Liz Emrich wrote about her pleasure in decent kid music that adults can actually listen to, and while I am plainly more of a grumpus than her about adult playdates, I'm right there in trying to avoid more crap tunes for small people. I was briefly thwarted by my wife, who got them hooked on songs by the likes of Ella Jenkins and Pete Seeger, and songs that actually taught them how to sing. This created a risk of actual musical taste, as well as more folk music, so I had to act.
Perhaps the playlist was based on my wife hearing what I sang when I got a fit in response to a diaper change...
...and while she claimed she didn't object to this song repurposed as a lullaby, I'm not so sure.
Still, the rehabilitation started through the Beatles and - I'm not ashamed to admit it - Wings. We've slowly moved on through portions of the parental discography. The things that seem to prove popular have at least one of the following characteristics:
1) There's a sense of humor behind it...
2) The chorus relatively easy to master for a sing-along...
3) It's associated with a story, preferably about an adult misunderstanding lyrics (my brother in this case, but he was 4 at the time)
4) It makes you shake your shimmy, rather like this mildly-NSFW / definitely NSFLTB* offering that brought the house down at a recent birthday party.
I can't make the claim that I am trying to be a cool parent, because it's a bit late now, and who knows whether the children will be that way themselves... but in the meantime there's being realistic, and there's giving up.
*Not Safe for LT Bohica
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Frank Apisa
Madame Bitch
Sandra Stephens
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Kerry Lauerman
Liz Emrich
Salon.com
Comments
My daughters entered adulthood with an eclectic childhood playlist and seem to have survived.