Kids' music: good, bad & painful
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Tonight, I realized how eclectic my musical taste really is. The songs we ended up singing at bedtime were "Yesterday" (The Beatles), "Today" (John Denver), and "Tomorrow" (Annie). And my 2-year-old knows all three songs. We're just as likely to sing "Hey Jude" as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Mostly because of my opinion of most children's music available these days.
Here's the thing about children's music. I dislike most of it. (I was going to say "hate", but I've been eliminating that word from my vocabulary so I don't hear my son saying it---and now I can't even write it.) I get that children's music has to be a little bit simplistic and cheesy, so kids will understand the words well enough to be able to sing it at the top of their lungs about a thousand times in a row. But the lack of quality is what I don't understand. Aren't there enough good musicians out there to ensure that at the very least, songs will be in tune?
I have one children's album that makes me cringe. I won't name it here...don't want to embarrass anyone. The singer over-pronounces the "S" sound, and is "pitchy" throughout every song. Seriously, people---get some voice lessons! Or maybe, the record producer's daughter needed something to do? I don't know.
Here are a few albums that we really do like:
1) The Beatles "1" album - because if I have to listen to music all day, it had better be something good. And when our son was barely talking, he would point to the iPod dock and say, "More Bee-Buh's!"
2) Sounds Like Learning (Discovery Toys - and no, I'm not a Discovery Toys sales rep.) This isn't as good as it could be, but you can't argue with results: our 2-year-old learned to count past 20, say all his letter sounds, and remember days of the week and months of the year with this one.
3) Discovery Toys Bilingual Songs (the people singing on this album could be on a Disney soundtrack or something.
4) Humpty Who - "A crash course in 80 nursery rhymes for clueless moms and dads." The CD doesn't have all 80 on there, but the book is quite helpful in explaining what the heck the lyrics to "Baa Baa Black Sheep" mean. The bonus is that these songs are not painful to listen to.
Here's the thing about children's music. I dislike most of it. (I was going to say "hate", but I've been eliminating that word from my vocabulary so I don't hear my son saying it---and now I can't even write it.) I get that children's music has to be a little bit simplistic and cheesy, so kids will understand the words well enough to be able to sing it at the top of their lungs about a thousand times in a row. But the lack of quality is what I don't understand. Aren't there enough good musicians out there to ensure that at the very least, songs will be in tune?
I have one children's album that makes me cringe. I won't name it here...don't want to embarrass anyone. The singer over-pronounces the "S" sound, and is "pitchy" throughout every song. Seriously, people---get some voice lessons! Or maybe, the record producer's daughter needed something to do? I don't know.
Here are a few albums that we really do like:
1) The Beatles "1" album - because if I have to listen to music all day, it had better be something good. And when our son was barely talking, he would point to the iPod dock and say, "More Bee-Buh's!"
2) Sounds Like Learning (Discovery Toys - and no, I'm not a Discovery Toys sales rep.) This isn't as good as it could be, but you can't argue with results: our 2-year-old learned to count past 20, say all his letter sounds, and remember days of the week and months of the year with this one.
3) Discovery Toys Bilingual Songs (the people singing on this album could be on a Disney soundtrack or something.
4) Humpty Who - "A crash course in 80 nursery rhymes for clueless moms and dads." The CD doesn't have all 80 on there, but the book is quite helpful in explaining what the heck the lyrics to "Baa Baa Black Sheep" mean. The bonus is that these songs are not painful to listen to.