“Imagination Movers” and the quality of children’s music

Somehow, I’m not entirely sure how, I have landed on the promo list for Disney Music and every month or two get a music CD aimed at the 3-7 set. Most of them are pretty good, but I have to admit that the latest disk they’ve sent us is quite astonishingly good and very worth a listen.

The disk is Disney’s Imagination Movers: For Those About to Hop and it’s songs from the hit Disney TV series, which we’ve never watched and I have no clue about other than to say that the music rocks.

With 22 tracks from the show (I believe) and an additional five “bonus songs” the disk has lots of peppy music for your little ones.

More importantly, though, with its mix of hip-hop, rap, and dance music, there are just one heck of a lot of highly listenable, quite catchy tunes. In fact, Nina’s Song has been stuck in my head for days now, partially because my 5yo K- has a friend named Nina and thinks it’s awesomely awesome that there’s a song about her: we’ve listened to it at least two dozen times.

My biggest question, though, is: when did kids music become so good?

I admit that I usually prefer the simple olden days, with classic movies, folk songs and rock from the 70s and 80s, but I remember as a child that it wasn’t until I started to listen to “adult” music that I started to encounter well-produced albums with sophisticated musical rhythms and melodies, and that children’s music was always simplistic, often almost amateurly recorded and performed, and that it was all “sing-along” material.

That’s good for campfires, but between hit music like Hannah Montana and High School Musical and the formula teen bands, well-produced and enjoyable music has really moved the bar down towards younger and younger children.

As a kid I listened to The Beatles, Aerosmith, and my sister was big (biiigggg!) into The Monkeys for a phase, but those artists were still aimed at the adult market and were just enjoying the spillover into teen listeners who, at that time, had precious little disposable income anyway.

Listening to the splendid recording quality and complex tracks on For Those about to Hop, however, lets me hear music aimed at very young children that’s enjoyable for us adults too. In fact, I’ll suggest that if you like contemporary music, I’ll bet that there are at least a few tracks on this CD that you’ll really enjoy.

For example, I think that they’ve done such a good job on Playing Catch that I’m tempted to play it prior to the next talk I give, as people file into the room, just to see if they are actually listening to the lyrics.

(btw, according to their press kit, the Imagination Movers team are four dads, Rich Collins, Scott Durbin, Dave Poche and Scott “Smitty” Smith, who hilariously describe their music as “Beastie Boys meet Mr. Rogers” and “Red Hot Chili Peppers meet Captain Kangaroo”)

I won’t actually go as far as to suggest that you buy this music CD that’s coming out early in July 2009 on the strength of my review, but I will encourage you to audition it and if you have young children, see if they’ll like it.

Because goodness knows, as a parent, wouldn’t it be nice to have some music your kids like that you can tolerate – or, even better, enjoy – too?