The Boogers are a hands down favorite in our house. A kiddos first introduction to classic punk rock.

http://www.meet-the-boogers.com/index.html

Being a bit of a music snob, I do take a keen interest in what my son listens to. I'll let him listen to almost anything, including some kids music. However, most of the kids music he listens to is stuff that was around when I was a kid (such as Raffi)....I just don't like the drivel that they're passing off as kids music these days. I found that kids really like the simpler patterns of kids music when they're younger.

In the car, I listen to a wide range of music, and my son gets to listen to all of it (classic house, alternative, rock, 70's soul, deep house mixes, rap....but only classic stuff like Run DMC, cuz the new stuff is horrible). We have a rule on road trips 1 song for me, 2 songs for you. I have

Now that my son is a little older though (5), he's starting to like a broader range. Here's some of his favourites right now:

b52's - Rock Lobster
Elvis Presley -Jailhouse Rock (I hate playing this song in the car!)
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
John Denver - Thank God I'm a country boy
Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks
Born Ruffians - Foxes Mate for Life
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - Home

My husband and son both love Recess Monkey, a Seattle trio of elementary school teachers. They're Beatles-ish with fun lyrics and catchy beats.

http://www.recessmonkeytown.com/

Of course, we also love Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell, They Might Be Giants, and the old classics--Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Raffi.
As for grown-up music, we all enjoy the Beatles, Sam Cooke, and Loretta Lynn (one of my son's favorite guests from The Muppet Show, along with Alice Cooper.)

My girls love The Beatles and Pavement. As they get older (3 and 4) they are more influenced by their pals and ask me to buy them Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber CDs. Cringe. But they soon forget. We have been listening to "The Sound of Music" soundtrack for about a month, which we all love. I grew up listening to Willie Nelson, but they aren't huge fans---yet.

KOO KOO KANGAROO! Nerdcore music for kids that adults won't hate. Songs about peanut butter, rollin' in the mini van and more (all free!) http://kookookangaroo.com/free-music

I bought my kids a pretty standard kids music CD. My husband could not stand it at all. So we had to find something that he would let them listen to while he was there.
Bobs and Lolo were the best thing we ever found. My husband doesn't mind it and it kept my (then) one year old from screaming every time we had to drive somewhere. They have lyrics the kids love, sing about things like bugs, bikes and shadows. They encourage environmental awareness, their Recycle song is a big hit in our house!
http://www.bobsandlolo.com/music.html

The kids like the Barenaked Ladies. They have a kids album, but the kids like their regular stuff too. They have lots of songs that the kids love. Like, Another Postcard. We recently discovered that even our 6 month old is a big fan. After a half hour of screaming, The Big Bang Theory came on tv and he stopped as soon as the music started, listened, and started again as soon as it stopped. Now when he gets upset and nothing else seems to work I put on their music and he is happy. As long as I don't turn it off!
My husband plays his music in the car and the kids like lots of it. He will skip over songs they don't like. And he makes sure the lyrics are okay, because they do repeat them!

I recommend Spare the Rock Spoil the Child -- http://sparetherock.com/wordpress/ . It's a great kid's music show on a local radio station in MA, but you can also listen online or as a podcast. It includes most of the kids' artists listed above, kids music by musicians who primarily write for adult audiences, and regular ol' rock songs that are family appropriate. It's pretty great.

I had deep conviction about making sure my child would not be exposed to the evils of "kid's music." The Wiggles will never live in this house. Raffi makes me want to stick knitting needles in my eyes.

Good news is: My daughter loathes it. She prefers They Might Giants, "Lincoln" to the kid's albums any day. The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Bright Eyes and the Clash get her grooving. She specifically requests The Smiths and New Order. Lots of Brit Pop, The Farm and Happy Mondays. I am so proud.

But, we are in the process of adopting this little wonder and she came to live with us mid-April and perhaps it was the near-hysteria level of enthusiasm for the new Beastie Boys album that has influenced her most. Music is a regular part of breakfast and it is her most requested.

