Appropriate Music?

Updated on May 25, 2011
L.C. asks from Boulder, CO
17 answers

I thought this would be a good companion to my other question about disliking kids music. What kinds of music do you think is appropriate for your child and do you enjoy it? What music is inappropriate (besides the obvious stuff with lots of profanity, violence and explicit language)? I just want to know about the music here, not the lives of the various celebrities as I'm can't believe that kids are THAT in tune with that stuff. (Most anyway).

Answer away! Don't worry, I won't judge. :)

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A.K.

answers from Dallas on

I just listened to a disgusting song by rhianna, the lyrics make me sick - and a lot of music is like this these days "sex in the air, I don't care I love the smell of it - sticks and stones may break my bones, but chains and whips excite me"
gross

4 moms found this helpful
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B.

answers from Augusta on

my kids listen to everything from Mozart to Blondie.
But they also listen to kids music, Bare Naked ladies came out with a kids CD and so did they might be Giants.
Bowling for Soup does the music for the kids show " Phineas and Ferb"

2 moms found this helpful

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M.B.

answers from Washington DC on

Inappropriate(besides the profanity/sex/violent music): ANY of that pop music that the singers have a bratty tone. Like they are whining or complaining. They sound like such selfish spoiled brats, and don't even have a good voice to begin with, just an irritating beat. "ooh, that's catchy!" is everyone's excuse to like it. Isn't enough of a reason for me! THERE IS A LOT OF MUSIC LIKE THAT TODAY! yeck.

We as a family listen to quite a variety... classical, rock, jazz, jazz fusion, country, rockabilly, classic rock, blues, classic r & b, etc...

4 moms found this helpful
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A.P.

answers from Chicago on

My toddler is in the parrot stage so I really don't listen to a lot of my music with him around. In the car we listen to They Might Be Giants kids music. I don't mind it, I guess if it were a 10 hour drive it would get to me but around town it's great. At home I put on classical or jazz, no words really.
But when I get in the car alone let me tell you I blast the most inappropriate songs to make up for it :) hehe

2 moms found this helpful
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K.L.

answers from Washington DC on

My son listens to whatever we are listening to, which ranges from pop to country to rock to hip hop and everything in between. His favorites are AC/DC, Springstein, Journey, and Godsmack.

2 moms found this helpful
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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

I look for a lot of kinds of music. There is some more palatable music on Nick Jr. Classical always works, as does instrumental music. I love Barrage and Bond (the quartet, not the movie). We also turn to musicals and any songs we love that don't have questionable content. They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, Dr. Demento (Does your chewing gum lose it's flavor on the bedpost overnight?), GBS.

When the big kids were little DH made mix tapes of stuff he could stand to listen to over and over and now we do the same on our ipods so we know we can play these songs and our little one won't be picking up anything bad.

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S.H.

answers from St. Louis on

we listen to everything!

Country: Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Colt Ford, Kenny Chesney, Randy Houser, James Otto, Chris Young, Zac Brown Band!, the old Big&Rich stuff, VanZant (the Lynyrd Skynyrd family)....most Top 40 artists.

Classic Rock: Lynyrd Skynryd, Marshall Tucker Band, Ozark Mt Daredevils, Ted Nugent, John Mellencamp, Meatloaf, etc.

Pop/Alternative: Nickelback, Daughtry, Theory of a Deadman, Avenged 7fold, Kid Rock, Shinedown, Linkin Park....anything with a good guitar in it!

Blues/Easy: Marc Broussard, k.d. Lang, Adele!, Dusty Springfield, & many more.

I also use Music Choice for naptime in my daycare. I really enjoy the artists on the Graces Of Asia cd.....Missa Johnouchi, Shao Rong, & others. Excellent music!!

I try to avoid the music with profanity....& it's a hard road to walk. Now that my younger son is almost 15....we listen to everything - except the really explicit junk that's out there.

Good question, thanks.....Oh, & as for music for younger kids: I use Music Choice's Toddler Tunes.....but all of my families listen to country - so I use that too.

1 mom found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

my kids have forbidden me to listen to nickelback, bieber, brittany or hootie and the blowfish.
but sometimes i cheat.
:) khairete
S.

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J.N.

answers from Salt Lake City on

I think I can answer both your questions at once.
For the most part, I think our kids listen to pretty much the same music we do. We just set the car radio to our station. Sometimes they ask us to change it, or ask for a specific station, and we go with it or not, depending on what we feel like (we try to be reasonable). They do have music they like, and my daughter has a cd player in her own room (and just got an MP3 - but she's 12), and again we try to be reasonable, but most of the time if there's music on it's what we (parents) want.

Our music tastes, fortunately, are very eclectic. We listen to everything from classical to country to classic rock. And most of it we don't mind for the kids. I especially like to have them listen to classical - not for the "mind building" (I don't think just listening to it makes a huge difference, it's playing it that would matter) but because it's good music. But the only things we've found inappropriate, even when they were little, were songs with a bad message (like Bohemian Rhapsody, for one) or bad language.

We do have CDs of religious music (hymns, children's songs from our church) that we like to play from time to time as well. Always appropriate when we want to bring a peaceful feeling into the home.

