Then this: San Francisco Gate’s Amy Graff reported on a Mamma Mia sing-along for families. “Your daughter,” she warns, “might want to be Sophie . . . after seeing this movie.”

Is there a secret Abba fan club strictly for people under four-feet tall? Because I “can resist ya,” but the kids apparently take one look and forget everything.

The Mamma Mia musical and accompanying film version don’t hurt – they’re uniquely clean with zero sex or violence. At its worst, there’s the use of the word “slut.” That’s it. Shrek is worse than that. Throw in singing and dancing, and a storyline that’s all about mishaps not far off a cartoon’s, and it’s obvious someone was thinking about kids when they were making this flick.

Raised on Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals by my parents because we were TV-free and they were deemed the cleanest options for both my brother and I, I can dig it. Even in my Abba apathy.

But I confess I’m surprised by the fervour a so-so flick has generated among the four-year-olds in my neighbourhood. Is Mamma Mia one your kids will “never let” go?

Image: Amazon

Via: mummy Files

Hear the track and see the video after the jump.

The song, which was produced by the Neptunes, has a mellow dance beat and features lyrics by Latin rapper PitBull. The rapper talked to MTV last month about collaborating with Lopez. “Definitely something very, very sexy,” Pit said of the track. “Produced by Pharrell [of the Neptunes], look out for it.”

Lopez’s record company, Epic, also confirmed the singer’s identity. “It’s a fun track she did for the streets,” said the source. “It’s not the first single.”

So what do we call Lopez from now on? Lola? J.Lo? Jenny? And could this be confusing for the singer’s twins, Max and Emme? Oh, right — they just call her mum.

Source

He’s currently taking a break from working on his first album that will be “nothing like Elvis, nothing like him at all”.

Word is Benjamin is a “surly teenager”.  His spokesperson described him as “a typical 17-year-old. He doesn’t get up before midday and then grunts at you.”

His debut album is slated to come out sometime next year.

Sorry. I’m pushing 40 and working on my grizzle. But anyway, it is true that kids today are sort of learning how to make music with these cool music video games. I myself have a major case  of Rock Band envy.

One thing they aren’t learning, though, is actually how to play the guitar or bass or whatever.

For kids who’ve been bitten by the music bug through playing these games, though, a company called Sheet Music Plus, which is the largest online purveyor of sheet muscia, is encouraging kids to put down the controller and pick up a real instrument. Sheet music exists for just about all the popular songs that are used in the games.

“Today’s kids often get more exposure to music from video games and movies than from any other source, and it would be great if this gaming trend can be a gateway back to learning to play live music,”  Keith Cerny, CEO of Sheet Music Plus, states in a press release.

Because if you think it’s fun to rock out to “Are U Gonna Be My Girl” on Rock Band, it’s a whole new level of excitement to make that bassline thump by yourself.

Raised in the true Beatles generation,  it didn’t take a hard day’s night for my parents to hook their kid on John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Now, with all the hoop-la over Beatles Rock Band, there’s been a fair amount of debate over why they’re marketing an old band to today’s kids. And by all accounts, they’re expecting it to work.

An article in this month’s issue of Scholastic: Parent & Child broke down why the Fab Four have a hold on the under-four-foot-tall set. The experts they interview credit nonsensical lyrics that aren’t far off today’s kiddie tunes (”I am the eggman” over “Yooooooo, gabba, gabba?”) and themes that are akin to childhood development themes (”We Can Work It Out” sounds an awful lot like “share”).

A band that has engendered undying loyalty and unending hate, the Beatles are a love ‘em or leave ‘em group. I love ‘em. My husband could leave ‘em. So I tested ‘em out on my kid.

Strawberry Fields elicited boredom. Eleanor Rigby had her dancing. By Let it Be she was singing along. Time to dig Rocky out of my parents’ attic, perhaps?

