Transplanting a Seattleite

I think there's a good deal to be said for making sure children are exposed to music that's well performed and in tune, but that's not at all the same as saying they should never hear anything that isn't. (We would have to sedulously keep them away from most middle school orchestras, for instance.) But when I was a kid I was drawn to music that was performed in a particularly clear way that I could imitate without getting lost, as I had a somewhat unreliable ear (I now think that was probably due to allergies -- sometimes I could pitch things quite well and sometimes I couldn't). I would certainly also listen to all kinds of things I thought of as "sludgier," too, though. Tom Lehrer and Julie Andrews were definitely both good for my ears.