What are the kids NOT hearing?

Kidz Bop, the brand of compilation albums which features child musicians who perform contemporary music hits is pretty popular with some preschoolers and early elementary children. In 2010, the brand scored three of the year’s top ten children’s albums. It’s not surprising that they often have to change their lyrics to suit young ears and take out the overtly sexual references or an F word here and there. But the company recently did their own version of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way and took out quite a lot of the meaning behind the song. In fact, they negated its message when they edited a few lines that don’t say anything explicitly sexual or violent, but merely reference the gay and lesbian population. It is a contradiction in terms of the current anti-bullying campaign we are trying so desperately to get across to today’s kids.

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Barney -- and a cheerful teacher -- kept kids calm as violence erupts outside the preschool classroom. VIDEO

A preschool teacher in Monterrey, a city in northern Mexico, is being called a hero for keeping her classroom calm while a gun battle raged outside her classroom.

After the first shots were fired, she quickly and calmly gets the kids to lay down on the ground. In a video, posted after the jump, you can hear her order the kids “faces on the floor.” Then one of them asks what’s going on. Continue reading »

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There’s no question that kids’ music about nine million times better than it was when I was a kid. Even when I was babysitting, Raffi (gag me) and such sugary sweet stuff was the order of the day. But we’ve got Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell, and even traditionally more grown-up oriented artists like Barenaked Ladies and They Might be Giants making music for kids.

And I credit Sesame Street. In its 40 years of kid’s TV awesomeness, they’ve had some amazing musical guests. And that continues to this day. I think seeing stuff like Stevie Wonder and Johnny Cash on our favorite TV show changed our perspective on what “kids’ music” actually is, and led to wanting, and getting, much better stuff for our own kids. And the musicians that watched it as kids were clearly also influenced and are including their own kids in their musical lives and taking our kids along for the ride.

The Houston Press marked Sesame Street’s 40th birthday this week by posting a list of Sesame Street’s top ten music guests ever. While I seriously disagree with some of them –Andrea Bocelli, really? Denyce Graves did a similar guest shot that was way better — any list that includes Feist doing a riff on “1-2-3-4″ with the Muppets can’t be all that bad (see it after the jump). Continue reading »

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If anyone can knock the Wiggles off your tot’s TV rotation, it’s the Imagination Movers – four dads from New Orleans who solve idea emergencies on the Disney Channel.

The show grabbed a Daytime Emmy out of the starting gate for outstanding original song in the children’s show/animation category – and now the Movers are going back on the road for a forty-city concert tour.

We grabbed Imagination Mover Scott Durbin, father of two and former award-winning teacher in the Movers’ hometown of New Orleans, to talk about rocking out, raising kids who’ve been through Katrina and why standards-based education doesn’t work for America’s kids: Continue reading »

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You may know Mike Messer as the lead singer of the Dirty Sock Funtime Band. And you may know the Dirty Sock Funtime Band from their appearances on Jack’s Big Music Show.

Or you may know Mike, and the Dirty Socks, from someplace else.

Either way, you can see Mike Messer perform live this Saturday, October 3rd at New World Stages. Continue reading »

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Every parent has been there. You’re stuck in the car for hours with the kids and they insist on listening to nothing but Raffi.

This Babble list of car songs — 25 adult tunes that will definitely appeal to children — is designed to resolve that problem. Some of the songs writer Lindsay Armstrong recommends may already be in your regular rotation (“1 2 3 4″ by Feist, “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley), but others may sound fresh to both you and the kids (“New Shoes” by Paolo Nutini, maybe?). Also, I can’t stress this enough: God bless Armstrong for including Ted Leo’s cover of “Six Months in a Leaky Boat.”

To keep the music flowing, I’ve got a few more additional recommendations. Think of them as the special hidden tracks on this already solid mix of music.

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If you’re anything like me — or, if Amazon’s top seller list is any indication, millions of online consumers — the sad death of Michael Jackson may have compelled you to dive into his discography, seeking out copies of  “The Essential Michael Jackson,” “Off the Wall” and  “Thriller.”

All the nostalgia for MJ’s music may even have you itching to introduce some of his songs to your kids. (Note: I am talking about the music, not all the media coverage of the often controversial man.)  Certainly some tracks from MJ’s discography — like, say, “Billie Jean,” “Thriller” or “Scream” — may sound a bit, um, intense for toddlers. But plenty of Jackson tunes are upbeat and catchy enough to prompt your little Jackson 5ers to sing along. With that in mind, here are the 10 Michael Jackson songs most likely to win over the kids.

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