For those musically-obsessed families out there who are also Nick Jr.-obsessed, the next four weeks promises to be particularly good (or tunefully repetitive) as the channel will air five music-themed shows, one a day, for four of its shows. Starting tomorrow (Monday, July 23rd) and for the next four weeks, Dora the Explorer, The Wonder Pets!, Blue's Clues, and The Backyardigans will each get their turn in the musical sun with a week apiece of music-themed episodes. The channel will also be premiering Yo Gabba Gabba! videos. Anyway, you get the idea -- lots of music.
Dora the Explorer gets the biggest PR push as it's the one show getting a new episode premiere, "La Maestra de Musica." It debuts on Monday, July 23rd. What's this episode all about? Well, let's go to the press release...
"Boots and Dora walk to school and bump into Boots’ music teacher, La Maestra de Música, who is singing Boots’ favorite song, “Hola, Hola.” When the chain breaks on La Maestra’s bicycle, she needs Dora, Boots and the preschoolers at home to help her figure out the quickest way to get to school..."
Anything more would just spoil the fun, now wouldn't it? (Although I will say, that the episode features the slowest schoolkids I have ever seen. They get to school a good 20 minutes late. Oh, and those snakes are so not scary.)
We've given a screener of the episode of few spins, and it was popular with the younguns. It follows the same template as every other Dora episode, so it's not like this breaks any new ground. In fact, the most fun is Swiper's appearance, in which he doesn't swipe the valuable can't-be-named-here-object, but in which he handles his rejection is with more style and grace than he typically does.
The music itself is perfectly competent, with the "Wheels on the Bus" getting a slight linguistic and contextual makeover. It's not exactly Raffi, though. In fact, what struck me in watching the episode is what nice little songs the hyper theme song and the closing "We Did It!" song are. The opening track in particular is ear-wormy the way few TV theme songs are nowadays. On the other hand, unlike those songs, the songs in this episode actually encourage the kids to sing along. That, by itself, is a good thing.
One final note -- that is not, as I'd first wildly thought (and hoped) upon seeing the image, Laurie Berkner. (Unless she's credited here under a fake name and using an archly stylized singing style.) So I'm just throwing that out there, Viacom, a Dora/Laurie Berkner crossover. It'd be huge.
(Illustration courtesy Nick Jr.)
"Boots and Dora walk to school and bump into Boots’ music teacher, La Maestra de Música, who is singing Boots’ favorite song, “Hola, Hola.” When the chain breaks on La Maestra’s bicycle, she needs Dora, Boots and the preschoolers at home to help her figure out the quickest way to get to school..."
Anything more would just spoil the fun, now wouldn't it? (Although I will say, that the episode features the slowest schoolkids I have ever seen. They get to school a good 20 minutes late. Oh, and those snakes are so not scary.)
We've given a screener of the episode of few spins, and it was popular with the younguns. It follows the same template as every other Dora episode, so it's not like this breaks any new ground. In fact, the most fun is Swiper's appearance, in which he doesn't swipe the valuable can't-be-named-here-object, but in which he handles his rejection is with more style and grace than he typically does.
The music itself is perfectly competent, with the "Wheels on the Bus" getting a slight linguistic and contextual makeover. It's not exactly Raffi, though. In fact, what struck me in watching the episode is what nice little songs the hyper theme song and the closing "We Did It!" song are. The opening track in particular is ear-wormy the way few TV theme songs are nowadays. On the other hand, unlike those songs, the songs in this episode actually encourage the kids to sing along. That, by itself, is a good thing.
One final note -- that is not, as I'd first wildly thought (and hoped) upon seeing the image, Laurie Berkner. (Unless she's credited here under a fake name and using an archly stylized singing style.) So I'm just throwing that out there, Viacom, a Dora/Laurie Berkner crossover. It'd be huge.
(Illustration courtesy Nick Jr.)
In 2002, Belinda and Hova compiled their first Greasy Kid Stuff collection, filled with their broadcast's most popular songs from 7 years of Saturday-morning radio shows. This collection has a very goofy vibe to it that owes as much of its energy to Dr. Demento as it does 120 Minutes. Finding out from the liner notes that the very odd "There's a New Sound (The Sound of Worms)" was "without a doubt the most-requested song" on the show in the mid-'90s is a bracing tonic in thinking about what kids actually like to hear. Although I think the silly outweighs the rock, even the silly has a lot of rock to it (check out the surf "Ants in My Pants"), and the rock -- exemplified by the Mr. T Experience's cover of "Up and Down" from Schoolhouse Rock and the by-now-immortal "Jockey Monkey" from James Kochalka Superstar.
The sequel, released a couple years later, is more at the 120 Minutes-end of the GKS spectrum. With tracks from Cub, Supernova, and They Might Be Giants, the album has much more of an indie-rock feel. "Dictionary" is another great indie-rock track, done by Muckafurgason (two-thirds of which would later become the kids' band The Quiet Two. But the less-familiar names also turn in enjoyable tracks, most notably the surprisingly sweet (with pointed commentary near the end) "The Dinosaur Song," from Drew Farmer.
Both albums are appropriate for kids of all ages (unless you think kids shouldn't hear the "Mission: Impossible" theme as performed by chickens, then stay away from the original). But I think kids ages 4 through 10 will probably get the most out of the CDs. Samples are available at many fine internet superstores.
It's hard to choose between the two CDs (if, indeed, you have to choose between them), but I think my rough stereotyping above -- Dr. Demento or 120 Minutes is a reasonably fair one. There are some awesome tracks on both CDs and your family will like both, if for perhaps slightly different reasons. With news that a third collection is 
