My 8-year old girl loves Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus.  While it's not
entirely listenable to me, it is basically crunchy guitar-driven pop.  She
listens to it on her iPod a lot.  She really likes the whole High School
Musical thing, too.  Echoing others here, she like the Jonas Brothers, too.
The whole Disney pop thing isn't all that bad.  It's mostly good clean fun.
Oh, try The Click Five, too.  Their stuff is very listenable.

She isn't big on Drake Bell but honestly, his album is really a tribute to
classic Power Pop.  I don't believe it was made to generate the huge kiddie
cash.

The 12-year old boy is developing his own taste.  As expected, he is getting
into heavier music.  Linkin Park, Saliva, Disturbed, etc., but I listen to
everything he has on his iPod.  As a parent (and I make and enforce the
rules), I do not let him have songs that are what I consider to be
over-the-top explicit for a kid his age.  It is encouraging because he has
put Ok Go, Weezer, Foo Fighters, Bleu and other "hard" Power Pop bands on
the iPod, too.  Some of the emo pop bands he listens to are pretty good,
like Cartel, Jimmy Eats World, Fall Out Boy.

I have been able to steer him away from most of the hip-hop and rap junk
that kids seem to eat up.  Hard Rock lyrics can be stupid and obscene at
times but most rap and hip-hop songs I've heard that are popular are just
vile (sorry, I'll step off of my soapbox now).


-----Original Message-----
From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of
Robert Berry
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 7:55 PM
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Suggestions for the tweener crowd

Here's a subject that's fraught with danger for anybody interested in 
maintaining any kind of cred, but I probably don't have any anyway.

My daughter is somewhere between nine and ten, which means she's 
outgrowing the kiddie CDs and is now in the target market for the whole 
Disney Channel tweener-pop crowd. I recognize that she's going to like 
what she likes, but I'm hoping I can at least nudge her in some 
directions that I don't hate (to be specific: I dislike thumpy 
electronic dance stuff, and hip-hop).

She hasn't really started seeking out new stuff yet, but she's making 
noises about wanting an MP3 player. I'd like to get her one and preload 
it with some stuff. She's already a big fan of Puffy AmiYumi, which I 
think is a good sign. She has also latched onto Bianca Ryan, but I think 
that's more because of Bianca's age than anything; I don't really see 
her going for the R&B diva stuff in a big way.

I've heard some of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana stuff, and it actually 
sounds pretty listenable to me: real guitars and melodies and such. But 
I've only heard a few tracks, and I'm not sure how representative they are.

Any other ideas?

Robert R. Berry