Still, it is one thing for a 12-year-old to idolize a guy like Hawk. It is another for his dad to pine for a life of nose grinds and front-side kickflips -- as many do. (Hawk describes her brother's adult fan base as rabid.) Bryan Page, a professor of anthropology and the chairman of the department at the University of Miami, said: "Play has historically been about recreation or preparing children to move into adult roles. That whole dynamic has now been reversed -- play has become the primary purpose and value in many adult lives. It now borders on the sacred. From a historical standpoint, that's entirely backward."
Many rejuveniles, however, reject the notion that their enthusiasms are childish in the first place. "I like Chipmunks records because they're funny, period," said Jacob Austen, 34, a Chicago writer and authority on music by Alvin and the Chipmunks, part of a genre of children's music fans affectionately call rodent rock. Austen, who also produces a children's dance program on Chicago public-access television, says the best entertainment for kids is universal.
Ironically, most actual kids could not care less about much of the stuff that enchants rejuveniles. Take The Langley Schools Music Project: Innocence and Despair, a CD of Canadian schoolchildren that has been praised by the likes of David Bowie and John Zorn, who called it nothing less than "music that touches the heart in a way no other music ever has." Irving Chusid, the record's producer, said that what adults find haunting, kids find utterly mundane.
Austen said he understands that distinction all too well. While friends and family have come to regard his love of old kids' records as charming or sweet, children are less forgiving. "I get the most censure from little kids, definitely," he said. "I'll be playing a Chipmunk record in my car, and if a kid hears it, they get seriously weirded out."
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