music for nieces and nephews

What music would you buy for your nieces and nephews?

Age 2-4: Pachebel "Canon", Purcell, Bach "Double Violin Concerto", "Cello Suites", Handel "Water Music"

Age 5-7: Bach fugues, Bartok "Music for Strings, Percussion & Celeste", Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition", Prokofiev "Peter and the Wolf", Stravinsky "Rite Of Spring" and so on, Shostakovich; lots of loping synth-pop: Eurythmics, OMD, Devo, Hot Chip, Kraftwerk, "Off the Wall"; 60s and 70s soul, Whitney, Motown

Age 9-11: Glass "Glassworks", Reich "Desert Music" "18 Musicians", Berg "Wozzeck", Webern, Stockhausen, John Cage, Ligeti; Herbie Hancock, Mary Lou Williams; kid-rap: Coolio, De La Soul, Run DMC, Digital Underground

OTM!

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/67579300/Sex+Packets+Digital_Underground_sexpackets.jpg

I admire your ambition but they are mostly going to be bored to tears by most of that. Age 2-4 don't even bother buying them music. Get them instruments. For 5 - 8 the vocals are important in pop music, rap etc - they have to be drawn in by friendly or attractive voices. By "attractive" read funny, sassy, goofy, childish etc. Many of the above are alienating, shouty, distant sounding or too adult. This is why Devo created Devo 2.0. Children wont get into albums either - just specific songs that for whatever reason resonate with them. So maybe they might like "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" they are not going to show interest in checking out the rest of her stuff.

Make them a mix CD of lots of really obvious stuff and they will likely enjoy it.

my friend's four-year-old loves "the robots" and does a robot dance to it.

niece is 15 now, among the things she says she likes:
Paramore, panic!, FoB, Pink, grateful dead, velvet underground (and tbh 14-15 is the time i got into the dead and vu, too)

2-7 http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/donovan/hms_donovan/

My nephew LOVED Joe Tex' "I Gotcha" when he was two.

@ scott that was my favourite album when I was 10! And aside from "in the 69 my humpty nose will tickle your rear" it's pretty tame. I put the EP on afterward and "Same Song" is my nephew's favourite

@ everything, I appreciate what you're saying but these are nephews and nieces for whom I have already bought this material and are now in their preteens. These choices are based on what I gravitated toward when I was at these specific ages

under 4: Mozart, Bach
4 and over: any and all curse-free house, techno, disco, big beat, new beat, IDM, electronica, etc

i've been surprised at how much my 4-year-old loves the classical stuff we play around the house. probably something dramatic/exciting about it that makes her think of princesses/fairies etc.

In my experience, kids can't deal with Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, romantic long-form shit, they can't deal with metal (I don't know! I haven't been able to get any of them into metal) and Joni Mitchell just drifts by until they're in their teens and can "get lyrics". At this point (age 10, 12) I'm more interested in what they're discovering on their own and where they are with their violin/guitar lessons :)

when I was 4, I really REALLY liked James Brown, Steely Dan, Earth Wind & Fire, Vanilla Fudge, The Beatles, The Jackson 5, Rush, Parliament and the NY Philharmonic recording of Mahler 2, so really my answer to this is "send them whatever you're listening to at the time"

James Brown, Steely Dan, Earth Wind & Fire, Vanilla Fudge, The Beatles, The Jackson 5, Rush, Parliament and the NY Philharmonic recording of Mahler 2

otm

except replace Rush with the Cars

my 8 year old loves deadmau5.

swap Hot Chip for Wham! and i approve

The Cars didn't start releasing singles until I was 5 but I loved them, too

basically everyone in my house had their musical "thing" and played it constantly; the first non-educational album I ever requested was Men Without Hats' Rhythm of Youth when I was 9

The Cars OTM!! I got Hot Chip equally for the parents bc I thought it'd be cross-generational and "new"? I was listening to The Chap the other day and thinking the kids might be into that

My nephew is 1 and 2 months. I cannot wait until he;s like 4 or 5 and I can play him stuff that'll blow his mind, cos his dad's only ever gonna play him Mega City Four.

man my brother is going to be PISSED when I send his daughter the new Vatican Shadow album

For what its worth, here are the two mixes I've made my niece for her birthdays, the first for her third, the second for her fourth. All of the songs were by request (from her mother/my sister, if not directly from her). The shift from nursery rhymes to (mostly, but not always) contemporary pop that occurred in one year is, to me at least, staggering.

Age 3
Binky the Clown - "Happy Birthday" (from "Garfield and Friends")
Elmo & Katy Perry - "Hot and Cold"
"Five Green and Speckled Frogs"
"Itsy Bitsy Spider"
"Wheels on the Bus"
"Ants Go Marching"
Elmo & India Arie - "ABCs"
"The Farmer in the Dell"
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
Feist - "1234 (Sesame Street version)
"Five Little Monkeys"
"Five Little Ducks"
"If You're Happy and You Know It"
"Elmo's Song"
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
Elmo & Andrea Bocelli - "Lullabye to Elmo"

Age 4
Kidz Bop Kids - "I Love It" (non-"bitch"/"I crashed my car" version)
Joan Jett & the Heartbreakers - "I Love Rock 'n' Roll
Taio Cruz - "Dynamite"
Ottawan - "Hands Up"
Frank Sinatra - "I Got You Under My Skin"
Pink - "Just Give Me One Reason" (labelled "The Sad Song" on the track listing, since that's what my niece calls it)
Robin Thicke - "Blurred Lines" (clean)
Chordettes - "Lollipop"
Bow Wow Wow - "I Want Candy"
Robbie Williams - "Beyond the Sea" (the Bobby Darin song, but the version from "Finding Nemo," her fave film)
New Kids on the Block - "Happy Birthday"

My nephew is twelve, and I have a niece who's seven. I don't think music plays a big part in either of their lives. When I was their age I would spend hours listening to the radio (do kids still do this?). They seem to spend all of their free time playing video games.

When I was 12, I'd listen to music while playing video games.

In my experience, kids can't deal with Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, romantic long-form shit, .....

nine/ten year old me LOVED Beethoven (likely has something to do with exposure). not sure what ages are implied itt. and yeah I also spent most of spare my time listening to AM radio (falling asleep with a little transistor "hidden" under my pillow; talking ca. 1975-ish)

double xxpost

Just got send a video this week of my nephews (8 and 5) dancing (gangnam style) to Ylvis' The Fox.

When he was 3, I played my nephew Gainsbourg's "L'Homme à tête de chou" and his eyes popped wide open when the vocals came in. Then he started dancing like a lion approaching his prey :)
His name's Serge, btw.

My wife was out with friends the other night so I let my 3 year old pick the dinner music -- he chose Helios Creed's "The Last Laugh." He's mostly all about Raffi though, for hours at a time.