Thursday, September 25, 2008

Why Elbow reminds me of Ms. Ciccone

A band named Elbow wants to make an album of children's music. Here is a quote from the article:

"We initially thought that it would be great to make music for children because the lads in the band have got kids and they were saying how little really decent music for children there is. The more that we thought about, it the more that we liked the idea," frontman Guy Garvey tells Billboard.com. "We've quite often been up for having songs on children's animated films, but we thought that it would be great to actually be at the starting point for that process."

I share this with you, not in outrage, but in amusement. At least, I thought Eric Herman of Cool Tunes for Kids would be amused. This statement reminds me of when pop-star Ms. Ciccone said she wanted to write children's books because she was incredulous over all of the vapid and vacant books for young readers, and then went on to write a few vapid and vacant books herself. Maybe Elbow will do better....

6 comments:

Lone Star Ma said...

Her books are vapid and vacant.

limpy99 said...

Sadly, or maybe to my credit, it took a couple of minutes before I figured out who ms. Ciccone was.

Eric Herman said...

Hi, Alkelda... Yeah, no doubt. I think a statement like that MIGHT have been valid, or at least acceptable, about 10 years ago, but really there's been so much great kids' music coming out over the last several years, you just have to actually take the time to look for it at your library or online. And IMO, even a lot of the old stuff that people like to call vapid and trite is still classic stuff that kids really like. Maybe today's uber-hip parents don't like it so much, but it's still good music (emphasized) for children.

Saints and Spinners said...

LSM: It's poetic justice.

Limpy: I think it's to your credit.

Eric: Uber-hip grownups forget that their parents probably didn't like their music when they were teenagers, and these same people who despise Barney may have adored Alvin and the Chipmunks. (Disclaimer: Gah!) However... I'm sure that had I been younger when they came out, I would have been a big Jem and the Holograms fan, leaning more toward their rival band, The Misfits.

I just watched a few Jem/Misfits clips on YouTube. Oy gevalt.

The Library Lady said...

Barney is to kids music what Madonna is to kids books.
Bleh!

But those damn "hip" parents who rush off to take their kids to Dan Zane "kids" concerts go right past Pete Seeger, Sharon,Lois and Bram, Fred Penner, Burl Ives and a whole lot of other "kids" singers who do fun music that adults can enjoy too.

There's always been good music for kids. There was good stuff 10 years ago, and 20 years ago too--I know, because I've had it in my library that long :)

And if you really hate kids music that much, better to just play the REAL stuff for them instead of vapid kiddy music made by adult bands who think that they can write stuff for kids!

Saints and Spinners said...

Library Lady: As a matter of full disclosure, I love DZ. However, there is this tendency to overlook the good children's music that musicians like Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins and Burl Ives produced in earlier years, and think that it all began with Zanes. (Do people think that? I'm not sure, but I had a father who seemed to know just about everything about music, so I don't have a proper perspective.)