What Would Rob Do To Find Decent Kids' Music?

"The purple dinosaur that haunts my dreams..."

Vince Bucci, Getty Images

Above is the audio from my latest podcast in which I talk with NPR's Felix Contreras about what kinds of songs are good to play for kids. We talked about how one commenter Michael Lee pointed out that all parents have to endure annoying kiddie music at some point in time. Felix knows all about this because he survived listening to "The Muffin Man" 35 TIMES during one family road trip. Yikes!

But both Felix and I agreed with the comments of others who believe that by exposing kids to quality music at least some of the good stuff will stick. Felix says try out kid-friendly bands like Bare Naked Ladies (don't worry their name is PG-13, but many of their songs are innocent enough for a tot).

When I spoke with Gavin Rossdale, he told me that his son Kingston loves listening to his parents' CDs, Wanderlust and The Sweet Escape, and that he plays them constantly. While my wife Anna and I have yet to release our own solo albums (or duet for that matter), we are lucky enough to have a professional musician in the family. Anna's dad, Rick Tiven, is an accomplished violinist and has lent his fiddling skills to a number of albums, including most recently, Passin' It On, a compilation of classic children's folk songs. So we've been playing that for her for a while.

As for contemporary songs which might have questionable subject matter, I don't care what Gavin Rossdale says about not censuring music. I still plan on changing all the naughty lyrics for my daughter.

Here's my version of No Doubt's "Hey Baby"

I'm just sipping on sippy cups
Watching boys and girls with their doggy pups
One day I'm gonna grow up big and strong
And graduate high school!

Hey Baby! Hey Baby Hey!

4:18 PM ET | 11-22-2008 | permalink

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