My teenage sons pleaded with me to buy the latest song from Lil' Kim, the rapper fresh off of Dancing With The Stars.
I obliged, but not before giving the song a listen and explaining that her single, Download, sounded remarkably like Zapp's Computer Love, a song that came out 24 years ago when I used to know all the latest dances.
They didn't believe their old man knew how to groove, and their mother refused to validate my fancy footwork.
Nevertheless, such conversations are frequent. As a parent, I'm constantly trying to establish common musical ground between the stars of my era and the artists my children listen to today.
Eddie Santiago tells a similar story. When the Valrico resident and his 8-year-old son watched a recent Prince performance on the Tonight Show, he implored him to take note of Prince's musicianship.
"I said, 'Look at the way he's holding his guitar, the way he's playing it,'" Santiago said. "Clearly, he's vibing on something. The drummer was doing the same thing. I said, 'He didn't get that way overnight. That comes from years of practice.' "
Santiago has similar conversations with his 14-year-old daughter, a huge High School Musical fan. Yet he takes it a step further. Santiago shares his musical passions with his children and with the world through his own blog: vitarhythms.blogspot.com.
The site reflects Santiago's background as a former record company product manager and marketer, as well as the musical seeds his parents and his siblings planted in him during his New York upbringing.
"We listened to a lot of salsa because my family is Puerto Rican," Santiago said. "But my brother and sister introduced me to rock: Tom Petty, Pat Benatar, KISS. My mother was really into the Beatles, Ray Charles.
"Your brain ends up being wired for music. It resonates with you. Maybe it's the music that grabs you first, then lyrics. Sometimes it's the other way around."
Driven by the love of music, Santiago eventually landed a job in New York working for major labels. He met a number of artists during that stint and promoted the work of such stars as Brian McKnight and Vanessa Williams.
But Santiago eventually soured on the industry, turned off by the complicated record deals that often left artists owing money to the record labels. He returned to his work in child development and moved to Florida.
He currently works for the Louise Graham Center for developmentally disabled adults in St. Petersburg, but his passion for music lives on. In addition to the blog, he wrote a self-published biography on the legendary Sly Stone.
His latest blog: an entry about Teena Marie, an R&B diva who set the trend of a white female singing soul 30 years ago, long before Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse and Christina Aguilera. In the future, he hopes to pen another book and garner interviews with the likes of Carlos Santana and Stevie Wonder.
Santiago says he would love to blog more, but the demands of job and family don't always allow for his pastime.
Still, I think we share a goal with many other music-loving parents: passing on our appreciation to kids who don't quite understand there's no T-Pain without Roger Troutman, no Jonas Brothers without the Monkees and no Taylor Swift without LeAnn Rimes.
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