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Children's music suggestions
Hey all, I'm just curious what bands or songs you keep in rotation for your kids. I usually split this question into two lists: one that is for songs specifically geared towards kids or otherwise your kid loves to hear, and another for songs that are somehow enhanced in the context of your children (and example for me is Perfect Day from Lou Reed).
If you want to give any additional context to your answers, great-- but not required. That might be approx age or the decade you had kids, or some story about it. And yes, many kids just listen to whatever stuff the parents would normally listen to, including mine, that is normal, but not really the question here.
I'll start with one and come back later with more:
Depends on the age of the kids. We really appreciate Caspar Babypants for making catchy, non-annoying music for little ones. Now that my kids are getting older, we basically don't listen to anything other than KPop Demon Hunters lol.
As they age out you could fold them into Presidents of the United States of America at that point.
I sort of mean that as a serious recommendation.
I have ruined my poor kids with the music I grew up on, largely that my dad ruined me with. We have a playlist we've put together over the years of songs I've played them that they like:
It's essentially a playlist of songs I love that are both literally and figuratively "clean" for my young children. We have fun singing along together, occasionally I'll put on a video of a live performance of one of them (My middle child loves to mimic John Bonham playing the drums to Moby Dick at their Live at The Royal Albert Hall 1970 concert recording). As they've gotten older and started watching Disney movies and hanging around other kids, they're interested in more "modern" kids music too. And we'll listen to that too from time to time. But as a "special with dad" thing, they like having "our playlist together". I enjoy knowing it'll make more memories (at least for me, but hopefully for both of us) than other kids music I wouldn't think about again.
Maybe I'm the bad parent in this mix, but I don't do anything special as far as music goes for my kids. I listen to my regular shuffle whenever I play music, which includes anything from Black Metal, 80's pop to classic Funk/Soul music. Occasionally, I'll get a random song stuck in my head and listen to it and they'll like it and ask for it on repeat; some of it may have swearing, but my wife and I aren't precious about that, though we do tell the kids that swearing is inappropriate in most settings and they're welcome to call Mom & Dad out on it when it happens, which definitely occurs. My kids are (almost) 8 and 5.
Anyway, some stuff my kids are currently enjoying or have enjoyed:
The Lonely Island - Threw It On The Ground
This one sparked a conversation with the older one about what a Comedian is and how some people make silly songs for money and the person in the song isn't real. Also why this is funny, because it's inappropriate behavior for an adult.
Weird Al - Eat It
Because I sing this to them every time they whine about their dinner. Now they walk around the house singing it all the time
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat
This one was a favorite of the older one for quite awhile.
Bronski Beat - Hit That Perfect Beat
Sum 41 - Fat Lip
We actually took my oldest to see Sum 41 on their farewell tour last year. He was stoked
Iron Horse - Fade to Black
Ok, this is just Metallica in Blue Grass, but they're into it
Darkthrone - Lone Pines of the Lost Planet
They don't like a ton of my favorite genre (Metal), but occasionally a song pops-up that one of them really enjoys and asks for repeats
I tried the "kids music" thing relatively briefly, but ultimately, they didn't really care and I had no passion for any of the music, so we kind of stopped. Funnily enough, my wife actually liked it a lot more than me or my kids. That in particular was The Vegetable Plot - Season One, which isn't bad, just wasn't to anyone's taste.
Edit: Looking at my list, I had the realization that they tend to prefer my music over Mom's. Not that Mom has bad taste or anything, in fact, I quite enjoy (most of her music), but for as much as I love and mostly listen to Metal, I think I actually have a more diverse set of music I listen to. This doesn't really pertain to the thread, it's just a random thing I noticed.
Man, that’s not my dad, that’s a cell phone. I threw it on the ground!
Love that one. Hilarious.
I'd actually forgotten about it until I had my second child, who often gets frustrated with things and then throws them on the ground. Every time he does that, I can't help but think that...I threw it on the ground!
I applaud your Darkthrone pick.
Applaud my youngest! He's the one that is always asking for it.
Give him a high five and a horns up from a fellow metalhead.
I taught prek for 15 years. For songs (and videos) that are specifically geared towards kids, I have a few suggestions:
The Kiboomers - a huge amount of content, but I mainly used their freeze dance songs with kids in my class.
Raffi - One of the OG kids music writers, and still one of my favorites even as an adult.
Danny Go - the kids LOVE his videos, and it gets them moving. The music is usually decent, and the story behind the channel is sweet.
Scratch Garden - the enchilada song is unironically amazing.
The Learning Station - I had a kid last year who could listen to their rendition of Herman the worm on repeat.
I hope any of these help!
My kid is obsessed with Bananaphone by Raffi. The reason being, I am obsessed with Bananaphone from a decidedly-not-child-friendly flash animation...
