Dang you Saturday morning cartoons!
If it weren’t for NBC’s Qubo cartoon line-up and CBS’ Cookie Jar TV children’s programming block, I’m pretty sure my 6-year-old would be blissfully unaware of the words “Kidz” and “Bop.”
She’d also be unfamiliar with the Aluma Wallet, Topsy Turvey and WOW Storage Containers.
She placed the aforementioned “As Seen on TV Products” on a list she made for me to give to Santa last year. Meanwhile, she saved the Kidz Bop CD to add to her own wish list.
In the end, Santa delivered on the latter and none of the former.
So, yes, we are now officially a Kidz Bop family.
For those of you whose homes are kid and cartoon free on Saturday mornings, allow me to enlighten you about the Kidz Bop phenomenon.
If you are like me and work hard to preserve your child’s innocence, then you might consider giving into the Kidz Bop craze. The CDs are used by some parents as an introduction to popular dance songs typically featured on radio shows hosted by Ryan Seacrest. However, each disc features current chart toppers sung by kids instead of the original pop music icons that may or may not be criminals or psychologically impaired.
More importantly, though is the fact that the Kidz Bop tunes are sanitized to make them appropriate for young ears. In some cases song editors have to work overtime to temper hits from pop music’s most notorious singers. For instance, you won’t have to plug your kindergartener’s ears when listening to Kidz Bop’s version of “California Gurls.” Editors dropped Snoop Dog’s provocative contribution about as quickly as they chopped Ke$ha’s line in “Tik Tok” about brushing one’s teeth with Jack Daniel’s whiskey. The Kidz Bop version replaces the booze reference with “…brush my teeth and then I go and pack.” It also replaces the word “tipsy” with “silly.”
We admittedly arrived late to the Kidz Bop party. The latest CD, Kidz Bop #20 was released last week, and already my daughter is clamoring to get her copy STAT. The first disc debuted in 2001 and almost instantly became a hit with tweens. Kidz Bop 1 went gold in the United States thanks to talented kiddos covering Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did it Again” and Christina Aguilera’s “What a Girl Wants.” The 20th CD includes covers of CeeLo Green’s “Forget You” and Pink’s “Perfect”, both of which had to be cleaned up before debuting on mainstream radio.
Are you fans of Kidz Bop CDs?