Putumayo is proud to announce the launch of our new blog! Putumayo’s blog will continue to reflect the mission of Putumayo to introduce people to the music of the world’s cultures. For our kick-off post we interviewed some friends of Putumayo: DJ Spooky, Lila Downs and Herbie Treehead to see what they had to say about the universal appeal of kids music.
Read more below and let us know what you think!
Putumayo Kids CDs have a surprisingly universal appeal, and have received many accolades and awards from children’s media and organizations such as The Parents’ Choice Gold Award, The National Parenting Publications Gold Award, and “Best of” in Scholastic Magazine; among others. We recently spoke with several artists who are friends of Putumayo to get their take on the universal nature of children’s music. You’ll hear from the talented Lila Downs, a Latin artist who is not usually associated with children’s music (although one of her songs is featured on the Putumayo Kids Latin Playground album); a well-known London-based children’s artist, Herbie Treehead, whose song “The Change Song” is featured on European Playground; and legendary DJ/Producer, Turntablist, Author — Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky.
DJ Spooky |
Lila Downs |
Herbie Treehead |
Why do you think children’s music has such a universal appeal?
Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky: “Something about children’s music plays on the innocence and openness that children have. You can’t listen to kids music without a sense of wonder at the simplicity. I think children’s music is catchy precisely because it is about memory - we always strip memory down to its most essential components. That’s why people like “riffs” - it’s a way of simplifying and connecting fragments, just like sampling. Putumayo does a great job at collecting all the different possibilities. It always amazes me to see how hyper-diverse their output is.”
Herbie Treehead: “It’s a genre that’s just suddenly come about. You can be quirky and you don’t have to play within the stereotypes of conventional pop music and the like… I love that, I love writing in a way to visit the most ridiculous themes… It’s interesting that it’s called children’s music or family music when I find it quite universal. When I do performances at festivals I’ve got 5-years-olds and 60-year-olds dancing at the same time in front of me.”
[To Lila Downs] Although one of your songs, “Hanal Weech,” is featured on the Putumayo Kid’s Latin Playground album, your music is not typically associated with children’s music. What is it about “Hanal Weech” that you think appeals to kids?
Lila Downs: “I think the song I sing in Mayan is a very simple and fun [song]. The rhythm and the lyrics of the song are funny, also you can dance to it, I think this is why anyone can relate to it even if it’s in the Mayan language.”
Do you think there are defining characteristics of children’s music? What differentiates it from other types of music?
Lila Downs: “First of all, in our experience, it’s harder to keep their [a child’s] attention, so the music needs to get to the point. Usually children’s music is in major keys, optimistic, and often not too introspective.”
Herbie Treehead: “I think fundamentally, it’s universal [children's music]. Children’s music or family music is also positively framed, in a sense. These are very interesting questions… even if you’ve got a melancholy song there just seems to be a positive edge. Within children’s music there’s also a massive freedom of what to write and how to sing. It’s funny, because I’ve been going a long time with [my career], and I’ll see people in their 20’s who still come around … I think the songs last longer.”
Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky: “I think that the defining characteristics of kids music is being able to sing along! When I listened to records when I was a kid, I liked stuff like “Lord of The Rings” done as a story-record. Kids are a lot more open than one would expect, but it’s got to have that call and response/storytelling-type flow. I guess the kids music scenario is all about making listening to anything FUN! Nobody wants to hear depressing music or weird/strange music when they’re a kid. That kind of stuff kicks in as life gets more complex. Kids music, uniquely and distinctively, is about group shout outs, collective fun, and listening to stories, sometimes all at the same time!”
(To Lila Downs and Herbie Treehead) Do you approach the writing process any differently when making music with children in mind?
Lila Downs: “I’m not conscious of writing for children, but I think my lyrics are relevant to some children. A lot of our fans are kids who learn our lyrics.”
Herbie Treehead: “It’s funny because these are the only songs that I can write. [...] Fundamentally, people smile and laugh at exactly the same thing. Things tend to make them angry, fed up, and miserable at exactly the same thing. That’s what I like about children’s music: that no matter where you go, if you start to sing, or if you start to play, people stop and understand the rhythm and texture.”
For nearly Five years I co-hosted (with my young sons) a Children’s Music program on our local community radio station. I just wanted to thank all of you artists and Putumayo World Music for the wonderful albums that you’ve made. Several were in our library at the station and I heartily recommend them.
I wrote the original entry for Children’s Music on Wikipedia and I’m firmly of Generation X age (I’m 40) so I can remember the heyday of Children’s Music in the U.S. (Sesame Street, Schoolhouse Rock!, Electric Company) when I was a kid and I’ve been fortunate to be a very small part of it’s renaissance during the 2000s. Bless you guys for being a big part of that movement!
:-{)]
-Mark A. Morenz-Harbinger
Wonderful! I have never added a feed this quickly to my reader!
Might consider a title of some sort (the feed title right now is “unknown.”)
Looking forward to great stuff!
v cool. nice to get some more kid music recs as well. kudos!
Hey! My daughter’s school choosed “Fatou yo” song as background music in the last year’s end-of-classes fiesta.
All the kids were dancing and singing all the day even if they didn’t know the meaning of any word of the song. It’s a lovely hit, and I’m very glad to have the opportunity for saying THANKS to you here.
Thank you very much!
Nice to see this blog over at Boing Boing, i hope it sends you a ton of traffic! I tried out the Caribbean Party album last week and loved it.
tks for the effort you put in here I appreciate it!
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
Love your new blog. HUGE HUGE fan of Putumayo Kids albums. My 20 month-old and I have truly enjoyed Picnic Playground, and we’re excited to share the release info with readers on my blog. My son dances and sings along to “Mes Parents Sont Bio” by Pascal Parisot. Once that song starts playing, he starts conducting and leaping through the living room. Keep up the great releases and fresh music finds.
Hey, nice blog post!! It’s really very interesting that you help promote music education online through helping the people to become familiarized with music and at the same time culture..very nice:D
We love the music as well! It’s very sweet. Another place for kids music (a bit more educational in nature) is this - School songs
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.