discotequi

I wasn't sure if this was better suited under Parenting or Music... but anyway... I'm looking for some good music recommendations for kids. Most of the stuff that our friends listen to drives me crazy, so I've got a few moonths before our first comes along and it's my mission to find something that is both interesting for the kids as well as the adults.

I did recently pick up They Might Be Giants 'No!' and really enjoy it... would love some other options.

Redlemon

Great topic idea! I think this is the right place for this request.

I have a 2.25 year old boy. Here are some albums that we can stand to listen to.

Philadelphia Chickens (Sandra Boynton). Very clever songwriting, if you like a Broadway style, and a great list of singers.

Big Band Baby. Very legitimate big band swing versions of kids songs.

Lullaby, a collection (Music for Little People). We have listened to this album every night for about a year and a half, and it is still good. Actually, any disk by Music for Little People is probably good, we also have the two Celebration of Song disks.

Plus, he loves a cappella. He asks specifically for the Nylons "Fabric of Life [Vocal Percussion Remix]" (he says Baby Baby, since the first song is Ruby Baby), and Rockapella "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" (first song is Capital, so he says that).

I'd love to find a punk or heavy metal sampler for kids, since my boy loves the beat, but I haven't found one yet.

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kulrblind

Check this album out:
http://www.nettwerklabel.com/cd.jsp?cd=3815&mode=comp
"For the Kids", compiled and distributed by Nettwerk Records


Very fun, and not at all painful for adults to listen to.

discotequi

yeah - I saw the For The Kids album at Amazon. It looked very good and some of the tracks I sampled were cool.

I've also been looking at some of the old school 'School House Rock' stuff... from the good old days. They all seem available via Amazon.

Has anyone tried the baby einstein stuff?

Redlemon

Duh, of course, how could I forget that. There's also a 3-CD pack called Songs from the Street, which is all Sesame Street music, and we also have a Best of the Muppets. It might be a bit early for School House Rock, but it is worth having on hand for later.

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discotequi

oh - good thinking with the muppets.

a neighbor recently gave me a copy of a Harry Connick Jr. album called 'Songs I Heard'... it's got some good ones on it.

sexymama

Classical -- helps build math skills for later in life and is pleasant for all to listen too. Also, very soothing.

Some researchers say that infants do not like rock music and that it stresses them out. I'm not sure how true that is -- but interesting thought.

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vanblah

I just bought a CD called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006ZS22M/qid=1105557376/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl15/002-3178439-4792034?v=glance&s=music&n=507846" target=_blank>"Gather 'Round: Songs for Kids and Other Folks"</a>. I got it mainly for the Sarah MachLachlan cover of "Rainbow Connection."

My daughter loves it.

:::OshnSoul:::

i actually get a kick out of Veggie Tales, it is quite silly. They now have CD's out with the child's name inserted into the music, you've got to check it out.

Also, TMBG is a good band, also maybe Jewel, Counting Crows, Postal Service, Bob Marley, maybe some classical or trance.........

dtheriault

I also highly recommend "For The Kids" my son and I play hide and seek to the Mahna Mahna song by Cake. You'll recognize it when you hear it.

Anything by Dan Zanes is great. He's the ex-Del Fuegos singer and his Night-time record is great.

The They Might Be Giants album that you really want to get is a part of a Children's book called Bed, Bed, Bed with 3 songs just perfect for reading before bed... really cool drawings, and I like the messages of the songs. I didn't really like their Album No!.

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Xell101

Even though I don't have kids, here is my bit. I heartily recommend classical music, and disadvise pop music. To summarize what has been turning into a large, ridiculously incoherent post...

1. Popular music is transient, it appeals to the times. Like flash in the pan media that when it's time has come and gone, ends up appearing to have been a waste of time.

2. Classic media is timeless as it appeals to you a human level. Like Shakespeare.

3. Music leaves impressions on people, young kids are quite impressionable, what would you like in your kids head? Afterall, for the first few years of life all we seem to do is absorb information, configuring the crux of one's pysche. Would you like the music of Britney Spears involved in that?

warrrreagl

I agree with parts, disagree with parts. I was 4 in 1964 and a large part of my musical pysche today comes from the fact that my siblings loved The Beatles. At the time, they were completely written off as non-musical drivel by the "knowledgeable" music critics and were feared as having a horrible influence on America's youth. Time has told a much different story. I'm not suggesting that Britney Spears = Beatles, but dismissing all contemporary music as meaningless is foolish.

The successful ingredient in music for kids is the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is like a major scale with no half-steps, and children find this sound appealing to their ears and they are able to sing these songs in tune correctly later on exactly because of their lack of half-steps. The pentatonic scale is extremely versatile and can be rearranged to fit almost any kind of global music. In other words, folk music for Hungarian, Korean, Maori, and American children are all different-sounding yet based on the same pentatonic scales.

