Children's song
Encyclopedia
Children's song may be a nursery rhyme
set to music, a song that young children invent and share among themselves, or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home, or education. Although children’s songs have been recorded and studied in some cultures more than others, they appear to be universal in human society.
The Opies further divided nursery rhymes into a number of classes, including:
Playground or children’s street rhymes they sub-divided into two major groups, those associated with games and those that were entertainments, the second category including:
In addition since the advent of popular music publication in the nineteenth century a large number of songs have been produced for and often adopted by children. Many of these follow the form of nursery rhymes and children’s songs and have sometimes been adopted as such. They can be seen to have arisen from a number of sources including:
, which can be found in every human culture. The Roman nurses' lullaby, 'Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacte', may be the oldest to survive. Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus
take the form of a lullaby, including "Lullay, my liking, my dere son, my sweting
" and may be versions of contemporary lullabies.
However, most of those used today date from the seventeenth century onwards. We know that some rhymes were medieval or sixteenth century in origin, including 'To market, to market' and 'Cock a doodle doo
', but most were not written down until the eighteenth century, when the publishing of children's books began to move towards entertainment. The first English collections were Tommy Thumb's Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, both thought to have been published before 1744, and at this point such songs were known as 'Tommy Thumb's songs'. The publication of John Newbery
's Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (c.1785), is the first record we have of many classic rhymes, still in use today. These rhymes seem to have come from a variety of sources, including traditional riddles, proverb
s, ballads, lines of Mummers' plays, drinking songs, historical events, and, it has been suggested, ancient pagan rituals. Roughly half of the current body of recognised 'traditional' English rhymes were known by the mid-eighteenth century. In the early nineteenth century printed collections of rhymes began to spread to other countries, including Robert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826) and in the United States, Mother Goose's Melodies (1833). From this period we sometimes know the origins and authors of rhymes, like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
', which combined an eighteenth-century French tune with a poem by English writer Jane Taylor
and 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', written by Sarah Josepha Hale of Boston in 1830. Early folk song collectors also often collected nursery rhymes, including in Scotland Sir Walter Scott and in Germany Clemens Brentano
and Achim von Arnim in Des Knaben Wunderhorn
(1806–8). The first, and possibly the most important academic collection to focus in this area was James Orchard Halliwell's, The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842) and Popular Rhymes and Tales in 1849. By the time of Sabine Baring-Gould
's A Book of Nursery Songs (1895), child folklore was an academic study, full of comments and foot-notes. The early years of the twentieth century are notable for the illustrations to children's books including Caldecott's Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (1909) and Arthur Rackham
's Mother Goose (1913). The definitive study of English rhymes remains the work of Iona and Peter Opie.
and minstrel shows. Children also have a tendency to recycle nursery rhymes, children's commercial songs and adult music in satirical versions. A good example is the theme for the mid-1950s Disney film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
, 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett
', with a tune by George Bruns
, whose opening lines: 'Born on a mountain top in Tennessee / The greenest state in the land of the free' was endlessly satirised to make Crockett a spaceman, parricide and even a Teddy boy
.
', played in America, 'A sailor went to sea' from Britain, and 'Mpeewa' played in parts of Africa. Many traditional Māori children's games, some of them with educational applications, such as hand movement, stick and string games, were accompanied by particular songs. In the Congo the traditional game 'A Wa Nsabwee' is played by two children synchronising hand and other movements while singing. Skipping games like 'Double Dutch
' have been seen as important in the formation of hip hop and rap music.
, and several have satirical aims. The parody of adult songs, like Christmas carol
s with alternative verses, such as the rewriting of 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
by night' to 'While shepherds washed their socks at night' and numerous variations, was a large element in British playgrounds investigated by the Opies in the twentieth century. With the growth of media and advertising in some countries advertising jingles, and parody of those jingles, has become a regular feature of children's songs, including the 'Macdonald's song' in the USA, which played against adult desire for ordered and healthy eating. Humour is a major factor in children's songs, although the nature of the English language, with its many double meanings for words, may mean that it possesses more punning songs than other cultures, although they are found in other cultures, for example China. Nonsense verse
and song, like that of Edward Lear
and Lewis Carol, has been a major part of publication for children and some of this has been absorbed by children, while many verses seem to have been invented by children themselves.
