I don`t have kids, but I am curious about how the parents out there expose their passion for metal to their children and if you have any advice on how to share this music with our kids without being so overbearing about it that they get tired of it. The way I am, I got into metal because I got bored with my parents playing the same songs over and over again, so I`m concerned my hypothetical kid(s) would reject my music for the same reasons.

They probably would because it's yours and not theirs. You'll be some lame old bald/balding dude and they won't think your music is cool (regardless of how cool it might actually be).

For more information, see The Simpsons episode Homerpalooza.

Didn't Tom Araya say something like "I mad Reign in Blood and still my kid thinks I'm uncool" - but I dunno, I liked a lot of the weirdo stuff my parents had me listen to, so I guess it depends on the parents.

you have to start them early: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZGa40Hl4zI

I dunno, I reckon some of the yugorock (think of it as a balkan/eastern euro equivalent to older folks liking the Beatles) my parents listened to when I was a kid kinda paved the way for my tastes today. If they had pressed bands like Divlje Jagode and Riblja Čorba on me, I think I would have hated and resented it, but as it turned out I still listen to those LPs to this day.

So what I'm saying is: I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just don't be one of those sad parents who project really hard on their kids and dress them up in metal t-shirts emblazoned with bands that the kid almost certainly doesn't listen to or care for.

Yeah, when kids like what they hear, they ask and inquire about it, and that goes double for kids in their early teens, who by definition are looking for things that they can call their own and part of their identity.

If your children become fans of metal, well..... That's awesome, but it shouldn't be a big deal if the opposite is true.

Anyone see the movie "Shoot em Up"? kids mom lived above a heavy metal venue when she was pregnant and the kid loves heavy metal as a baby. Maybe if you don't have a venue to live above just play lots of metal before and after they are born, that's what I'm gonna do! I will not accept my kids not being metalheads! I'm completely not serious.

The last thing I`d want to do is force something on my kids. It won`t be the end of the world if they`re not into what I`m into. I`d be pretty pathetic if I let the fact that my kid would rather hear Macklemore (who I have nothing against. Just the first name that came up) than Celtic Frost (again: random pick) ruin our relationship.

I feel exactly the same way. Unfortunately, it's a scientific fact that music players that play non-metal in my house tend to mysteriously stop working.
...
What do you mean "petty"? That's not petty.

I dunno I think it depends on the age of said children. If/when I have a child I fully plan on putting my hypothetical child in cute metal themed onzies and the like. But as far as beyond the age of say around three or so I'll knock it off.

When I was very little, my dad was always playing King Diamond, Armored Saint, Manowar, Evildead, and Agent Steel. I think it just pushed me into extreme metal sooner.

That, and when I got a bit older, he was playing a lot of Malevolent Creation and Vader.

Honestly, that seems even stupider to me. A three-year-old has a much wider range of preferences than an infant, and can at least begin to express in basic terms whether or not they like something. Dressing your six-month-old baby in band clothes just seems like using them as advertising space.

Well for the first 5-7 years of their life you can really play whatever you want and they will except it. Personal bias does not become a factor until they have had a chance to experience many thing. When they get to 10+ years it will be up to them. At that point if they don't like it the harder you push the more they're going to push back. All you can really do is show them what you like and hope they like it too.

I think you're missing the point. Waiting until the child is older is kinda dumb because then they can and do have an input (however limited it may be) but when they're babies it's jut cute no matter what they wear. I wouldn't make my child wear something they hated just because I liked it but when they're babies it really doesn't matter because they don't know the difference. And advertising? Sure I guess but it's no different than you wearing a band shirt as an adult.

My 5 year old has a mini bass and I taught him to throw up the horns. He likes (not necessarily listens) to Holy Diver, Fear of the Dark, etc but I never overplay songs or force anything on him... he also likes Kesha, that happy song and other radio stuff. Sometimes he asks me to play something lighter if I have metal on for a car ride. I'm not too concerned with what he get into with music. Being as I've done some fucked up shit due to metal shows, being in bands and making acquaintances with some shady people, I would be okay if he stayed away from it. It's not a genre for everyone and what the hell does a 5yo kid know?

There's no way I'm going to play Bestial Raids, GBK or the like around him anytime soon.

Stuff that is fun to sing along with and catchy.... and just overall fun music!

- King Diamond
- Iron Maiden
- Dio
- Rainbow

my kids will listen to whatever they want to listen to

I think that is definitely possible to make your kids like metal. At least I really hope so ahha. If I do have any I will try to get them to like it. My personal experience would be that I remember my dad playing alot of The Moody Blues and Talking Heads when I was really young in the car with him and memories from my childhood are linked back to those bands and I still listen to both of them. Especially Talking Heads. So if theres an emotional or memory connection to the music then maybe your kids would be more likely to continue to listen or enjoy music.

My 2 cents

Oh and I definitely intend on playing plenty of black metal to my kids See how that turns out lol.