Those same "dumb" songs that we all grew up with (Rain Rain Go Away, Crawdad Hole, Cotton-Eyed Joe, Ring Around The Rosy, etc.) are really the best things for American kids because they lay the foundation for an American cultural identity.

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quadro2000

Fascinating, warrrreagl.

Speaking of Beatles...whenever my nephew comes to stay with us, I always play Bedtime With The Beatles as he's drifting off to sleep, and he really enjoys it. I enjoy it also, although it's really difficult to stay awake myself.

I have made him mixes of the most melodic, simple stuff by the Beatles and the Beach Boys - he really digs those as well.

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jimk

Ralph's World rocks. i actually like some of these songs without the kids in the car.

http://www.waterdogmusic.com/artists...lphsworld.html

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Giant Hamburger

My 5 year old daughter's latest favorite is The Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots."

Derwood

You beat me to it. He's one of the most talented songwriters I've ever heard, and transitioned from a 15+ year career in "adult" music to a very successful kid's music career (spurred by the birth of his own daughter, Fiona).

I would buy every CD he has (oh wait, I already have!)

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clavus

My 4-1/2 year old loves Clutch, especially the Elephant Riders CD. He likes all surf music (especially Man or Astroman) and most ska. The Scofflaws make him pretty happy. Really, just about anything rockin gets him off.

My 1-1/2 year old likes classical music and anything where he can find a big, fat 4/4 beat. He's into Fatal Mombo too. I dunno, maybe he speaks French. I blame my wife for this.

Both kids are partial to Tuaratra and Ozomatli

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ICER

I'm with sexymam, get them started on the classics. It will serve them well later on in life.

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coldhands

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman did an album called Not For Kids Only. It is great and I highly recommend it. It is a collection a great traditional songs sung by these two characters. Check it out...

Not For Kids Only - Garcia and Grisman

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have a 14 week old son and I will enjoy intorducing him to the music you suggested.

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spindles

Sounds like the words of a classical music fan, rather than anything specifically for kids.
Perhaps it appeals to you, but it largely doesn't appeal to me

My 6 month old loves nursery rhymes. There are two particular CDs that are not too onerous on the adult ear, and which he really grooves to -
50 Great Nursery Rhymes and Play School Nursery Rhymes

These are produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which is the govt run TV/radio...

More often than not I just play the radio at home - and mostly he doesn't seem to be too fussed what is on...

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sapiens

I have heard this before and I am skeptical. I doubt that any study conducted that reflects these findings randomly assigned children to classical music versus other music conditions.

Parents who play classical music for their children may tend to have children with higher math skills. This may be due to the music or it may be due to the heritability of mathematical ability. Parents with higher mathematical ability may have children with higher mathematical ability. They may also listen to classical music more often than parents with lower mathematical ability. The music didn't make the children smarter, the parents did. We can't make any conclusions without controlling for the genes of the parents.

Back on topic:

My daughter likes vocal jazz like Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Prima, and Harry Connick, Jr. She likes the following albums produced specifically for children:

Jazz for Kids: Sing Clap Wiggle & Shake I really like this album. It has a good variety and they're not overly childish songs.

Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner Some childish songs, but a good variety. I didn't like it at first, but now I don't mind it.

Songs I Heard by Harry Connick, Jr. A decent album with songs from Mary Poppins, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, The Sound of Music, and a few others. I do think that Harry Connick, Jr. is a bit bland though.

She also likes the Disney song collections. I'm really sick of Chim, Chimeny, Chim, Chimeny, Chim Chim, Cheroo, etc. My head is going to exploded if I hear the Mary Poppins tunes much more.

Not Normal

My favorite radio station WFMU (91.1 FM, New Jersey) has a weekly kids show called Greasy Kid Stuff. It's noncommercial listener-supported radio. They stream live from wfmu.org every Saturday 10am-12pm EST and have archives online. (http://www.wfmu.org/gks/) Recently they cut a CD compilation:

http://www.confidentialrecordings.com/shop_gks.html

rhaevyn

A couple CDs we got for my nephew (who is now 5 and still likes to listen to them):

Baby Loves Beethoven
Little Red Caboose (it has a variety of kids songs that even I enjoy listening to sometimes lol takes me back to my childhood.)

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Derwood

I'm pretty psyched that They Might Be Giants is putting out a CD and DVD of original kids tunes all about the ABC's. They have little spots on Playhouse Disney every morning.

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raeanna74

I think the music that my daughter seemed to enjoy most was classical stuff. I had one lullaby CD (packed away and can't remember the name) that was just classical soft stuff. She went through a time where she either had to be held or listen to music to get to sleep and holding her didn't work so well cause she'd wake up the minute I put her down.

She is 4 now and likes nearly every kind of music - classical, vegetales (they get another vote from me - they're plain fun), country, pop, some rap even. Pretty much anything except for Ramstein or Metallica type stuff. - Fine by me.

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