babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
My World: A Bieber-Free Zone
Ok, so maybe I’m kind of a music snob. I regularly veto songs that the Genius selects (from my husband’s side of the MP3 family, of course). Sometimes I run over to the computer to stop the flow as if it were blood from an artery. Does that count?
When my son was two, we started letting him watch TV. But only live concert videos. We spent hours watching Monterey Pop and the Rock and Roll Circus. He was particularly obsessed with Rust Never Sleeps. He eventually outgrew this compliant phase and instead wanted to watch endless episodes of “How It’s Made”. By the time my daughter was born, my stringent filter had become somewhat more lax. I still played “good” music around the house, but I stopped trying to make it “educational”. My daughter was clearly more excited by the pop music she heard on shopping excursions with her babysitter than X-Ray Spex, anyway.
On a family outing, I returned from a bathroom break to find my whole family listening to Katy Perry on eleven. My husband explained that this is what they do when I’m not around, “Because Mommy doesn’t like it.” That’s when I questioned whether my cultural fascism might not be the best thing for my children.
Lots of kids, my own included, get their first introduction to popular music via Kidz Bop. Each Kidz Bop CD is a compilation of current hit songs sung by children instead of the original artist. The first one, which was released in 2000 and went gold in the U.S., included renditions of Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did it Again” and Christina Aguilera’s “What A Girl Wants.”
About a week ago, Kidz Bop #18 was released and, because the lineup includes songs by some of pop’s reigning bad girls, the Kidz Bop song editors had to work overtime to sanitize the lyrics to make them appropriate for little ears. Lady Gaga had to lose her cigarettes and drinks in “Telephone” and Madonna becomes a pop star instead of a virgin in Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister.” Snoop Dog’s entire contribution to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” was dropped and Cascada’s “Evacuate The Dancefloor” feels really close instead of like an overdose. Continue reading »
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 »
Earlier this spring, Nickelodeon started airing promos for a band called the Jumparounds, which featured a quartet of cute young people singing and dancing away to upbeat perky songs. I wrote a post about it that was less than enthusiastic and got more hits than any post I have ever written. Most of those were along the lines of “We love them! If you don’t like it, don’t watch!!”
Well, Kiki, Marina, Twist, and Shout (the names of the four characters) faded away and Nickelodeon wasn’t promoting the show anymore, nor did it show up on their summertime schedule. About a month ago, though, the videos retuned, but the crew had a new name – the Fresh Beat Band – and their half hour show premiered on Nick last week.
The nice people at Nickelodeon sent me a screener, and I’ll say this: Continue reading »
Looking for a zesty companion to your summer outdoor dining? We knew you were. Following in the Putumayo tradition Picnic Playground is filled with fun food songs from all over the globe. Inspire your little ones to “Goûez-Les” the “Bolitas De Arroz Con Pollo.” Or perhaps introduce them to colloquial “Shoo Fly Pie.”
Check out the video for “Shoo Fly Pie” here -
As a reader helpfully pointed out, there are free concerts in Madison Square Park in New York City all summer long.
Today, Tuesday July 28 at 10:30am, you can see the Dirty Sock Funtime Band. For free. Best price of all. Continue reading »
If the names Rich, Scott, Smitty and Dave don’t mean much to you, you’re probably one of those virtuous parents who don’t let their kids watch the Disney Channel. If you do, though, you know those names are stitched on the bright blue and red coveralls of the Imagination Movers.
Disney Channel airs their show, which reminds me of nothing so much as the Monkees crossed with Scooby-Doo with a dash of the Wiggles, every morning. Their second CD, “For Those About To Hop” comes out soon, and the nice people at Disney Records sent me a review copy. If you watch the show, most of the songs will already be familiar. Only one or two are ones I haven’t heard before.
While they come across really well as part of the narrative on the show, Continue reading »
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
0