I would obviously show my kids what kind of music I've listened to when I was their age and what kind of music I'm still listening to today and I guess my wife would probably do the same. But it's not really important for me whether my child is sharing my musical tastes or not. If it's the case, it would be cool because we could go to some concerts and festivals together and discover things from each other. That's actually the case of my dad and me as we have very similar tastes, share a lot of music and go to concerts and festivals together and we spend many great moments together. Many friends are often telling me that they would like to have a father like I have and I'm very grateful for that as well. If my child ends up listening to something different or more contemporary, I wouldn't mind though and I would at least check out what kind of music it is and go to some concerts or festivals with my kids anyway until they prefer going there with their friends and boy/girl-friends which would be perfectly normal. I really don't like people who buy baby clothes with Slayer logos on it and use their children as advertising spaces for music they don't even know or they are forced to listen to. In Quebec, there is a very similar phenomenon in hockey. I see so many young kids walking around with hockey shirts of the Quebec Nordiques and the team had been transfered to Denver more than ten years before they were even born and when I'm talking about hockey with them, they don't even know the Stastny brothers and they are just repeating stupid things their parents are telling them like ''Alain Côté's goal was a good goal!'' or ''Eric Lindros is a bastard!''. Boy, that's pathetic.

When I was really young, my parents played classical music when I would take naps and shit like that, because I guess studies proved kids are smarter if they fall asleep to classical music or whatever. That definitely didn't work, but it may be part of the reason why I like black metal today.

Apparently it did work.

just download 56k dial tone, throw some harsh vocals in, bam! instant metalhead.

My boy is 9. I play it in the car and he hates it. He plugs his headphones in and plays Minecraft on the iPad.

Conversely, when he travels with his mum, she listens to the radio. He comes home singing 'Hey Geronimo', and Rihanna / One Direction / Pitbull stuff.

What is wrong with the kid?!??!

Could always try the old reverse psychology. You know, have a music room that you go to by yourself, but hide it from the kids as if you don't want them to get into it. Then naturally they will.

^ hehe, that's a deviously good idea.

Set up a really sweet converted garage in which you blast metal that they ABSOLUTELY CANNOT GO IN (said with that "no cookies from the cookie jar!" look dad's naturally learn how to do). That should get them interested.


edit:

.. fuck! gaddammit.

There was a lot of country being played by my parents, a fact that remains true 24 years later. I remember singing along to some stuff when I was 6 or 7, but it wasn`t much longer until I got bored with it. Then I got bored with everything on the radio, leading me to become the proud metal deviant I am today, to the confusion of everyone in my family. I should point out that the exact opposite happened to my little sister. Raised with the same music, she`s become a diehard fan.

I have no plans of having kids ever, but if I did, then I wouldn't force them to listen to whatever I like. I mean, I'd probably play my stuff in the car all the time, but if they became more adjusted to whatever was on the radio or what their friends were into, I wouldn't complain.

I liked some music my parents showed me, for example Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Sabbath. But yeah I rejected much of it as being uncool. So I think pushing music too hard on kids is a bad thing. Let them develop tastes on their own, and hopefully they come to the good side naturally and not end up liking some teeny pop crap. I won't be pushing metal on my kid, he seems to like some of it on his own already though.

I couldn't relate to any rock or metal music until I was 15. I don't think I even listened to any music seriously before that. But then it all hit at once.

My dad would just play whatever he felt in the mood for regardless of what we were up to (minus important things like sleep or homework) and that let me hear lots of stuff I enjoyed and still do like Blackmore's Night and Mike Oldfield and Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Then he came home one day with Dragonforce and that was that.

I think the best approach would be just that; to play most of the variety of the things you're into just casually and let your kid decide; naturally and passively aurally educating them on music.

There's a little one coming to my sister and her husband next year. I'm not afraid of his/her musical future, because my sister has fairly good taste in music (listening Bowie and stuff), though she's not a metalhead. But maybe I buy this little one some Hevisaurus album or something similar, just to be sure...

I self discovered my taste for heavy music. Nothing to do with my parents. I know some people whom have parents that listen to metal and they themselves love it. I have two kids and a third on the way, as they age I want them to get into whatever music they connect with. I wouldn't want them listening to heavy music just because I do. I listen to most of my music when they're present.

Patton Oswalt has addressed this issue:

You should probably your kids into healthy, socially capable, successful individuals before you try to impress your arbitrary nerdy hobbies on them.

i don't think there is a right as rain way to get your kids into metal. i eventually picked up on some of my dads music (not all of it though) and around when i got into jr. high i saw a lot of other kids wearing shirts of bands i knew that my dad was into also.

kids aren't by default against everything their parents like, its just common for them to think its lame. i mean damn, outside of music, Friday night magic and warhammer 40k nights in my city are practically family events.

im more troubled by people on this forum having procreated than whatever music the kids will be listening to

So what's the progress in this thread, basically one idea, to reverse psychology them into liking metal? And nothing else? People, please, stop whining about it being not likely or discussing the morals pointlessly, strategise. Let's treat this as a group effort.

Dude, I was so tempted to post that one. "You'll love No jacket required, this is rockin' good stuff, son"