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early songs included "Ten little fingers and ten little toes" by Ira Shuster and Edward G. Nelson and "School days
" (1907) by Gus Edwards and Will Cobb. Perhaps the best remembered now is "Teddy Bears' Picnic
", with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy
in 1932 and the tune by British composer John William Bratton was from 1907. As recording technology developed, children's songs were soon being sold on record; in 1888, the first recorded discs (called "plates") offered for sale included Mother Goose
nursery rhymes. The earliest record catalogues of several seminal figures in the recording industry such as Edison, Berliner, and Victor all contained separate children's sections. Until the 1950s the major record companies produced albums for children, mostly based on popular cartoons or nursery rhymes and read by major stars of theatre or film. The role of Disney in children's cinema from the 1930s meant that it gained a unique place in the production of children's music, beginning with 'Minnies Yoo Hoo' (1930). After the production of their first feature-length animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
in 1937, with its highly successful score by Frank Churchill
and Larry Morey, the mould for a combination of animation, fairy tale and distinctive songs was set that would carry through to the 1970s with songs from films such as Pinocchio
(1940) and Song of the South
(1946). The mid-twentieth century baby boomers provided a growing market for children's music. Woody Guthrie
, Pete Seeger
, and Ella Jenkins
were among politically progressive and socially conscious performers who aimed albums to this group. Novelty recordings like "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (a Montgomery Ward
jingle that became a book and later a classic children's movie) and the fictional music group "The Chipmunks
" were among the most commercially successful music ventures of the time. In the 1960s, as the baby boomers matured and became more politically aware, they embraced both the substance and politics of folk ("the people's") music. Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Limeliters
, and Tom Paxton
were acclaimed folk artists who wrote albums for children. From the 1970s television, with programmes like Sesame Street
became the dominant force in children's music. In the early 1990s, songwriter, record producer, and performer Bobby Susser
, emerged with his award-winning young children's songs and series, Bobby Susser Songs For Children, that exemplified the use of children's songs to educate young children in schools and at home. Disney also re-entered the market for animated musical features, beginning with The Little Mermaid
(1989) from which the song "Under the Sea
" won an Oscar, and was the first of a string of Oscar winning best songs. The twenty-first century has also seen an increase in the number of independent children's music artists, with acts like Dan Zanes
, Cathy Bollinger, and Laurie Berkner
getting wide exposure on cable TV channels targeted to children. Trout Fishing in America
has achieved much acclaim continuing the tradition of merging sophisticated folk music with family-friendly lyrics. Also recently, traditionally rock-oriented acts like They Might Be Giants
have released albums marketed directly to children, such as No!
and Here Come the ABCs
.
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
set to music, a song that young children invent and share among themselves, or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home, or education. Although children’s songs have been recorded and studied in some cultures more than others, they appear to be universal in human society.
Categories
Pioneers of the academic study of children’s culture Iona and Peter Opie divided children’s songs into those taught to children by adults, which when part of a traditional culture they saw as nursery rhymes, and those that children taught to each other, which formed part of the independent culture of childhood. A further use of the term is for songs written for the entertainment, or education, of children, usually in the modern era. In practice none of these categories is entirely discreet, since, for example, children often reuse and adapt nursery rhymes and many songs now considered as traditional were deliberately written by adults for commercial ends.The Opies further divided nursery rhymes into a number of classes, including:
- Amusements (including action songsClapping gameA clapping game is a type of usually cooperative game which is generally played by two players and involves clapping as accompaniment to a singing game or reciting of a rhyme...
) - Counting rhymesCounting-out gameA counting-out game is a simple game intended to select a person to be "it", often for the purpose of playing another game. These games usually require no materials, and are played with spoken words or hand gestures....
- LullabiesLullabyA lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
- Riddles
Playground or children’s street rhymes they sub-divided into two major groups, those associated with games and those that were entertainments, the second category including:
- Improper verses
- Jingles
- Joke rhymesLight poetryLight poetry, or light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered "light" are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration...
- Nonsense verseNonsense verseNonsense verse is a form of light, often rhythmical verse, usually for children, depicting peculiar characters in amusing and fantastical situations. It is whimsical and humorous in tone and tends to employ fanciful phrases and meaningless made-up words. Nonsense verse is closely related to...
- Macabre rhymes
- Popular songsPopular SongsPopular Songs is the twelfth full-length album by Hoboken-based rock band Yo La Tengo, released digitally, on CD, and double LP on September 8, 2009. It is their 7th album released on Matador and the eighth album to be given Matador's Buy Early Get Now treatment...
