Kid music CDs at the 99-Cent Only Store
I love the 99-Cent Only Store. (Here's a piece I wrote about it several years ago for bOING bOING). I love to take my kids there, because they go nuts for the battery powered fans, tubs of knockoff Play-Doh, stuffed animals, and other toys.
On our last trip, I picked up a few kid music CDs. I like them much more than contemporary kid music, which all seems to have that same abysmal Disney Beauty and the Beast / Lion King style, with over-the-top Broadway musical vocals. The people always sound like the are crying over a lost dream in those songs. I hate that.
The CDs I picked up from the 99-Cent Only Store are more in the vein of Dumbo / Peter Pan style music -- chipper, melodic, inventive. That's because the songs were obviously recorded in the 1950s. My 3-year-old immediately pricked up her ears and started dancing to the music.
I suspect these songs are in the public domain. Maybe I'll rip them to MP3 to share with the readers of Mad Professor.
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I picked up a stack of Christmas Music CDs from the Dollar Tree last year. Used most of them as stocking stuffers, but I kept a couple. They were mostly simple instrumental versions of various carols and 50ish Xmas songs.
Most of the pieces were unremarkable . . . if they were playing in the background I wouldn't feel turned off, which is saying something considering how wretched most Christmas music is.
One 'side' was a gas, though: A banjo rendition of the "Ode to Joy" that halfway through merged into "Angels we have Heard on High." Man, I got a kick out of that!
I ended up buying that wireless music dodad, so thanks for the suggestion.
I just wanted to point out how parenthood may have altered your perceptions. Above you write: "I love to take my kids there, because they go nuts for the battery powered fans, tubs of knockoff Play-Doh, stuffed animals, and other toys."
But back in 1996 you saw the same thing and didn't seem to like it:
"The 99ยข Store ...is ...teeming with children. Most of the youngsters were hanging around the candy or toy sections, fighting with their siblings, or running over to their mothers, waving something they'd grabbed from the shelves, whining, "Mom, can we get this?"
I'm not sure if the change is good or bad, but it's good that you seem to be growing.