My eldest is soon to turn 7 and I am busy searching for presents. It’s an interesting age because she can now read well which gives her an independence when it comes to following instructions and opens up a whole world of what she can explore on her own. She loves to read, dance and listen to music so one of the presents I was hoping to buy her is some more music. We have a children’s party music album and she loves the Little Mix song Black Magic from it. Little Mix have lots of young fans so I thought I would buy their most recent album “Glory Days”. Having had a little listen I realised I made a big mistake.
The first song on the album Shout out to my ex says “sex” in the 5th line, well I guess it’s an obvious rhyme with “ex”, but the words and lyrics which make me wince don’t stop there. M is innocent enough that although I can hear many of the songs are singing about sex she won’t pick up on it, but am I comfortable with her singing those lyrics? Then there’s the song about the cheating boyfriend that they just can’t stay away from (a real song of empowerment there) and includes the initials "F.U", again I know what that stands for, but she won’t. On to Power where they sing about the man “packing down south”. The girls definitely decided to sex the album up and I will be hiding the album for a few years. In fairness when I received the album I noticed the over 12s warning on the back, but it wasn't obvious when I bought it from Amazon (affiliate link).
So I thought maybe I would look at a compilation album with recent pop songs, but looking down the list of tracks on the ones suggested by Amazon there are numerous that say “Explicit” next to them. Is it too much that I want to buy recent music for my daughter that she can sing and dance to that doesn’t contain swearing or constant references to sex? I would absolutely love her to be singing songs about empowerment, having fun and being happy, but I know that is pushing it short of pulling together a collection of songs myself (and that’s an expensive risk and too challenging for me to get on CD).
A couple of useful lists I found are this one from A Mighty Girl and this one from common sense media. I have filtered them to the right age group and type of music and it has given me ideas for various artists. I then went on to iTunes to listen to a sample of various tracks from albums before going to Amazon and checking for the explicit lyric icon. The end result has been a mixture of music that I think I can tolerate and that seems to be age appropriate. She won’t like all of the tracks, but hopefully there will be enough choice that she will find a few other songs to play alongside “Black Magic” and “Boomerang”. Of course, there is another option; by offering your children the chance to play their own music thanks to kid's guitar lessons you can get a much better idea of what they like and tailor that to something their music teacher recommends. Between you, you should be able to create something special.
When it comes to buying music, if anyone knows any albums released in the last couple of years that are suitable for young girls and are whatever type of genre Little Mix are please let me know.
This is great. So many parents are totally oblivious to some of the inappropriate content in today's pop music. We all think Little Mix and the like are meant for the younger pre-teens but some of it is quite shocking!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I listened to some of the songs before giving it to her, I now have the CD hidden in a draw like some adult toy!
DeleteI know very little about chart music from the last few years (how old do I sound?!) but, having heard of them, I assumed they'd be kid friendly. My kids really like Kasabian which I'm happy with, but I do have to strategically cough over some lyrics!
ReplyDeleteM seems to be moving into a style of music that I've never really been a fan of, I'm not sure if it's R'n'B or what, but it definitely seems to be one unsuitable for kids. Indie music (is it still called that?) seems much safer
DeleteI share your conundrum, mine is 7 in the next few months too and it's hard enough to censor playlists for the car!
ReplyDeleteMy 2 year old wont let us listen to anything other than The Greatest Showman in the car at the moment!
DeleteMaybe it’s cause... little mix isn’t for KIDS in the first place. I’m starting college in a month and I listen to them. They’re almost in their thirties.... don’t hate on them when it’s your fault for being uneducated. Most of their fans are in their late teens. Just because you have heard a kid-friendly song like “black magic” doesn’t mean all their music is like that.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I'm not saying anything negative about Little Mix or their music, but as you say their music, especially now days isn't child appropriate. I knew lots of children listened to their music and go to their concerts so I was surprised. I think it shows it's important it is to check music out before letting young children listen to it, even if their songs are regularly on the radio.
Delete