Reply to Should I bring my 9 y.o. to a Katy Perry concert?

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Reply to "Should I bring my 9 y.o. to a Katy Perry concert?"

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[quote=Anonymous]How many of you have ever seen Katy Perry perform (or actually know much about live stadium performance in general)? I sense that not many of you have that much experience (maybe I am wrong, that's just my impression).

Katy Perry is one of a top group of performers and her shows are well-organized. Her shows are some of the most well-choreographed shows in the business. A Katy Perry show is about the dance (her dancers are uniformly excellent), lights, choreography, costumes, and stage presence. Her lyrics are indeed suggestive, but they're a small part of the show at a Katy Perry concert. Your child has a better chance of picking up the lyrics on the playground at school than she will at an actual Katy Perry concert.

I would not take a nine-year-old girl to a Taylor concert. Taylor is an anemic performer who doesn't have the stage presence of Katy. The lyrics are a core part of a Taylor show, because there's not much else going on with her show. Personally I think Taylor's lyrics are problematic themselves but YMMV here.

I would take a nine-year-old to see Katy Perry. In fact, I'd take a musically-inclined, musically-experienced or dance-performance-interested younger child, possibly as young as five or six, depending on their musical/performance talent. I wouldn't take a child to a Taylor show or a Miley show. I would take a child to see Beyonce. I wouldn't take a child to see Ke$ha. I think reasonable opinions on this can vary, but you should know something about the performance philosophy of the performers, not just what their lyrics say.

OP, here is what you can do to make it a family event: Don't bring your child's friends. Personally I like a 1:1 adult/child ratio until they're teenagers. Also, I don't know if my kids' friends have been taught about concert and crowd rules and safety and I don't want to be in charge of that. Don't use regular earplugs; invest in a pair of solid child ear protectors (earmuffs), and make sure your kid is comfortable wearing them before you buy the tickets and perhaps have a rule that if the ear protectors come off you walk out immediately. Be prepared to leave if you get there and you're wrong in your judgment (this has never happened to us, but we always go to every performance ready to leave at any point). Be okay with leaving early or even plan on leaving early (we do this). Make sure they eat a solid dinner beforehand, and put some protein bars or cheese sticks in your pockets or purse so you can choose when you want to go to concessions, if you want to go at all. If you see bad behavior, talk about it openly with your kids and how the people are making bad choices and how to avoid them. Talk about the show after you go: performances you liked, the dance numbers you liked, etc. and what didn't play as well.

I see so many teenagers at concerts who get there and just have no idea what to do. They've never been taught how to manage themselves in performances or crowds. They are unsafe, get overwhelmed with the novelty, and make terrible choices. Perhaps that's just part of being a teen, but I feel like I've also seen a lot of ignorance at work at these concerts.

I grew up in a musical family, with family members in the business, and I'm continuing that tradition (I am not in the business, but I really love live performance and go with my kids). Personally I think it's terrific to take kids to see those performers who know how to put on a good show and teach them how to enjoy big music events while they have your guidance. Their first big stadium concert experiences shouldn't be with a group of equally inexperienced friends when they're 15. You don't want your child to be the one that somebody like me has call her parents while I watch because she's been sick in the bathroom and isn't safe. I was the safe teen when I started going to performances on my own, and I think it's because my parents showed me how to be careful when I was younger by teaching me themselves. I really cherish those memories and I am so glad to build the same experiences with my kids.[/quote]

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