Saturday, February 6, 2010

The World of Kids Music Part 1

I am not a cool person.  Let's be very clear about that up front.  I am not part of the generation of "hip" parents who take their kids to weekly jam sessions and toddler concerts.  That's just not me.  I have never been the kind of person who is able to keep up with what's new and cool in the world of music.  By the time I discover a singer or a group that I like they've already put out three or four albums and have fallen of everyone elses radar.  I then spend a month listening to the same songs over and over again until I just stop listening all together and go into a music coma.  Music just doesn't seem to have the influence on my life that it does on every other person on the planet.

Then I had kids and I suddenly realized that music is and should be a very large part of a kids life.  So many good things come out of sharing music with your kids.  Back when my first son was pretty young I got interested in seeing just what was out there in terms of music for kids.

The very first CD I got for my son was John Lithgow's Singin' in the Bathtub.  I checked it out from the library and played it in the car.  I fell in love with John Lithgow!  Not only were they fun, catchy songs that we could all sing along with, they weren't simpering, moral teaching tirades like what I was used to hearing on kids TV shows.  I began to think, hey, maybe there really was something to this whole kids music scene that I would be happy to be a part of.

I went online to see what kinds of music other people were sharing with their kids.  I large group of people simply play whatever they normally listen to.  When you think about it, there are a great many songs out there that adults like that are kid friendly too.  My husband has had great success sharing music he loves with our son, who also enjoys it.  In fact one our favorite CDs to listen to as a family is Saturday Morning Cartoon's Greatest Hits.  This is a CD that believe it or not my husband bought when he was in college.  Okay, I guess that's not really so hard to believe because it has bands like The Violent Femmes doing covers of cartoon theme songs.  My favorite is Sublime's version of Hong Kong Phooey.  I'm not normally a fan of Sublime, but their version is awesome.  I would never think to play the Butthole Surfers for my son, but that's who covers his favorite version of Underdog.  I have to admit that I really love it too.

Still, there is music out there specifically made just for kids.  I'm not talking The Wiggles here and I'm not talking about Kids Bop either.  Both of which I'm sure are fine for some people, but honestly I wouldn't want to hang out with those people or their kids.  This is what I'm talking about.



Awesome, right?  I'm telling you, what little kid or adult wouldn't love to hang out with these guys?  Well, count us in because every summer when Captain Bogg & Salty takes their yearly trip to tour Seattle, we are there!  We've taken our kids every single summer come rain our shine and it's always a good time.  Always.  Last year there was a down pour right before the concert started, but the clouds cleared up, the sun came out and tons of families showed up despite the fact that we had to sit on the muddy ground.  We didn't care.  It was totally worth it just to spend an hour rockin' out with these guys.

Once we saw Captain Bogg & Salty, a whole new world of music opened up for my family.  

Coming up next - We explore Greasy Kids Stuff, Noggin, and Casper Babypants and the Seattle kids music scene.

2 comments:

  1. While they are mildly entertaining, I don't know as a parent if I could personally listen to them for an hour at a time. It's been awhile but I think my kids listened to Rafe. However we are not "cool" parents either but are very much into music. We took my son to his first concert at age 15 to see AC DC. It is something he will never forget, and there were times that were a learning moments also.

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  2. Pieces of eight...a personal favorite of mine...but then I also like that one where he's not used to his new hook and he pokes himself in the eye with it and the other gets all crusted over with seagull poop and salt.

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