My own little culture war

For my first post on Cliopatria, I wanted to post on something of importance and that would give some indication of what my historical proclivities are and what future posts might look like. So I decided to write on the history of children's music. Now various people may not think that the development of kids' music is important but the single most important factor in my life is that I am the father of a one-and-a-half year-old girl. As such, things like what gets played in the car, in the kitchen when making dinner, or during play-time are of importance to me. And as I started paying more attention to what my daughter was listening to, I also started thinking about where this genre came from and where it is going.

Granted this is a completely speculative enterprise. I don't have a lot to go on yet except my own hunches, the memories of a few cohorts, and the trolling of used record bins. Children's music seems to have developed as a separate genre in the 1950s. Some music stars, like Tex Ritter saw it as a way to extend careers. Others had a sideline interest in the genre and produced material specifically for kids. Woody Guthrie comes to mind. In the sixties, Soupy Sales made a career out of kids albums tied to his TV show and other folks like Captain Kangaroo, Miss Judy from Romper Room, and Sesame Street got into the act.

Sesame Street in some ways represents a major turning point. Whereas most kids music prior was either cover songs, folk music, a slumming star working a genre (as in " " sings Patriotic Songs for Children) or just plain dumb, Sesame Street put out decent music that everybody in the family could stand to listen to. Folks of a certain age still can sing "5 People in my Family," "C is for Cookie," and "I Love Trash." The bar had been raised and was soon reflected in Schoolhouse Rock whose catchy songs ingrained math, history, and grammar to otherwise unsuspecting kids on many a Saturday morning. I even owned the Schoolhouse Rock math album on vinyl and played it of my own volition. The songs were that good.

Around that time, folks started realizing you could make money selling music to kids without a TV show if the music was good enough. Some of the earliest practitioners were actually pretty awful in retrospect. I am not sure what Raffi's appeal was, but I never got it. On the other hand, we now have several very talented groups and individuals including Trout Fishing in America, Billy Jonas, and Jessica Harper Even the vanity projects have gotten better. Alternative record labels have gotten into the act as well.

At the same time that there is this florescence there is also a threat on the horizon. Almost all of the music I have described is G-rated, although we might debate the merits of "From the Indies to the Andes in his Undies" as a learning tool. The death star on the horizon however, is the corporate hegemon of the House of Mouse who have launched a national children's radio network "Radio Disney" where underdressed overly made-up teenage girls valorize parties, boys, and shopping to pre-teens. One of the things that is great about kids' music is that it lets kids be kids. You can sing about boogers, or find fifty rhymes for Pico de Gallo, or make 72 cat puns. Disney is still too wholesome to front for former Mouseketeers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilaria. Hilary Duff and company are hardly Madonna bait but they are a significant step towards the end of childhood. So I am involved in my own little culture war, in which public radio's Kid's Corner (Sun-Thurs 7-8 pm Eastern Time available on the internet) does battle with the corporate tie-in crew from Anaheim. It may not have the cachet of deconstruction vs. new criticism but it is the culture war that matters to me most right now.