- Parodies
- Slogans
- Tongue-twisters
In addition since the advent of popular music publication in the nineteenth century a large number of songs have been produced for and often adopted by children. Many of these follow the form of nursery rhymes and children’s songs and have sometimes been adopted as such. They can be seen to have arisen from a number of sources including:
- FilmChildren's filmA children's film is a film aimed for children as its audience. As opposed to a family film, no special effort is made to make the film attractive for other audiences. The film may or may not be about children. In Unshrinking the Kids: Children's Cinema and the Family Film which is a chapter in In...
- Publishing
- RecordingChildren's musicChildren's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...
Nursery or Mother Goose rhymes
The term nursery rhyme is used for ‘traditional’ songs for young children in Britain and many English speaking countries, but usage only dates from the nineteenth century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used. The oldest children's songs of which we have records are lullabiesLullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
, which can be found in every human culture. The Roman nurses' lullaby, 'Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacte', may be the oldest to survive. Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
take the form of a lullaby, including "Lullay, my liking, my dere son, my sweting
Lullay, mine liking
"Lullay, mine liking" is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century which frames a narrative describing an encounter of the Nativity with a song sung by the Virgin Mary to the infant Christ...
" and may be versions of contemporary lullabies.
However, most of those used today date from the seventeenth century onwards. We know that some rhymes were medieval or sixteenth century in origin, including 'To market, to market' and 'Cock a doodle doo
Cock a doodle doo
"Cock a doodle doo" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3464.-Lyrics:The most common modern version is:Cock a doodle do!My dame has lost her shoe,My master's lost his fiddlestick,...
', but most were not written down until the eighteenth century, when the publishing of children's books began to move towards entertainment. The first English collections were Tommy Thumb's Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, both thought to have been published before 1744, and at this point such songs were known as 'Tommy Thumb's songs'. The publication of John Newbery
John Newbery
John Newbery was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported and published the works of Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson...
's Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (c.1785), is the first record we have of many classic rhymes, still in use today. These rhymes seem to have come from a variety of sources, including traditional riddles, proverb
Proverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s, ballads, lines of Mummers' plays, drinking songs, historical events, and, it has been suggested, ancient pagan rituals. Roughly half of the current body of recognised 'traditional' English rhymes were known by the mid-eighteenth century. In the early nineteenth century printed collections of rhymes began to spread to other countries, including Robert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826) and in the United States, Mother Goose's Melodies (1833). From this period we sometimes know the origins and authors of rhymes, like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English nursery rhyme. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem, "The Star" by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann...
', which combined an eighteenth-century French tune with a poem by English writer Jane Taylor
Jane Taylor (poet)
Jane Taylor , was an English poet and novelist. She wrote the words for the song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in 1806 at age 23, while living in Shilling Street, Lavenham, Suffolk....
and 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', written by Sarah Josepha Hale of Boston in 1830. Early folk song collectors also often collected nursery rhymes, including in Scotland Sir Walter Scott and in Germany Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
and Achim von Arnim in Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Des Knaben Wunderhorn is a collection of German folk poems edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and published in Heidelberg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, between 1805 and 1808...
(1806–8). The first, and possibly the most important academic collection to focus in this area was James Orchard Halliwell's, The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842) and Popular Rhymes and Tales in 1849. By the time of Sabine Baring-Gould
Sabine Baring-Gould
The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould was an English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1240 publications, though this list continues to grow. His family home, Lew Trenchard Manor near Okehampton, Devon, has been preserved as he had it...
's A Book of Nursery Songs (1895), child folklore was an academic study, full of comments and foot-notes. The early years of the twentieth century are notable for the illustrations to children's books including Caldecott's Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (1909) and Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
's Mother Goose (1913). The definitive study of English rhymes remains the work of Iona and Peter Opie.
Children’s playground and street songs
In contrast to nursery rhymes, which are learned in childhood and passed from adults to children only after a gap of twenty or sometimes forty years, children's playground and street songs, like all children's lore, are learned and passed on almost immediately. The Opies noted that this had two important affects: the rapid transmission of new and adjusted versions of songs, which could cover a country like Great Britain in perhaps a month without anything but oral transmission and second, the process of 'wear and repair' as songs were changed, modified and fixed where words or phrases were forgotten, misunderstood or updated.Origins of songs
Some rhymes collected in the mid-twentieth century can be seen to have origins as early in the eighteenth century. Where sources could be identified they were often taken from popular song, including ballads, music hallMusic hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
and minstrel shows. Children also have a tendency to recycle nursery rhymes, children's commercial songs and adult music in satirical versions. A good example is the theme for the mid-1950s Disney film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is a 1955 live-action Walt Disney adventure film starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. This film is an edited compilation of the first three stories from the Disney television series Davy Crockett :...