I don't have kids.
But We're Going to be Friends by The White Stripes is something that I imagine would play well with kids.
Considering that you linked to a folk group that has more "real" music than say Disney's Silly Song's for Children albums, I suppose your child might be a little older/cogniscient. Because I grew up around the era of Radio Disney, and because I saw the film as a child in theaters Take Me Away from Freaky Friday was always a song that I liked and served as a sort of introduction to rock for me.
Something a little more mature and current, but still distributed by Disney, would be like brutal by Olivia Rodrigo.
My kid is three, and we put together an old school offline mp3 player for him with a wide mix of music on it from lots of genres. We have some electronic and drum and bass, some classical, some contemporary instrumental, folk, indie, traditional, pop, rock, big band swing etc etc. We put that alongside some typical kid offerings.
So far he seems to like listening to the Bluey album, songs from Storybots, and some folk and traditional. He especially seems to vibe with Irish jigs and reels with a driving drum beat. He's also got a favorite electronic song, Force by Alan Walker. It's fun to see how his personal music tastes are emerging.
We set an old phone up to be an offline player for our daughter around that age 2-3 years old), but we set it up as an audio book player. Their ability to grasp and enjoy narrative far exceeds their ability to actually read. We did also read to her aloud. I think both of these contributed to her very advanced reading level now (10 years old).
Some of her favorites ended up being the Now we are 6 by A. A. Milne, the Ramona Quimby audiobook collection. And the Henry Huggins collection, both by Beverly Clearly (and narrated by Stockard Channing and Neal Patrick Harris, respectively). She also liked the Tuesdays At The Castle series by Jessica Day George. One of my favorites from my childhood is the Hank the Cowdog series by John R. Erickson.
I highly recommend the Smart Audiobook Player for anyone of any age using their own audiobook files. The pro features are well worth the small cost. Back in those days, it was trivial to get the MP3 files out of Overdrive (library rental). If you want a modern workaround for Libby, DM me.
Looking back on it, I don't know why we didn't also put music on there. Probably because my wife's musical tastes and mine are vastly different so there was no consensus.
In the car, I tried a couple of kids albums. They Might Be Giants has some good ones. I still think about "E eats everything" from time to time. But mainly she listened to the music that I listen to in the car, a very eclectic mix of older country, and generation-spanning rock, alternative, and pop. There would end up being songs that she latched on to, so she would request them. Here's a playlist of some of them.
I'll also say there's value in giving them a device so they can feel included when everyone else has a phone. She had very little trouble learning the touch interface, and having access to the camera on there let her take her own photos. She also found and enjoyed some educational games that I put on there without telling her.
My 6 year old likes guitar rock. The Final Countdown is their favourite song, with Eye of the Tiger and Ghost's Satanized coming in second and third. Joan Jett and The Black Hearts has just started getting onto our playlists too. They also enjoy jungle reggae because who doesn't enjoy jungle reggae? I used to sing them to sleep with Cypress Hill as a baby but tbh that's a bit sweary these days.
Kid is learning the drums so anything with good drums also works. Nirvana, White Stripes, Zep, of course, but Bonzo is hardly a beginner's drummer to play along to!
Also Queen. Have yet to find a kid who doesn't like Queen. And the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band who if you haven't heard of them do sound like a kid's band but they're not. They are fun though.
"Children's" music is almost exclusively dreadful. The first Bluey album isn't bad. But mostly neither me nor the kid have ever enjoyed it. Except the soundtrack to CBeebies Daydreams, although that was by Squarepusher so y'know.
Oh no, there is Andy and The Odd Socks, actually. Their TV show is basically The Monkees for the 21st century (and is genuinely funny for adults as well as kids), but the band are legit and their most recent album had tributes to UK Garage, Zep and Rizzle Kicks. We saw them live last year and they were honestly amazing.
Peter and the wolf if you want to introduce classical music in a fun way
So far, the only thing that has stuck for my 7yo, besides cartoon theme tunes, has been Zombie by The Cranberries. Oddly enough, I've played everything from Classical to Death Metal around him and the only thing he ever asked me to turn off was a Linkin Park song, make of that what you will (I still have a nostalgic spot for Hybrid Theory).
Typical exchange usually goes like this:
<Metallica playing in car>
Me: do you like this song?
Him: yeah
Me: what do you like about it?
Him: I dunno
Rinse and repeat for pretty much any tune.
I tend to use some Spotify playlist but they are a bit mixed. We recently got a Yoto player which allows him to put cards in to play specific books or albums. The songs that you get seem a bit with him at least. It does cost to buy the songs, but you can also use blank cards which link to other music form your own library. It’s nice he can use it!