As a huge music fan I've tried to expose my 3 year old to lots of great music. He's not quite ready for U2 or Dave Matthews, so we've got lots of children's music around the house - both audio CDs and DVD.
But most of it drives me completely nuts. Have you seen the Wiggles? I think they pipe their music in at Gitmo when they're interrogating terrorists. I can't even be in the same room when my son is listening to them or watching them. Truly awful, lip synced, ridiculously choreographed, pop drivel. Do you remember the goofy drama guys at your high school? Just imagine if someone gave them a kids TV show. And paid them $50 million a year. Ugh. And I'm not real cool with Captain Feathersword as a role model. He's not quite the pink teletubby with the purse, but it's pretty close.
So enter the Biscuit Brothers. These guys are real musicians and the music is really good (and they don't dance or prance!). My son absolutely loves the TV show on PBS, and I actually like the music myself. Plus they're pretty funny - they put in clever jokes that only adults get. And they're on public television so they're not in it for the bucks. I don't think they're in every PBS market yet, so you should ask your local station if they don't carry it.
The guys behind the Biscuits have music education backgrounds so each episode centers around a basic music theme - harmony, melody, rhythm, etc. Very educational without being boring.
Their show is set on Old McDonald's musical farm and the visuals are really nice - engaging but not overwhelming...lots of good outdoorsy shots so it doesn't look like some artificial set. The shows and the season1 DVD are well produced so they don't have that home movie feel like some kids shows but they also aren't don't look over-produced. And Willie Nelson does some of the narration, which I find highly amusing (not creepy like George Carlin doing voice overs on the Thomas the Train videos -seriously, the guy famous for doing the 7 Dirty Words bit is doing Thomas the Train?)
If you're a parent of young kiddos interested in music and/or music education, check them out.
But most of it drives me completely nuts. Have you seen the Wiggles? I think they pipe their music in at Gitmo when they're interrogating terrorists. I can't even be in the same room when my son is listening to them or watching them. Truly awful, lip synced, ridiculously choreographed, pop drivel. Do you remember the goofy drama guys at your high school? Just imagine if someone gave them a kids TV show. And paid them $50 million a year. Ugh. And I'm not real cool with Captain Feathersword as a role model. He's not quite the pink teletubby with the purse, but it's pretty close.
So enter the Biscuit Brothers. These guys are real musicians and the music is really good (and they don't dance or prance!). My son absolutely loves the TV show on PBS, and I actually like the music myself. Plus they're pretty funny - they put in clever jokes that only adults get. And they're on public television so they're not in it for the bucks. I don't think they're in every PBS market yet, so you should ask your local station if they don't carry it.
The guys behind the Biscuits have music education backgrounds so each episode centers around a basic music theme - harmony, melody, rhythm, etc. Very educational without being boring.
Their show is set on Old McDonald's musical farm and the visuals are really nice - engaging but not overwhelming...lots of good outdoorsy shots so it doesn't look like some artificial set. The shows and the season1 DVD are well produced so they don't have that home movie feel like some kids shows but they also aren't don't look over-produced. And Willie Nelson does some of the narration, which I find highly amusing (not creepy like George Carlin doing voice overs on the Thomas the Train videos -seriously, the guy famous for doing the 7 Dirty Words bit is doing Thomas the Train?)
If you're a parent of young kiddos interested in music and/or music education, check them out.