Do your kids dig the Beatles? If you’re not sure, call them into the room and try this one:

This is so cute, and only mildly disturbing. Watch 5-year-old Wesley play Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues – an ode to drugs, sex and murder. Somehow his long bob hair-cut and sweet little voice make it all OK.

[Via Dlisted]

Men at Work is facing a lawsuit for allegedly ripping of a song we all learned to sing around the campfire when we were kids.

Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree (another song with its share of weird lyrics). Remember it? Here’s a taste from a guy who looks like he’s spent his fair share of time in front of a campfire:

Ok, so are you hearing Down Under in your head? Me neither, but publisher Larrikin Music claims the “distinctive flute riff” in Down Under comes straight out of the 1934 song written for the Australian Girl Guides (akin to our Scouts). It long ago jumped over the ocean, and I learned it as a kid on a cassette tape (yes, I’m dating myself – but it wasn’t an eight track) of campfire songs.

In fact, kids around the world sing it for concerts, plays and for the sake of getting themselves on YouTube. It’s well known enough that it’s practically in the public domain.

And the lawyers for Men at Work and their recording companies, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Songs Australia, are contending that Larrikin doesn’t even OWN the rights. That’s the argument now front and center, even though they still say the flute riff claim is laughable (no gum tree needed).

How about you be the judge?

What do you think – who better run for cover?

Image: Amazon

The quota of “adult” music to kiddie tunes in her section of my iPod is an almost two to one ratio. Just because they’re kids doesn’t mean they have to listen to inane bouncing around nonsense, right? Right?

Well, sort of. Because “adult” music is not always the kind you want your kids singing on YouTube. But for all the ickiness of tots twirling their hair and singing Lady GaGa’s Poker Face on Hannah’s post last week on Strollerderby, one commentor made a good point: “You think 9 year olds understand the meaning of the lyrics?”

Because I hadn’t a clue when I was a kid that Mick was “running to the shelter of” a Xanax. Knowing it now, and realising I used to run around the house singing it, proves that no innocence was lost. I didn’t grow up to be a pill head. Nor do I have some sort of problem with hearing voices after choosing Laura Brannigan’s “Gloria“ as my favorite tune when I was a kid and then naming half of my dolls in honor of the paranoid pop song.

Maybe I’m slightly defensive here – after all, while reading Hannah’s post on Lady GaGa, I realized my daughter had walked into the room and was singing along (and I honestly couldn’t tell you WHERE she’d heard the song before). But she’s three. And just thinks “muh, muh, muh, mah” is really cool to say.

Kind of like “let me please introduce myself” at high Mick quality volume. We’re just listening to music. We don’t have to get into WHY Keith Richards looks so pickled and never pull up the Annie Liebowitz pictures of Jagger on tour.

We have limits – no Notorious BIG (and no, she didn’t get to watch the movie with us either), no matter how much fun is to say “uh.” Because, in the immortal words of Mick, “you don’t always get what you want… but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!”

What “adult” songs do your kids ask for by name?

Image: Voices.com

At least 11 people have been killed at a world music festival in the Moroccan capital of Rabat on Saturday. Most of those injured and killed are believed to be women and children.

Featuring top names such as Kylie Minogue and Alicia Keys, the Mawazine (Rhythms) festival attracted a 70,000 strong crowd at the Hay Nahda stadium.

As reported in the SMH,

Police said the crowd surging towards one of the exits appeared to have brought down a wire fence, setting off the stampede as the concert ended.

Five women, four men and two children were later found dead, apparently having suffocated in the crush. A source close to the case said all those who died were Moroccan.

How awful.

Jewel has a new CD out for adults and children! She has partnered with Fisher-Price to create Lullaby, a collection of 15 acoustic tracks. Besides Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, there are 10 self-penned songs.

The tracks are very relaxing to listen to and ideal for those times when you just need a chill out session.

You can buy Lullaby at major retailers in the baby and infant departments, as well as online at jeweljk.com.