Friday Music Day

FMD: Music for Kids

24 Comments

When I was a kid I listened to a whole lot of Radio AAHS. For Citizens not in the know, Radio AAHS was a station aimed at the 5 - 10 year old demographic. I'm not really sure where they gathered all the songs from, but they had a lot that really hit the sweet spot for kids.

As a parent, it strikes me that finding music for kids that isn't outright painful isn't always the easiest thing. Sometimes I'll pull up a kids' Pandora station, but it ends up grating on my nerves before too long. And of course there are plenty of mainstream songs that work for the kids, but you know they don't appreciate them like adults do. Something more on their level can be important (looking back over Radio AAHS playlists, it seems like there was a fair amount of popular music mixed in too. It took some memory jogging, but I do recall that. So I guess the mix of children-specific and children-friendly is nice.).

I'm curious what other parents in the nation do for music for their kids. There's individual groups like the Okee Dokee Brothers (SJU!) and TMBG doing children's music, but I really do regret that there isn't an easy station to tune in for kids. Or maybe there is, and I just don't know about it?

Anyway, for those parents out there, here are a few song recommendations, back from my glory days of listening to kids music. And they've mostly been tested and approved by my kids, so hopefully they hold up for your kids too.

Joe Scruggs, "Bahamas Pajamas"
Rosenshontz, "Hippopotamus Rock"
Lenny Graf, "Water"
"Broccoli & Chocolate"
Jack Pearson, "Googolplex"
Cheech Marin (yes, him), "Red, Blue, and Yellow Too"

24 thoughts on “FMD: Music for Kids”

    1. I changed the station for Raffi.

      You might be interested to read about the history between Radio AAHS and Radio Disney. Short form: Disney co-opted Radio AAHS, broke the contract, and effectively shut down the original/their competitor. AAHS won a lawsuit years later, but it was too late.

    2. we had a couple of Raffi CDs that got a lot of automobile play time when the kids were little. Likewise with Sugar Beats. But the big winner was Ray Charles. "Play `Jack' [Hit the Road, Jack], Daddy!"

  3. Quick music-related travel note: You know how some planes/airlines will play background music while you're boarding? Yesterday I realized the music on my plane was something familiar and something I associate with the WGOM--Julia Holter.

  4. No kids music in my house. I would play them a lot of rock and punk. Plus a good base of Pete Seeger, Dylan, The Beatles, etc. They used to love that Bad Religion album, it was fast and loud and sounded fun. They couldn't understand the lyrics of course. Then one sad day they they discovered Radio Disney and their musical tastes were lost to me. But only for a while. Dad wins out in the end.

    1, Chivalry -- Mekons -- Fear And Whiskey
    2. Back On Board -- Aztec Camera -- High Land, Hard Rain
    3. Friends Forever -- Old 97's -- Alive and Wired
    4. The Other Side -- Sloan -- Parallel Play
    5. Flowers In The Dell -- Fred Eaglesmith -- Ralph's Last Show
    6. Love Machine -- The Wedding Present -- Mini Plus
    7. As Far As I Know -- Paul Westerberg -- Folker
    8. Oxford Town -- Bob Dylan -- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
    9. Before They Make Me -- The Rolling Stones -- Some Girls
    10. Candle -- Sonic Youth -- Daydream Nation

    B1. Perfect Circle -- R.E.M. -- Murmur
    Bs. Sing It Out -- Guided By Voices -- Suitcase 1: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft

  5. 1. Nisennenmondai “B-2” N
    2. Up, Bustle & Out “Emerald Alley (Indian Morning Theme)” Funkungfusion
    3. Stars of the Lid “Another Ballad for Heavy Lids” Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline
    4. Underworld “Rowla” Second Toughest in the Infants
    5. Finley Quaye “Even After All” Maverick a Strike

