it is is a sentiment that I not only embrace and live by but try to instill in my children, as well. So, I guess if that means for every cool band my kids discover like My Morning Jacket or U2 or Eminem, that they also listen to the GaGa's in the world, so be it. Because a dancing singing family is a happy family. Which is good enough for this cool daddy.