Rock ‘n’ Roll Babies are all the rage! And the best place to find the spirit of “Baby Rock” is at Charlotte’s own Milky Way. If you check out the latest fashion shows and infant apparel marts in NY, LA, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta, you will find some kind of guitar and some or other rock ‘n’ roll phrase silk-screened on countless infant and toddler T-shirts in showroom after showroom. Curt Cobain’s short sleeve T-shirt over a long sleeve T-shirt look made famous in Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit” video is also the norm for infant and toddler boys’ apparel. Joe’s-Garage-style urban Rockabilly boys’ apparel is likewise as easy to find as hay in a haystack.
As odd as the combination of baby and Rock ‘n’ Roll might seem, if you carefully consider this latest Rockin’ Baby craze, it might just make more sense than it would at first appear.
• First, babies and children overwhelming respond to music, both making and listening to it. It’s a primal form of communication that develops even before formal language skills do.
• Second, today’s generation of parents, and let’s be honest, grandparents even, were weaned on Pop and Rock Music. From the Beatles to U2 to REM to Nirvana, today’s parents have some sort of nostalgia for popular rock of yesteryear. With today’s pop radio stations blasting mostly teen-targeted Hip Hop, Britney or Rap Metal, it would seem natural that contemporary parents find the old school Rock nostalgically comforting and appealing.
• Third, as expectant and new families emotionally prepare for the raising of their child, they invariably entertain notions of reliving their own wonder-filled childhoods. And, although Rock ‘n’ Roll is not something we remember from infancy, new parents still cannot help but play a slideshow of their own youth as they anticipate their child’s development. We all have a deep nostalgic fondness for those first songs we heard on the radio as we listened in the car to our own parents’ radio stations, or the anarchic thrill of those footloose-and-fancy-free days of rebellious youth, or the theme song from our high school proms.
• Fourth, Rock rocks.
Rock ‘n’ Roll and style have always been closely aligned, if not nearly synonymous. From blue suede shoes and ducktails to mop tops and love beads, to mohawks and Doc Martins to Grunge, Rock has influenced fashion and vice versa. It would therefore seem a natural extension that today’s parents have an affinity for infant and toddler alt fashion and that Rock ‘n’ Roll is currently the most visible representation of today’s infant styles.
If you go to The Milky Way, you’ll not only hear a wide variety of “COOL” and “ECLECTIC” rock ‘n’ roll jammin’ on the stereo in this baby shop, you’ll also see the very funkiest, most trendy, most fashion-forward styles for wee ones of all ages – from preemies to four-year-old toddlers. It’s certainly the coolest baby shop in Charlotte if not the coolest baby store in the world. Come check it out to truly take in a modern, cutting edge Rock ‘n ‘Roll baby experience.
