...she was born in 1990 and therefore she should have grown up listening to Oasis, the Spice Girls and Keane. I have to say I caught her on some pompous TV show this weekend and I couldn't help thinking that it was an achievement for anyone that young to be so, well, dull. Or is it just me?

When's she going to make the record? I'm not necessarily suggesting the thing should be awash with sleigh bells, gongs and Mellotrons - although they certainly wouldn't hurt, to be honest - but what are the production values on display here supposed to be telling us? That only the Tottenham Court Road Tunnel At Rush Hour Sound can adequately frame the lurkal content in all its raw and primal beauty? Ah, OK. Gotcha.

another fey teenage singer-songwriter with an artfully-lit video. Well, I suppose it's cheaper than Mommy calling the therapist.

next month - will let you know how it goes.

...Laura Marling has learned anything from having someone else's mindset forced onto her, rather than being encouraged to think for herself and develop her own tastes.

Surely an important part of evolving your own identity and asserting your independence from your parents is finding music that 'belongs' to you or at least to your generation.

...and I didn't like Oasis. Honestly, I grew up into a record collection that had some great stuff- from Pink Floyd, Van Der Graaf Generator, Colosseum, Yes, Soft Machine, ELP etc. I grew up hearing that so maybe that's why bands of that 60s/70s period continue to really appeal to me. From when I was about 6 I got into The Beatles, Genesis, The Stones, Elvis, Bowie etc. so, to be frank, Oasis didn't mean a thing to me although I was very much aware of them and the whole Britpop thing.

In later years I made a concerted effort to try and 'get' modern indie rock but no, I find most of it so very dull and conservative. Most of my friends/peers were into acts like The Strokes, The Libertines etc. and I had those albums but it didn't take too long to realise that this just was not for me. That terrible NME posturing masquerading as journalism put me off that stuff even further. Some modern acts I do rather like, though, for sure- but relatively few are British or, indeed, indie.

Right. That's it. I am now, offically, Tommy from Early Doors.

Rather than "forcing" his kids to listen to sulky folk music perhaps the twat who reared this wretch should have given her elocution lessons. Don't you just hate that horrible glottal stop posh kids pretending to be "street" do.
Anyway this is what kids should listen to:

My son, aged 21, has recently been turning my ears toward Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Curtis Mayfield. And to think the years of (in)doctrine I gave him, making sure the Burritos and Fairport were on permaplay on the car cassette, ungrateful brat...

I know it's annoying to hear all about these young neophytes whose parents were seemingly hipper than everyone else around them and force fed their children "proper" music; but it does happen sometimes. I was born in 1971, and my parents were so unfashionable that the only contemporary albums they ever played me during my childhood were things like Elvis Today (1975). I was almost entirely untouched by glam, disco or punk at the expense of the music that they listened to when they were kids, ie. the music of 1954-1969, roughly. I consider this an ideal grounding in life, and don't at all regret that they weren't more contemporary in their schooling of me. My Dad used to drive me to school to Lonnie Donegan; they played either Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley et al pretty much every day. It may be fashionable to admit now, but it sure as hell wasn't in the early 80s. I kept my liking of Elvis and The Beatles well to myself.

Alison Goldfrapp (who is great) in a recent Guardian interview apparently use to bunk of convent school and hang around with "Borstal boys" in the 70's and lived in a squat in 80's. Less of rock 'n' roll up bringing more a case of call social services as she was at best 10 in 1979! And as for Ike Turner "loosing" his virginity at the age of 6...

...isn't that the one with 'T.R.O.U.B.L.E' and 'Pieces Of My Life' on it?? Excellent tracks both. Didn't get my love of Elvis' music from my parents- neither of them are even remotely fans! Probably got that from watching a film called 'This Is Elvis' at an early age.

One of the guys from The Feeling said that his dad was into punk bands and a surefire way of winding up his dad was to listen to ELO and Supertramp.

There's no need to force feed kids with what you consider to be "proper music". Just play it once in a while, leave it lying around, and don't get too precious when they want to use the hi-fi.

If the sprogs have anything other than cloth ears, eventually, once they've learnt to ignore peer pressure, they'll listen to what floats their boat, not what's on Radio bloody 1 or wherever.

I had access to a great deal of good classical music from my parent's record collection when I was a kid, but they didn't have much pop that had been current during their adolescence. I therefore missed out on a grounding in Perry Como and his peers; not an insurmountable educational disadvantage, I'd wager.

I did however get a good working knowledge of orchestral music, something that has stood me in good stead for many years now. At no point was I told, "listen to this, because it is good music", I was left to explore the LP shelves as I pleased. As for pop, I filled in with King Crimson, Led Zeppelin and Frank Zappa.

Point is, a good record collection is an essential part of a home, and there should be Government subsidies for parents who provide one to their sprogs, on the condition that they don't sit them down and lecture them about it.

On longish journeys I'll sometimes stick on one of the "Now Hear This" CDs, partly as a bit of relief from Mica, The Singing Kettle etc. and partly just out of interest to see which songs the children like and which ones they don't (they soon let me know). From the recent CDs, my 5 y.o. son keeps wanting to back to Manu Chao, Robert Wyatt and Richard Thompson whereas my 8 y.o. daughter now says her favourite band is British Sea Power. After that, it's then back to Mica, The Singing Kettle etc. The main point though is that they decide themselves what they like best.

critiquing Vogon poetry but I really rather liked it.

We (6, 8 and 48) spent a You Tube half hour trying to figure out High School Musical after the Year 6 Talent Panel rejected my cherub's homemade poem, saying "we don't want your kind of talent". Charming! Every act seemed to be someone doing the HSM thing. We lasted 10 minutes looking at the lovely girls and boys and then explored Cash (they love this in the car) and stuff like that. I caught my little one (6) singing Death is Not the End to herself the other day whilst battling through her maths homework...

Too late for me to be cool. It takes all my energy just to be. Hello Richard Lowe.
Nice to hear you again!