If You Please

[woodwardiocom]

It must be very easy for telepaths to identify new parents.

They're the ones with kids' songs going through their head all the time.

(I'm currently stuck with "We Are Siamese" from Lady And The Tramp, which is extra annoying due to being kinda racist.)

Comments

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

Not as racist as "What makes the Red Man Red" from "Peter Pan".

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I totally cringed all the way through that song....

[bluegargantua]

"I like Chinese..."

No, this is really a golden age for children's music. There's lots of good stuff out there and a bunch of it is tolerable for adults as well.

later
Tom

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

Racist? Really? I haven't heard that song in a long time, but I always thought it was about the freakiness of Siamese cats. Does it actually contain some sort of racial jibes about Siamese people, as a race?

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

The Siamese cats are bucktoothed, crosseyed, evil, and speak broken English with a vaguely Asian accent. They're basically a Disneyfied Yellow Peril.

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

The cats had buck teeth? Wow, it is amazing what my mind can edit out over the years!

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

The crosseyed part is accurate and common for siamese cats of that era; it's supposed to be largely bred out by now, but I've still seen a couple when I was a kid.

DUMBO is a much better Disney film with an anti-racist message, but the "Pink Elephants" number and the house fire scene might be too scary for pre-toddler primates.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Dumbo has some hard-core racist caricatures (I'm thinking the crows).

The surreal sudden ending was the result of an animator's strike, and outside the context of that labor dispute, it makes no sense.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

The crows are an intentional, defiant comment on racist stereotypes; one of them is actually named Jim Crow. They are voiced by real black people, and they are portrayed as friendly if skeptical people. They are also shown as Jumbo Jr's supportive peers; when they give him the "magic" feather they are literally giving part of themselves, and he joins them in the sky at the end when he masters his fear.

[archangelbeth]

I've got a part-Siamese longhair who is totally crosseyed. http://www.flickr.com/photos/archangelbeth/1991110122/in/set-72157603124801809 shows it slightly.

She also "talks" in the Siamese way, as does her son (http://www.flickr.com/photos/archangelbeth/987270706/in/set-72157603124801809/).

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

thankfully we haven't listened to any kids music really. most recently we were rocking out to "hey baby" by no doubt.

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

"Tenser, said the tensor."

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

and now it's in my head. thanks

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

So glad we don't have that one in our house, and that the Aristocats isn't popular with my youngins.

Adopting my daughter from China has made me just a trifle sensitive about these things...

[bluegargantua]

As mentioned above, "We are Siamese" is from Lady and the Tramp. The Aristocats has it's own catchy number however:

"Everybody wants to be a cat, cause a cat's the only cat, who knows where it's at..."
TOm

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

And said catchy number has it's own bit of racism with the buck toothed Siamese drummer (in a coolie hat IIRC). Sigh. At least their version of Robin Hood just has a poofy, Momma's Boy King Richard and a dumb Southern Sheriff...

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in children's music, of the Raffi type , the kids can listen to 'FNX like the rest of the house does. Avoiding movie music is much harder. Alyssa had Mulan on constant replay for a while when she was 6

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

the kids can listen to 'FNX like the rest of the house does

or, as someone once said to me, "Your nine-year-old listens to the Smiths? Get out!"

[drwex]

I wish I could get them to listen to FNX. They identify that as "Daddy's music" (though they're totally willing to rock out with me when I send them mash-ups of their favorite tunes). Both my kids are addicted to KISS 108, sadly. They fall asleep with the damned crap blaring so loud we can hear it downstairs.

I've been slowly working on trying to get them to differentiate, say, why Adele is a _good_ singer and Katy Perry is an abomination unto the gods. I figure it's the least I can do.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

The unfortunate challenge there is that Adele is a *boring* singer. I like about four of her songs - the same four that everyone likes - and the rest is just really dull. Her voice is beautiful, and most of the time, I reach for the "Next" button after the first few bars. Katy Perry at least changes it up more.

[drwex]

Katy Perry thinks that "moon" and "boom" rhyme.

I rest my case.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

If God truly abhorred your example, there wouldn't be a Unitarian standing.

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

At about 3, my kid could tell by ear the difference between trumpet solos by Louis Armstrong vs. Miles Davis.

A decade later, his music seems interesting to me for up to two minutes at a time.

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

And that reminds me: small children should definitely be exposed to substantial amounts of music other than songs-with-lyrics.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I can only claim Irish trad for that -- we didn't do a lot with classical, and while my ex would have done the jazz education, *I* never much enjoyed it so it wasn't played regularly in our house, but we were active participants in a few local Irish sessions and so that got into the mix.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite sure what the now-16-year-old listens to all the time, but I do know that I can hand over my iPod on a long car drive and say "make a playlist" and our shared taste is large enough that we get some very satisfying stuff.

[minkrose]

I remember when I first started listening to FNX back in the mid-90s, and for a while their tagline was "Not your father's alternative." This was hilarious to me - not only were my parents in a rock band (in their free time) but FNX was the main station that my dad & I listened to together! That, and ZLX... they were in a classic rock band, after all.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I have more of a problem with my 9-year-old nephew these days because he thinks he is outgrowing children's music. I quite firmly believe in children's music, and iTunes says that I have 28 hours of stuff tagged as such. That children also happen to like Sesame Street, Raffi, Dorothy Collins, Schoolhouse Rock, and the Carmen Sandiego albums is a small help in getting them to come into my gingerbread house, but not my only trick.

[tactical-grace.livejournal.com]

There are a reasonable number of not-particularly-insipid kids' albums out there. Raffi mostly makes me cringe, but my kids grew up loving Laurie Berkner and the They Might Be Giants kids albums (No! in particular). Now they like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and the Kaiser Chiefs. (And Lady Gaga...)

[wombattery.livejournal.com]

This is why we got Alex onto The Backyardigans as early as possible. The music's largely good enough that you don't mind it getting stuck in your head.

Naturally, since then we've made sure that he's completely out of touch with the pop culture of his generation. He'll thank us for it later. And by "thank us," of course, I mean "go to therapy."

[shaix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I find it odd how common racist themes were in Disney movies (and live-action classics, such as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Casablanca).

Meanwhile, ZXQ hasn't heard much in the way of "kids music", but I still manage to get song-virused with the midi wave files his little night-light starfish plays. "Beautiful dreamer, Wake unto meeee...."

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Ah, good. No one has pointed you at this. May I present:



I'll collect your brain at the door...

[muffyjo]

The youth group led the service on Sunday and got this one caught in my head...



...just being helpful.