American society has experienced a wide range of fundamental changes in the past few decades. While demographic shifts have
changed the ethnicity balance, the popular perception of families and what part they play in socializing the next generation have also been affected. People learn to like or dislike a wide range of things in their lives based on what they see their family members do and what values are consistently emphasized. Further, while there are clearly other factors involved in how people perceive the culture of their society at any given time, the
political forms that exist are filtered, focused, and interpreted by people through this pervasive family lens. Claude Levi-Strauss and Jacques Derrida have suggested that it is possible to
understand how these relationships develop in the political context in which they occur. This paper provides a review of the relevant literature, followed by a discussion of how the resulting framework can be used to understand the evolution in musical tastes in the author's family. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.