When my daughter was 10 years old, she went through a phase where she was extremely into the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.
We went to see her concert twice. She is very famous American musician, so of course, I knew who she was. She had won multiple awards in the country music category and is the recipient of multiple Grammy Awards, so I was familiar with her but her music wasn’t on my playlist.
Enjoying her favorite Goldfish by the pool. Hawaii, 2023.
As my daughter got into dancing, she also started curating her own music playlists, beginning with K-pop artists like BLACKPINK, NEW JEANS and TWICE, but this was the first time she created a category to include an American singer-songwriter like Taylor Swift.
I realized that over time, such categories and genres would be added gradually. I have never tried to push “what I like” onto my children, so when she started listening to Taylor Swift, I thought “Ah, this is a field dad actually knows a lot about,” and I found it quite heartwarming and delightful.
Sometime later, I think it was the 66th Grammy Awards, I heard that Tracy Chapman, whom I loved, would be performing at the Grammys!
I was so looking forward to it, in addition to the long-awaited Tracy Chapman, she also performed “Fast Car” with a country singer named Luke Combs. “Fast Car” was a song from Tracy Chapman’s first album in 1988, and I listened to that song a lot in high school. It all started with a record that a senior colleague I admired had.
So, just hearing that song played was quite emotional, but the fact that they were singing a duet with a country musician had me reflecting a lot. But what surprised me even more was when the camera switched from showing the two performing to the audience where many famous people were seated and Taylor Swift was zoomed in on screen. She was the only one standing up, singing and dancing along to the performance while looking at the stage with deep respect. That moment felt like a pure embodiment of how things are passed down from generation to generation, and it was the perfect expression of America. I loved. It was refreshing to see and hear that music, a culture that anyone can touch, has the power to transcend time, generation, race and gender.
Until then, I had deliberately avoided imposing my taste on my children, but seeing my daughter’s love for Taylor Swift made me think that maybe this would be an opportunity for her to learn about Tracy Chapman, who I used to listen to on my Walkman a long time ago. The sight of Taylor Swift, the superstar among superstars, standing alone, facing towards the stage, singing and dancing along surely inspired others in many ways.
After all, I saw Luke Combs, a contemporary country singer, performing a song I loved from decades ago, and it made me want to explore modern country music. At the same time, my 11-year-old daughter discovered the amazing musician Tracy Chapman through Taylor Swift, an icon of the era.
Attending Paris Fashion Week, the Undercover show and rehearsals. Paris, 2024
