While over at Mom's yesterday to watch the Broncos game on television (a rare treat in this market), we saw a commercial for children's musical toys that was a bit disturbing, showing as it did the dramatic changes in popular culture over just a generation or two. The "toys" come from the Little Tikes company (MGA Entertainment) and are touted as helping develop music appreciation by kids 3 to 7 years old. Indeed, the company says the "infant and preschool toys...get kids moving with music that parents can appreciate" with devices (drums, guitar, keyboard -- all sold separately at $60-75 a pop) that play "existing songs or can be played freestyle and includes flashing lights that pulse to the beat."So forget the old school approach of getting your kids a real musical instrument to learn. Forget the bother of teaching them to read music, developing motor skills, and learning the virtues of patience, practice and creativity. No, the Little Tikes folks have eliminated the need to learn anything -- "Kids just strum a note to play a song."
And forget too that tired old stuff to learn from: Mary Had a Little Lamb, Oh Susanna, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The Little Tikes "musical instruments" are
nothing if not up to date. Their regimen? "Kid-friendly versions of famous songs" including those lovely standards "Wild Thing" by The Troggs, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen, "All Star" by Smashmouth, "Love Shack" by The B-52's, "Message in a Bottle" by the Police, "Hot Hot Hot" by Buster Poindexter, and "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks.Hmm.
True musical appreciation and development are thus thrown in a ditch, exchanged instead for a dumbed-down, play-acting entertainment. And, oh yes, featuring songs once considered too risque for your high school prom but most thoughtfully re-packaged now for your tots.
How appropriate a gift for Winter Solstice Celebration 2008.
