What Should We Be Playing The Baby?

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I also took him to see a Willie Nelson concert when he was about 5 months old. He really enjoyed it. Willie's the man.

i'd play a kid a lot of very plainly produced voice-and-instrument type music, raise them with an appreciation for the basics.

here's a review of a few of them
click here

Burundi throat warbling. Ninety seconds. An "Akazehe" greeting, apparently: "in the same breath the singer uses both chest-voice and a head-voice (alternating rapidly from one to the other) to obtain a yodelling effect which is frequently encountered in Africa among the pygmies", read the sleevenotes.

Young Rufus will need some grounding in the classics. I am recommending Sam Cooke, Booker T. and the MGs, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Aretha Franklin. You can't really go wrong with any Phil Spector (babies dig the Wall of Sound) or the Shangri-Las. Ain't nothin' better than being up with a baby at 3 AM with a cuppa and some good old soul music....

Maybe something like that could apply to music listening. I would probably want to try to expose my child to different types of music (yes, from different cultures, especially): western classical music, modal music from India and the middle east, Chinese music using a five tone scale, etc., so they could get an intuitive feel for different ways of organizing music. Of course, being so systematic about it could be boring for both you and your baby after a while.

In some ways I think I would be more curious to simply see how my baby reacted to different types of music or sound than with trying to program them (even to be eclectic).

here

covers similar ground, try some primitive blues, undiluted, emotional human voice seems to work best in engaging the child, sorry Raymond Scott lovers but it just isn't a hit with the kids.

also Flipper.

they typically go for really high end sounds... hell, fans, dishwashers, and the rumble of our car work just as well as any melody.

m.

So that's what happened in Masami Akita's childhood!

Also, Warren Zevon puts babies to sleep. It's awesome. Just put on 'Excitable Boy' and they pass right the fuck out.

Go-go is terrible for babies, for obvious reasons

The real answer: play whatever music you absolutely hate. Pretend to love it. In 12 years when your kid is being rebellious by listening to the exact opposite of what you "listened to", you'll thank me.

sure to bring a smile to any child's face. not kidding here... ignore the title of the song... the song features a little kid thanking God for the good things in his life -- over a gentle, lush electronic sweep. very sweet.

And play Babybird's "Ugly Beautiful" as well. That's a great overlooked album.

Also Hugh Shrapnel's Lullaby

you said you were growing tire of Bach -- perhaps try pre-Baroque then
i recall that various lute tune worked v.well for my son once (twice, thrice, so-onth)

and! that Kristine Hersh album, of the songs her dad once sang her, is also tops (in its sweet twisted way)

Semi-tongue-in-cheek question - why is "educating" your girlfriend considered awful while "educating" your child is OK (even though the latter is likely to be even less 'productive'??). I suspect that my parenting skillZoR will consist of turning down whatever I was playing anyway.

HAHAHA!! that is awesome!! he's already got a sense of humor

(congrats on the kid, btw.)

Vashti Banyan
Sandy Denny
Jason Falkner/Bedtime with the Beatles
Raymond Scott/Soothing Sounds for Babies (yes, really)
Sinead O'Conner/Gospel Oak EP

Not as successful as I thought they'd be:

Howie B./Music for Babies
Aphex Twin/Selected Ambient Works Vol. II
Boards of Canada/Music has the Right to Children

To be tried at later dates:

ambient Eno (On Land, Discreet Music, Music for Airports)
The Beloved
various gauzy shoegazer stuff (Slowdive, AR Kane)

To be avoided for the foreseeable future:
metal
hip-hop
(babies don't like loud, sharp noises, so there go those beats and double bass barrages)

Any other parents discover any new secrets? I'm sure to explore more British folk stuff and of course the Eno, but what else?

As far as British folk, my two soon-to-be four month olds also seem to like the first self-titled Bert Jansch album.