Alternative music for toddlers

[Ardiente]

My 2 year old is highly musical in that we have always listened to a lot of children's songs, nursery rhymes from the beginning. He knows them all by heart, and I am now looking to broaden his range to other artists. What do your toddlers listen to once they are past the nursery rhymes stage? I would just listen to radio music but am worried about non censored lyrics.

When they were little my DCs listened to whatever I listened to. So it could be anything from classical, through pop, indie, trance, techno, rap esoteric crap like HMHB and Frigid Vinegar to death metal. Now they're older their tastes in music are eclectic to say the least.

DS is nearly 3 and loves a bit of ska punk

(Not even kidding!)

Mine listen to my music. Albums or 6music. I don't censor songs with swear words in. I do censor content in that I'd never stick radio 1 on for them because trash like Blurred Lines is played on it.

There's an album called Colours Are Brighter that has songs written specifically for kids by 'proper' bands - Belle and Sebastien, Ivor Cutler, Franz Ferdinand are ones I remember. DS loved it. It was released a while ago but amazon might still have it.

We only listen to BBC 6 at home and Xfm in the car so my two sing along to that sort of music. No problems with bad language although I did used to switch off when The Vaccines , Post a Break Up Sex came on.

DH is a music nerd ( writes a fairly successful music blog and the occasional article for a music magazine ) and wanted the kids to grow up listening to a broad selection of what he considers good music.

His proudest moment was being told by DS's pre school teacher that he had been upset because when he was asked to pick a song at singing time he had requested Changes by David Bowie and couldn't understand why no one knew it.

Oh how I chuckle when my DS ,now 8 ,takes control of spotify and plays Gangnam Style or One Direction and my DD only ever wants to listen to Carly Ray Jepson or Katie Perry.

Oh yes DH downloaded that album too!

Colours are brighter is lovely, but last time I checked they'd taken it off spotify.

Here comes science by They Might Be Giants is bloody amazing

There are a series of albums called "For The Kids" on spotify that are cool too.

Otherwise, kids don't tend to get the rude references in older songs... (by older I mean 1960s backwards)

My lot like most of our music, but we both like stuff that tells a story (dh loves Bruce Springsteen, I listen mostly to folk). They have definite favorites. If you want nice stuff that is specifically for children then plenty of people have done albums for kids. For example Curious George by Jack Johnson or my lot love Megson's album "when I were a lad" and tbh dh and I like listening to that one too. We also have some CDs of older versions of kids songs, the "proper" versions of Nellie the Elephant or The Gnu Song that I remember from my childhood. Stuff like that is fun to listen to, happy clappy lady with a sing songy voice warbling nursery rhymes makes me want to chop my ears off. .

3yo ds likes Bach ("The Bark") but also likes They Might Be Giants. They did a cd of educational songs. "Here Comes Science" and "Here Come The ABCs" . proper songs by proper musicians. I think it makes a difference to those awful "made for" children's CDs. Having said that, the older boys loved a cd of really old children's songs (Big Rock Candy Mountain, Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace, The Buzzy Bee Song) we used to have when they were small.

High fives NotBritta

Oh, old Flaming Lips albums go down really well here too.

Wow, thanks so much for your insights! I love xfm, bbc6, flaming lips, etc so no problem there. I will check out the music for children by established artists! Exactly the kind of stuff I wanted as a nice transition :-)

My dcs particularly like Toots and the Maytalls (particularly Monkey Man),
Prince, current favourite is Chaz and Dave's new album...
Anything upbeat.
Also (sorry forgotten the singer's name) the songs Islands in the Stream, Joleene.
Disclaimer: This doesn't actually reflect our taste in music just things we've found they like!

...oh yeah - Dolly Parton

At age 2 a child who can actually 'listen' to music (as opposed to having radio or TV on all time, which so many people seem to do, and probably DISCOURAGES listening) could be starting to play percussion or keyboard. Standard Classical pieces, marches, folk dances, jazz etc. Preferably NOT mindless pop!

Our DS 'played' on our Yamaha organ from age 2; fifteen years or so later got Distinction Grade 8 on alto sax.

Music is a worthwhile and enriching activity, so please don't 'dum down' with trash.

One woman's trash is another woman's treasure!

(Although I do agree with you about some of the horrendous pop that's around. But many view my choice of music as trash, and I would heartily disagree with that!)

My dc have grown up with music as a constant background to their lives. They listen to classical, jazz, blues, funk, soul, folk, reggae, opera, stage and screen, musicals, 20th century, not much in the way of recent things.

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is a great album for little kids. Lots of Beatles stuff. Motown goes down well. DS is just 4. He likes Abba too. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band!

Just turned 4, I mean.

I think the more different types of music you can expose a child to (including "trash") is a positive thing.

Kids will become discerning if they are exposed to a wide range of genres and can then decide for themselves what they like, its more likely to be something a bit more eloquent as they grow and fine tune their tastes.

That's the point of simple tunes like lullabies and nursery rhymes. Its Entry level music.

Blue Beat, Ska, Two Tone and Reggae always go down well . Barrington Levy's 'Skylarking' is a particular favourite. Saint Saens' 'Carnival of the Animals' and Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf' always encourage lots of animal role play (not just from me!). But I agree with PPs, exposure to a wide range of music is great. The ability to enjoy all types of music is life-enhancing. Nothing wrong with bopping to a bit of 'trash' if you can be moved by Mahler and
dazzled by Dizzy as well.

My youngest is 4 and his musical obsessions over the past year have shifted from Jake Bugg to Madness and currently Blur (according to him Damon Albarn was in his nursery yesterday ). Blur's muddle year if novelty crap was made for toddlers IMO but oddly enough he prefers the later stuff!

DS1 us a Clash and Stranglers fan, DS2 would choose Teenage Fanclub, Bruce Springsteen and Bowie.

The older two hate poppy crap like One Direction, JB and JLS and they regularly ask to copy tracks onto their MP3 players when they hear us play stuff they like. I play classical music a fair bit and they occasionally pick up things they like.

The thing is, they do stop and listen just like I did at that age. It's not just background. Although maybe I should be careful - it has just taken me an hour to put the shop away because I keep faffing around with CDs

Both DSs like Iron Maiden. We don't do pop in this house...

There is a wonderful album called "The Paw Paw Patch" which saw us through many a car journey.