She is 2 and as her vocabulary develops and she begins to understand the lyrics, to avoid her building that kind of colorful vocabulary, we will go primarily old school soul, 60's girl groups, and there will always be The Beatles.

We love to listen to Casper Babypants. Weird name, I know, but he is actually the lead singer of POTUSA and has three great kids albums. We also love the Medeski Martin and Wood Children's album and wish they would record another!

My Daughter, now a liitle obver 2 years old, used to love the Dragon Tales album (though we are in no way fans of the TV show).
Recently her favourite songs have become 'Tightrope' by Janelle Monae and 'Forget You' (aka the 'ooh ooh song') by Cee Lo Green.
Our iTunes library is a pretty diverse collection and almost always on shuffle. There doesn't tend to be much that she'll object to.

what the hell? why is this for dads? that's so uncool. thanks for inviting us moms to answer for the dads if we want.

anyway, we don't do kids' music, unless you want to count the soundtrack to "where the wild things are" but i wouldn't say that's specifically for kids.

my kids love daftpunk ("robot music" as they say), "jimmy" by m.i.a. was a favorite for a long time, they've been brainwashed into liking she & him because that's what i listen to every saturday morning during my big cleaning routine, and of course they love the beatles and the stones. oh, for a few months they were obsessed - totally bananas - over crystal castles.

my kids are young (4 & 5) so at this point they don't object to anything i listen to, and don't have their own requests, but i'm sure they will and that's fine. music is a huge part of my shared history with each of my parents. i loved learning about their favorite bands/songs/albums and how they related to different parts of their lives, as well as their reaction to the stuff i was listening to - even if we disagreed, i still liked their opinions, and loved that they asked me for recommendations.

ohdeedads. come on.

I don't have any children (yet), though I am trying and currently the aunt to a few super amazing little ones. :) With that said, I do not listen to a great variety of kids' music but I do enjoy The Not-Its! They are terrifically energetic! Fun fact: the front woman, Sarah Shannon, was the lead singer of Velocity Girl (Sub Pop). http://www.wearethenot-its.com/index.html

I have the barenaked ladies Kid's CD as well, but in the car, she's been digging music by Kathy Reid-Naiman. It's a lot of traditional children's music, mother goose type stuff. Kathy is a well-known early childhood music educator here in the Toronto area.

My daughter is 2 1/2 now, and her favourite music is when my wife and I sing nursery rhymes with her. She does the actions and joins in for the parts she knows. Developmentally, it's been awesome to watch her struggle with the words and be able to stop and explain what a passage means. It's all worth it when she stands up and sings a whole song beginning to end all by herself. Nothing compares with singing with your children.

That being said, if we're sitting in the office, I'll fire up you tube and we'll watch yo gabba gabba, weezer, B52s, or whatever what high energy song I can think of.

(p.s. sorry for being such a grump - i will concede that ohdeedads is a cute word, and i get that it's a father's day related thing, and i *obviously* like the post aside from the idea that it's dad-specific. i do like your posts so i'll try not to complain so much! keep being generally awesome.)

We both try to expose our kiddos to a wide range of music - mostly being adult. BUT as a children's librarian and music snob, there are some great children's music out there for the under 5 set. Cuz even if you think you're too cool for school, there are some great traditional songs that kids will love and be good for them to know...
--Elizabeth Mitchell (*I* love her)
--Songs for Wiggleworms
--Jim Gill (very funny and fun but won't melt your adult brain)

As far as kids music goes, we like They Might Be Giants and our hands-down favorite is Ziggy Marley's Family Time. Our daughter loves anything reggae really, but this one is designed for kids and not too bad on the music part. Along those same lines is B is for Bob, which if you can imagine mellowing out Legend further for children, this does it, but I think Legend works just as well.

Favorites from our childhood that we've brought into the mix include Free To Be You and Me and we found a collection of Sesame Street Songs (Pinball Number Count, anyone?).

Modern group that our child has claimed as her music: The Noisettes, specifically the Wild Young Hearts album. We have eclectic taste, and listen to a wide variety of music, so are always fascinated at which songs she latches onto.

