Children's » Children's Rock

While much of children's music is drawn from the folk tradition, children's rock borrows the song structures and sounds of rock music and softens it for consumption by young ones (and quite often their parents). It's not an entirely new idea by any means (Peter Himmelman being an early pioneer), but at the beginning of the 2000s rock artists began turning to children's music and children's music performers began turning to rock more than either had done in the past. This explosion can likely be traced to the aging of the record-buying public and their desire for music that went beyond the simple and repetitive nature of Barney and many of the popular folky children's artists. Luckily for them, some rock artists began making smart, melodically challenging records around this time, They Might Be Giants' 2002's No! and Dan Zanes' 2003 House Party being two prime examples. Another factor in the rise of the style was the cable channel Noggin, which provided a video outlet for artists like Zanes, Lisa Loeb, and Elizabeth Mitchell (of the indie pop group Ida) and one of the most popular of the children's rock artists, Laurie Berkner. Thanks to playing videos by these artists (and others like Milkshake and the Dirty Sock Funtime Band) between shows and on the very well-produced Jack's Big Music Show, there were more outlets than ever for rock-based children's performers. The trend showed no signs of slowing as more and more rock artists -- such as the Get Up Kids' Matthew Pryor (the Terrible Twos), the Mekons' Jon Langford (Wee Hairy Beasties), and the Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider (Robbert Bobbert & the Bubble Machine) turned to performing music for children in the early 2000s.