1 mom found this helpful

V.W.

answers from Jacksonville on

Our kids mostly listen to what my husband does. And he has very eclectic tastes and has a difficult time listening to radio.

Our 12 year old has everything from U2, to Great Big Sea, to Keith Urban, to Muse, to Beastie Boys (the opening song from the most recent Star Trek) to Elvis, to Lenny Kravitz, to Harry Connick, Jr., to the Finn Brothers (Neil and Liam) to the Brian Setzer Orchestra, to Brian Adams, to Ryan Adams, to Johnny Cash, to Chris Isaak, to Colin Hay to Corb Lund to Coldplay to Darius Rucker and Dierks Bentley. We don't do rap or hip-hop though. Just isn't our "thing". Daughter is the same, although she uses her ipod more for games than music.

Oops.. forgot Snow Patrol, lol.

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M.P.

answers from Raleigh on

Both my 4 yo son and I love The Beatles. Especially Yellow Submarine. My baby girl likes anything I make up-lol

1 mom found this helpful
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M.M.

answers from Washington DC on

HAHAHA Suz T!!
I too have been "forbidden" to listen to Justin Beiber. As in Mommy, you do not like Justin Bieber.
Who??

Mine are older, 22, 16, 13 and 10. When my 22 yo was in the house he liistened to those heavy metal bands, Slipknot, Disturbed. No one can understand what they are saying anyway and as long as he didn't have his music too loud I tried not to say too much. I grew up in the 80's. George Micheal made my mother cringe.
The younger ones listen to Contemporary Christian and light rock/pop. And since I drive I pick the station or cd, so they also listen to John Denver and Kenny Rogers.

1 mom found this helpful

J.B.

answers from Houston on

We have a couple stations here that play a mix of pop, light rap (ie no profanity etc), r&b etc. I usually choose one of those. We have an 80's rock station that I will flip to sometimes and we have lots of fun with those songs. I love praise and worship to the Lord so we have some CDs we will jam out to. I will do like Alvin and the Chipmunks etc and like rock songs sung by kids etc and even just some straight up kiddie music, but after I while I have to have a break!! But luckily my kids like a variety :D My oldest who is almost four LOVES rap and requests it but you can hardly ever find something that isn't beyond vulgar...so usually he has to go for like Pink rapping in a song or something like that ;) But some rap is fine and he jams out to that. That is our play list, music is so great and I think variety is the spice of life!!

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J.K.

answers from Missoula on

I used to get all different kinds of music from the library to listen to in the car. It was great because there was no investment and if we didn't like a CD, we just skipped to the next one. There were a few CDs that we got over and over because the kids really loved them. We moved to a rural area that doesn't have CDs in their library collection, and we don't spend as much time in the car now, but every once in a while the kids still sing some of their favorite songs.

S.A.

answers from Salt Lake City on

My kids (6 & 2 1/2) absolutely LOVE Bob Marley. We also listen to a huge variety including, Journey, Michael Bouble, U2, Paul Simon, The Cars, INXS, Sarah McLauchlan, George Strait, Chris LeDoux, Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon, James Taylor, Johnny Cash, and most other 80's stuff, just to name a few. We also have some soundtracks that are well loved, including Wicked, Singing in the Rain, Sleepless in Seattle, and Remember the Titans. Some Classical & Jazz are also in the mix. My kids listen to whatever we listen too & so far, they like most everything else we've exposed them too. Although, I've been more aware of what the words are to the music since I've had kids. I change the radio if I hear something that would be questionable. Good luck finding that balance! There's some awsome music out there!

Shellie

M.R.

answers from Rochester on

We just listen to our music unless there are noticable swear words. My kids don't usually "sing along" since a lot of what they hear is metal (hard for them to imitate growling words, or at least to understand what the words are, even if any were inappropriate). We also listen to a lot of classic stuff like Pink Floyd, Genesis, John Denver, James Taylor, etc. My oldest is 4 1/2. We have tried to play "kids" music once or twice but the kids didn't like it anyway. If I'm listening to Ozzy Osbourne, so are my kids. If I'm listening to Petra, they are too. We don't listen to radio, so I don't know what what kids are generally hearing these days. I enjoy inflicting Gregorian Chant on my family, as well as the BeeGees. I'm alone in that regard here. :)

C.W.

answers from Las Vegas on

My little one listens to everything as long as the lyrics are appropriate. I grew up listening to rap (from age 8) and don't let my daughter to listen to most of my rap because they cuss a lot and some are explicit content. I'm not big on a lot of rap these days because it's all about getting laid, sex, blow jobs, killing people, blah blah (like the new rhianna song, ugh). Songs that are whiny and say things that suggest not listening to "authority" she doesn't listen to either.

She listens to the edited ludacris icecream paint job b/c there's nothing wrong with singing about a clean nice car lol and another rap song is diggy simmons great expectations since it's a song about motivation to do what you want and not worry about others. She listens to nick jr songs like fresh beat band, dora, wonderpets. She listens to fireflies (owl city). She listens to Debussy. I don't like whole artists, not for any reason it's just not what I do, so each song she listens to outside nick jr songs is a case by case basis. Right now my daughter is obsessed with the fresh beat band song Great Day lol but it's not that bad.

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