I'm just checking out Mudcat and loved this discussion. I've spent the last few years living with my sister and her kids, a girl 12 and a boy 9. I've always tried to expose them to good music. It's OK if they listen to crap with their friends. I just hate it when the ONLY music kids are familiar with is pop crap designed to sell them advertiser's dreams. They're pretty sharp. I've told them what advertisers are up to. Kids don't have filters and they look to us to develop them. These two are pretty sharp and open-minded and both have a great sense of music. They can also sing along to a lot of pop songs. But they're critical and aware to a reasonable extent that there are huge industries out there who are experts at manipulating them into buying images and therefore buying products. So far, they're pretty cool kids.

It's the same as junk food. If you give them interesting, nutritious home made food, they develop broader tastes and don't have as much room in their stomachs for junk food. Forbid them to have junk food and they just want it more.