To each their own I suppose but I guess I don't really understand "kid music". We have a 8 month old baby girl and she listens to everything from classical to hip-hop and everything in between. She has been listening to music since she was in the womb, she also got named Dylan because anytime Bob Dylan would come on while she was in the womb she would start moving around like a crazy monkey.

I think music is really important for a kids early development and why limit them on "kid music"...

Christina C, I'm with you. We don't listen to strictly "kid music" in our house (other than what my 2-year-old son hears on Yo Gabba Gabba or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). His favorite band is the Foo Fighters. He gets out his little toy guitar and jams to it.

we play our music around my son and he enjoys it but he really loves his own music. he loves they might be giants (here come the abc's, 123's and science) and "do fun stuff" (an awesome compilation courtesy of ryan from pacing the panic room). they have seen us through many a long car ride and they dont make me want to pull my hair out like some stuff out there.

We play our music around our 9-month-old son, but also have a number of children's CD's that we enjoy together. The key is *enjoy together*. There is a lot of annoying kids music out there, but we've managed to find some that even as adults we can enjoy. It's nice to have some music with lyrics that our son will be able to relate to as he grows.

Putumayo has some great folk, ethnic and multicultural CD's - we like Brazilian Playground, and Celtic Dreamland and Acoustic Dreamland for bedtime.

Frances England is a children's artist who makes pleasant music with kid-friendly lyrics. Jack Johnson's soundtrack for the Curious George movie is great for the same reason. (Actually, all of his music is pretty kid-friendly.)

The Rock-A-Bye Baby CD's are also great. They take music by adult bands and turn it into lullabies. My husband loves Radiohead, so we have the Radiohead Rock-A-Bye Baby CD. Daddy can get his Radiohead fix (well, somewhat) as he soothes baby to sleep at night.

mollywtx totally beat me to the punch.

If you're not listening to Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, you are missing out on great kid-friendly (though not all kid-intended music).

http://sparetherock.com/wordpress

Go now and download podcasts.

And don't miss Spare the Rock's totally amazing Haiti benefit album: Many Hands (all profits go to Haitian relief):

http://sparetherock.com/wordpress/?page_id=403

featuring (among the list of headliners):
They Might Be Giants
Caspar Babypants
Jonathan Coulton
Elizabeth Mitchell
Lunch Money
Recess Monkey
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
Pete Seeger

Buy it now- Haiti, your kids, and your ears will thank you.

In response to the anti-kids'-music posts:
There's definitely a place for awesome guitar licks and cool beats in hipster kiddie rock, or adult rock heard by kids, or whatever you want to call it, but there's also a real value in letting children enjoy the simple melodies and repetitive lyrics of classic songs for children--in my opinion, singalong songs like "Aiken Drum," "Rattlin' Bog," and "I Had a Rooster" should be part of a child's musical education as much as "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur" (or whatever too-cool-for-school pop confection your trilby-wearing four-year-old is grooving to.) Enjoy the Beastie Boys with your preschooler, sure, but don't hate on the guy with the acoustic guitar singing "I'm Being Swallowed By a Boa Constrictor"--chances are good, your little one will wiggle and giggle so much, he'll lose his fedora.

We have enjoyed Ralph's World, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Caspar Babypants, Jose Luis Orozco, and most recently Captain Bogg and Salty (for small pirate lovers).

I saw that someone mentioned Ella Jenkins! She's my new favorite. I just picked up a copy of Adventures in Rhythm at the library (because it was on Folkways) and EVERYONE in the house LOVES it!