    6. Emot “Going Out West” Two Drunks
    7. The Folk Implosion “Raise the Bells” Kids: Original Motion Picture Soundrack
    8. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “One Rainy Wish” Axis: Bold as Love
        a. Peregrine Falcon “Alarm Calls by Pair” (Cornell Essential Set)
    9. Autechre “Djarum”* Anti EP
    T. Mitski “Francis Forever” Daytrotter Session 4/29/15

    B. Shackleton with Ernesto Tomasini “Father, You Have Left Me” Devotional Songs*

    *Notes:
    9. Named after a brand of clove cigarettes, IIRC. The CD came with a sticker-seal with this message printed on it:

    Warning. Lost and Djarum contain repetitive beats.
    We advise you not to play these tracks if the Criminal Justice Bill becomes law.
    Flutter has been programmed in such a way that no bars contain identical beats and can therefore be played at both forty five and thirty three revolutions under the proposed new law. However we advise DJs to have a lawyer and musicologist present at all times to confirm the non repetitive nature of the music in the event of police harassment.

    Important.
    By breaking this seal, you accept full responsibility for any consequential action resulting from the product's use, as playing the music contained within these recordings may be interpreted as opposition to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill.

    I think this was my first real exposure to politics outside of the U.S. D*Note's Criminal Justice and The Prodigy's Music For the Jilted Generation came out around the same time and had lyrical objections to the same law.

    B. I've had this kicking around my iPod for a while, but first listened closely to three of the four songs last night. They remind me a lot of Coil material that Sleazy Christopherson finished after Jhonn Balance's death. I just re-read the review that lead me to download name-checks both Coil and Sleazy and it says that Tomasini had collaborated with them before. It's good to know that someone's making music that draws inspiration from Coil, even if there's less sodomy, folk influence, and early Christian heresies.

  6. Bahamas Pajamas is amazing. Also on the Raffi front I dig some "Down by the bay where the watermelons grow."

    Radio AAHS was awesome. I won a free t-shirt from them for correctly answering the trivia question, "What is the capital of Syria?" I had a globe right next to me at the time.

    2. If I'm not mistaken, a very tall theater/choir-affiliated classmate of ours was one of their kid-DJs for a time.

  7. One a different note, I've been toying with the idea of pursuing a FMD format change. So I guess this LTE will start that pursuit...

    It seems like the random 10 lists have kind of decreased in popularity/submissions over the past year or more. It seems like they've become fairly repetitive too - at least I feel like I'm repeating when I put together a list. Along with that, it seems like they're maybe not as engaging to others as they used to be, and not always good conversation starters?

    In an effort to increase engagement, I was thinking we might want to try something different. Rather than a Random 10 we could maybe pick a theme (or no theme) and have folks nominate a single song/artist/whatever fits the theme? It could be fun to do, especially if people wanted to drop links/videos into the post, and it could set up a fairly easy "Spooky listening day"-type of thing for everyone? I'm sure there are other options and better ideas out there too. Could be to do it without themes even - just have folks pick a song they think others should listen to that day? That might overlap a bit too much with the daily videos and guest DJ weeks though, so maybe not. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud here, and not super invested in this approach. Anyone else have thoughts?

    1. Take my opinion with a grain of salt, but yeah I have no desire to keep dropping 10 songs that I've dropped before and get collective groans from the audience. The only time I post here is when there's some sort of prompt that interests me.

    3. Yeah, as a method of discussion, they've sort of had their time. Not that a person couldn't still drop their random ten, but I think the bulk of the conversation is coming from prompts and interesting items from the actual post.

  9. We don't play kid-specific music at home; everyone has to be able to enjoy it. To that end, the acts in heavy rotation in earliest childhood are: Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Aretha, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, any Motown or Stax artist, The Beatles, any doo woo artist, and so on.

    The top album, however, is the one that gets the most play: I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow. I brought it shortly after it came out. The songs are enjoyable at any age – a combination of good songwriting, good musicianship, and good messages.

Comments are closed.