A few years ago for Christmas, we got the kids iPod Shuffles as presents and I wanted to make sure that they came pre-filled with music.

Now, some of you may not know that music plays a huge role in my life. I grew up falling asleep to a stack of records playing in the living room. I’ve always had a huge music collection and still to this day am fueled by a variety of tunes. As I type this my iTunes is on shuffle and I’ve had a cornucopia of selections including Kings of Leon, James Taylor, Prince, Chance, Zack Wylde and The Cool Waters Band. It is why I’ve hosted Accident Hash for years because I love sharing my music junkie status with others.

Laura (my wife) got a big kick out of how much trouble I had with filling the kids iPods. To her it was easy. Just drag and drop a bunch of songs and let it go at that.

But, I know that music is a powerful thing and the choices I made here could influence them for the rest of their lives. I’m a fan of music from Billy Joel, The Eagles, Harry Chapin and Van Halen because I heard them growing up. My Dad still doesn’t understand how I became a die hard Prince fan, but he is happy he influenced a lot of my music choices.

So what was my approach to filling the kids iPods?

I filled each separately because already I knew that the kids liked some different music then each other. They had play lists on my iPod already of some of their favorite tunes so of course those went over. Dylan likes the hard rock and pop rock crowd. Emily digs the singer song writer and bubble gum pop crowd. After those obvious ones I also put a selection of classics that they needed to hear including many of the artists I already mentioned. Then they also got a healthy dose of indie artists that I love and support. Finally I put on a variety of singles and other things that I thought they’d like based on their developing tastes. It was fun to do it.

One thing that I’ve had fun watching is how their musical tastes have grown. Emily is a big fan of Pink, Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers. Dylan loves Bon Jovi, Daughtry and Kid Rock. Both of them also have no separation between the major rock stars and the indie ones. They still don’t understand why someone like Matthew Ebel can come over to the house and do a house concert but Prince can’t. I love that about them.

It took me several hours to fill the iPods, but I knew the importance of it. Music will always be important in a Chapman’s life.

So what artists are you exposing your kids to? Do you have any rules about what they can and can’t listen to?