, 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" is a song with music by George Bruns and lyrics by Thomas W. Blackburn.The first recording of the song was made by Fess Parker, quickly followed by versions by Bill Hayes and Tennessee Ernie Ford...
', with a tune by George Bruns
George Bruns
George Bruns was a composer of music for film and television who worked on many Disney films. He was nominated for four Academy Awards for his work.-Career:...
, whose opening lines: 'Born on a mountain top in Tennessee / The greenest state in the land of the free' was endlessly satirised to make Crockett a spaceman, parricide and even a Teddy boy
Teddy Boy
The British Teddy Boy subculture is typified by young men wearing clothes that were partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, styles which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after World War II...
.
Game songs
Many children's playground and street songs are connected to particularly games. These include clapping games like 'Miss SusieMiss Susie
Miss Susie is the name of an American schoolyard rhyme and clapping game in which almost each verse leads up to a rude word or profanity which is elided into the next verse as part of an innocuous word or phrase...
', played in America, 'A sailor went to sea' from Britain, and 'Mpeewa' played in parts of Africa. Many traditional Māori children's games, some of them with educational applications, such as hand movement, stick and string games, were accompanied by particular songs. In the Congo the traditional game 'A Wa Nsabwee' is played by two children synchronising hand and other movements while singing. Skipping games like 'Double Dutch
Double Dutch (jump rope)
Double dutch is a game in which two long jump ropes turning in opposite directions are jumped by one or more players jumping simultaneously.While double dutch began in the inner cities of America, it is growing in popularity throughout the US and the world...
' have been seen as important in the formation of hip hop and rap music.
Pastime songs
Other songs have a variety of patterns and contexts. Many of the verses used by children had an element of transgressionNorm (sociology)
Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...
, and several have satirical aims. The parody of adult songs, like Christmas carol
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...
s with alternative verses, such as the rewriting of 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
"While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" is a Christmas carol describing the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with words attributed to Irish hymnist, lyricist and England's Poet Laureate, Nahum Tate....
by night' to 'While shepherds washed their socks at night' and numerous variations, was a large element in British playgrounds investigated by the Opies in the twentieth century. With the growth of media and advertising in some countries advertising jingles, and parody of those jingles, has become a regular feature of children's songs, including the 'Macdonald's song' in the USA, which played against adult desire for ordered and healthy eating. Humour is a major factor in children's songs, although the nature of the English language, with its many double meanings for words, may mean that it possesses more punning songs than other cultures, although they are found in other cultures, for example China. Nonsense verse
Nonsense verse
Nonsense verse is a form of light, often rhythmical verse, usually for children, depicting peculiar characters in amusing and fantastical situations. It is whimsical and humorous in tone and tends to employ fanciful phrases and meaningless made-up words. Nonsense verse is closely related to...
and song, like that of Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
and Lewis Carol, has been a major part of publication for children and some of this has been absorbed by children, while many verses seem to have been invented by children themselves.
Commercial children’s music
Commercial children's music grew out of the popular music publishing industry, associated with New York's Tin Pan AlleyTin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early songs included "Ten little fingers and ten little toes" by Ira Shuster and Edward G. Nelson and "School days
School Days (1907 song)
"School Days", also known as "School Days ", is an American popular song written in 1907 by Will Cobb and Gus Edwards. Its subject is a mature man and woman looking back sentimentally on their lifelong friendship and their days in primary school.The best known part of the song is its chorus:* ,...
" (1907) by Gus Edwards and Will Cobb. Perhaps the best remembered now is "Teddy Bears' Picnic
Teddy bears' picnic
"Teddy Bears' Picnic" is a song consisting of a melody by American composer John Walter Bratton, written in 1907, and lyrics added by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy in 1932. It remains popular as a children's song, having been recorded by numerous artists over the decades. Kennedy lived at...
