Music for babies/prenatal music

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cMKwI6j-alg/TSnzZDPKWAI/AAAAAAAAAqE/L0Y5X5l5W_0/s1600/Roedelius_-_Selbstportrait_I_-.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrjHvNjP9gs

My girlfriend is 6 1/2 months pregnant and I want to compile some good baby/prenatal music.
The above Roedelius record is the type of music I think of as 'baby music'. It's simple,
flat (there's no big reverb or layered instrumentation) and easy to follow.

The songs from Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon' also strike me as simple enough to appeal to a baby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjZMhzGkghw

I was born in 1980, and I think there's a kind of 'hauntological' 70s library music aesthetic that resonates with my experiences of early childhood.
I think part of it comes from the more abstract segments on Sesame Street, and other children's programming my mom would get from the library.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch-R1aIM-C0

If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them.

Stars of the Lid!

There was a cool art exhibit I saw once that consisted of a completely dark room with a mash-up of song snippets recorded within a time frame of 9 months prior and 9 months after the artist's birthday.

Just listen to whatever you normally listen to. If you are into hauntological library music then go ahead and play it for them. My children have never shown the slightest bit of interest in eg. Broadcast. Phillip Glass: whatever.

As babies plinky music box music and whatever versions of "Old Macdonald" that are programmed into the Fisher Price toys you will soon be receiving as gifts usually get a response. At nighttime play loud white noise.

I also recommend Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds for Babies". Not to play to the kids, but for parents decompress to when you finally get the little buggers asleep in bed.

Maybe I got too specific on this. I'm just looking for simple, baby friendly music that doesn't sound stupid to grownups.

My son seemed to really dig Sunn 0))), Earth, Melvins, Skullflower, etc.

Learn Beatles songs and sing them to him/her from birth. Benefit for me was really notcing for the first time the beautiful, regular structures of the melodies in things like 'Yellow Submarine' or 'With A Little Help From My Friends', and mine would totally pick up on it by calming and concentrating from an amazingly young age i.e. almost from no days old.

From 6 months his nursery rhyme dvd, with simple animation, will keep attention for half-an-hour at a time.

Disc 2 of Wu Tang Forever is surprisingly effective get-to-sleep music.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/86/213367974_ee4986bfe1.jpg

opps wrong image
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000001YCH.01._AA260_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

The above Roedelius record is the type of music I think of as 'baby music'. It's simple, flat (there's no big reverb or layered instrumentation) and easy to follow.

That's weird, I just got home from a Lloyd Cole concert and Roedelius was in the audience. and I have an 11-month old baby as well. so this thread is kind of made for me. I like the songs on that compilation for kids curated by the bloke from Tindersticks a few years ago, Songs for the Young at Heart.

xp- hahahaha that reminds me of this CD, possibly the worst thing i've heard with my ears ever

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/6c/db/1d41225b9da02b882696f010.L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

More generally, i'd've thought anything with a regular beat and a bold melody in simple, regular phrases would appeal. Classic pop good, Grateful Dead 13/9 time pieces less so. Avant garde would probably not register as music at all.

That's interesting about Roedelius/Lloyd Cole. I don't know anything about Lloyd Cole except that I was listening to viva-radio.com the other day (highly recommended) and 'Perfect Skin' came on. Not a great (or even good) record but I liked how on-the-nose 80s alternative it was.

I added Portofino 2 and Sprite Melonball Bounce from a Raymond Scott compilation I have. I'm currently making two lists: baby music and baby lullabies. This one will probably go in the lullabies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay9s4bLENVM