We're HUGE fans of the They Might Be Giants albums for kids. I'm not a huge fan of them for me but their kids albums (especially "Here Comes Science" and "Here Come the 1,2,3's") have been on permanent play in the CD player for 2+ years. We also just dove into Casper Babypants (someone mentioned above that the lead singer is from The Presidents of the USA - big 90's band) and my son knows every song by heart. The videos are super sweet, mellow, and rated the G-est of G. He also loves really any music we play around him from Cee Lo to The Decemberists & Death Cab, from Simon and Garfunkel to The Cure, & The White Stripes to Stevie Wonder. He listens to tons of newer bands as my husband write for an indie music blog here in Seattle. The Beatles, of course. And his two favorite songs these days are "Whale" by Yellow Ostrich and "Bicycle Race" by Queen. Of course, musicals are always great for toddlers!

we've had to put away and sell (sniff. sniff.) a lot of our old hip-hop. aside from that we've kept everything else around and listen actively to jazz, soul, vetted hip-hop a la Stones Throw, funk, electronic music and all sorts of stuff. our love of TMBG (only kid music in the house) predates the kid and their kid-angle.

splitty, that's an interesting point, and i hadn't really thought of the fact that we *sing* a lot of songs that would be considered kids' music. it's just that we don't have / listen to *recordings* of it, which is what the post was asking about. i hadn't considered that "kids' music" actually is a pretty big part of our daily routine.

on the other hand, i don't know the songs you mentioned, and i don't feel like i missed out on anything as a kid. :) we sang hymns and cowboy songs. we listened to prince and madonna. it all worked out somehow.

Our hands-down favorite kids artist is Justin Roberts. But we also all enjoy the kids music by They Might Be Giants, The Boogers & Laurie Berkner.

My older son has liked Red Hot Chili Peppers since he was 3 ("Snow-Hey Oh" is his favorite) (he's 5 now). He likes a little Hot Chip now. And both my boys like Bob Marley, Jack Johnson, and The Beatles.

The only music they have roundly rejected is my one of my favorites: Sufjan Stevens' collection of holiday music.

My kids are obsessed with the album Contra by Vampire Weekend. (rated G except for a drug/sex reference in "Diplomat's Son") It is fun music but I personally am sick of it. I'm pretty sure I've heard it in its entirety at least 50 times. (it's a really short album.) I have been trying to replace it with '80s Paul Simon, which I get less sick of and which sounds a lot the same.

I think it's important to give kids a wide variety too. They should hear everything (except the R-rated lyrics) whether rockin' or mellow, and be familiar with classics. I especially love introducing my kids to classic folk songs. LOVE Pete Seeger and Raffi in particular! Both are so great at engaging their audiences and getting everyone to sing along together. Tons of fun videos of them on YouTube. I think Cat Stevens is also a good, mellow, kid-friendly/adult-friendly compromise.

In response to Doubledutch: I think what I meant was more that it's important for kids to hear simple songs--folks, children's, or otherwise--with minimal instrumentation, in addition to the more produced music that a lot of pop-oriented musicians produce. The specific songs don't matter (though I do think every child should know at least some of the lyrics to "This Land is Your Land"!), nor does it matter whether they hear these songs on record or sung by a parent during bath time--it's more that, in our efforts to introduce our children to the kinds of music we listen to as adults, we shouldn't forget about their developmentally-appropriate enjoyment of songs with straightforward melodies, repetitive lyrics, and low-tech recording technologies. There's room for all kinds of music in our children's libraries--and in ours!

elizarock, my daughter loves contra by vampire weekend too -- i think because it's so danceable.

we listen to a variety of stuff around here: lots of my music, especially lo-fi pop with simpler melodies. she enjoys paris chanson, a channel with old french pop songs. we also have a playlist of kids music with stuff like tmbg, elizabeth mitchell, and frances england. i'm just happy she likes music so much.

We listen to a lot of music here!

Mainly I'd say we rotate through iTunes radio stations like ParisChanson, ShowBizRadio - lots of Broadway music :D , and some Jazz radio too! Then we have a few CDs we love like Sharon Lois and Bram, David & Judy, Suzuki Violin CDs, Ziggy Marley, Big Sky by The Issacs is a big fav, Rock & Roll Playground by Putumayo Kids and lots of Kristin Chenoweth!

And then we sing! We sing a lot and just love music =)

Great post - so fun talking about good music!