", with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy
Jimmy Kennedy
Jimmy Kennedy OBE was an Irish songwriter, predominantly a lyricist, putting words to existing music such as "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer", or co-writing with the composers Michael Carr, Wilhelm Grosz and Nat Simon amongst others.-Biography:Kennedy was born near Omagh...
in 1932 and the tune by British composer John William Bratton was from 1907. As recording technology developed, children's songs were soon being sold on record; in 1888, the first recorded discs (called "plates") offered for sale included Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
nursery rhymes. The earliest record catalogues of several seminal figures in the recording industry such as Edison, Berliner, and Victor all contained separate children's sections. Until the 1950s the major record companies produced albums for children, mostly based on popular cartoons or nursery rhymes and read by major stars of theatre or film. The role of Disney in children's cinema from the 1930s meant that it gained a unique place in the production of children's music, beginning with 'Minnies Yoo Hoo' (1930). After the production of their first feature-length animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
in 1937, with its highly successful score by Frank Churchill
Frank Churchill
Frank Churchill was an American composer of popular music for films. He wrote most of the music for Disney's 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, including "Whistle While You Work" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come"...
and Larry Morey, the mould for a combination of animation, fairy tale and distinctive songs was set that would carry through to the 1970s with songs from films such as Pinocchio
Pinocchio
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
(1940) and Song of the South
Song of the South
Song of the South is a 1946 American musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the...
(1946). The mid-twentieth century baby boomers provided a growing market for children's music. Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, and Ella Jenkins
Ella Jenkins
Ella Jenkins is an American folk singer. Dubbed “The First Lady of the Children’s Folk Song” by the Wisconsin State Journal, Jenkins has been a leading performer of children’s music for fifty years.-Family and personal life:...
were among politically progressive and socially conscious performers who aimed albums to this group. Novelty recordings like "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (a Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...
jingle that became a book and later a classic children's movie) and the fictional music group "The Chipmunks
The Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...
" were among the most commercially successful music ventures of the time. In the 1960s, as the baby boomers matured and became more politically aware, they embraced both the substance and politics of folk ("the people's") music. Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Limeliters
The Limeliters
The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as...
, and Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
were acclaimed folk artists who wrote albums for children. From the 1970s television, with programmes like Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
became the dominant force in children's music. In the early 1990s, songwriter, record producer, and performer Bobby Susser
Bobby Susser
Bobby Susser , and also known as Bob Susser, is a multi-award winning, American songwriter, record producer, and performer, best known for his young children's music...
, emerged with his award-winning young children's songs and series, Bobby Susser Songs For Children, that exemplified the use of children's songs to educate young children in schools and at home. Disney also re-entered the market for animated musical features, beginning with The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
(1989) from which the song "Under the Sea
Under the Sea
-Parodies:In 1991, this song was parodied by musician Tom Smith with his song, "On The PC". This song was re-written in 1999 as "PC99".The song was parodied on the TV show Kappa Mikey where Mikey tries to convince a squid to live on land with him....
" won an Oscar, and was the first of a string of Oscar winning best songs. The twenty-first century has also seen an increase in the number of independent children's music artists, with acts like Dan Zanes
Dan Zanes
Dan Zanes was a member of the popular 1980s band The Del Fuegos and is currently the front man of the Grammy-winning group Dan Zanes and Friends.-History:...
, Cathy Bollinger, and Laurie Berkner
Laurie Berkner
Laurie Berkner is an American musician best known for her work as a children's musical artist. Berkner plays guitar and sings in the Laurie Berkner Band, along with pianist Susie Lampert, bassist Adam Bernstein, and drummer Bobby Golden...
getting wide exposure on cable TV channels targeted to children. Trout Fishing in America
Trout Fishing in America (band)
Trout Fishing in America is a musical duo which performs folk rock and children's music. The duo is composed of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet...
has achieved much acclaim continuing the tradition of merging sophisticated folk music with family-friendly lyrics. Also recently, traditionally rock-oriented acts like They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
have released albums marketed directly to children, such as No!
No!
No! is the ninth studio album by the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, released in 2002 on Rounder Kids. It is their first album of children's music....
and Here Come the ABCs
Here Come the ABCs
Here Come the ABCs is a 2005 DVD and audio CD release by They Might Be Giants, aimed at young children learning the alphabet. The CD and DVD were originally released separately, but since have been released together as a combo....
.
Selected discography
- Simon Mayor and Hilary James – Lullabies with Mandolins CD (2004)] Children's Favourites from Acoustics (2005)
- Mike and Peggy Seeger – American Folk Songs for Children (1955)
- Isla St Clair – My Generation (2003)
- Broadside Band – Old English Nursery Rhymes
- Tim Hart and Friends – My Very Favourite Nursery Rhyme Record (1981)
- Bobby SusserBobby SusserBobby Susser , and also known as Bob Susser, is a multi-award winning, American songwriter, record producer, and performer, best known for his young children's music...
– Wiggle Wiggle And Other Exercises (1996)
External links
- Lullabies of Europe/Languages from the Cradle A European Union, government funded, education project to collect lullabies (in their native language) from across Europe – includes samples in 7 languages.