Star Wars was introduced to American movie goers in 1977.  I remember movie critics talking about the musical score and how it was a move from rock and roll back to a more classical, orchestra based style.  They wondered if the rock and roll oriented teenagers would find the “big orchestra sound” of the movie out of touch.  The original Star Wars and its five sequels grossed 4.38 billion (with a b) dollars, so – evidently not.

Fast forward to this afternoon.  I was riding in the van with my youth pastor, his wife and some of his children.  He put in a DVD for them and soon the van was filled with beautiful music.  That took me back to Cinderella (which I’ve seen) and Frozen, whose musical scores are a little “Star Wars like” – music that soothes even the preadolescent soul. Often, children are raised on beautiful music but somewhere between childhood and adolescence they leave the beautiful behind and embrace the beat and lyrics they don’t want their parents to know about.

The when is likely during the late elementary years and the why may be related to peer pressure and what the media culture pushes their way.  Almost unknowingly they abandon musical innocence (with its Cinderella-like themes of courage and being nice) and move towards more hard-core musical concepts that, for some reason, are defined by high volume (deafening) and less than creative lyrics.

My sons are grown.  My encouragement to every parent is simple:

• Savor the innocence of your children and their love of Frozen and Cars
• Be vigilant about they listen to.
• Know that as you “Let them go, Let them go…” – you have done your best to raise them in a musical environment that inspires their imagination instead of insulting it.

Blessings!

Pastor Mark