Myths and More...
Beth Blenz-Clucas of Sugar Mountain PR, one of the very few PR folks who specialize in helping kids' musicians, dropped me a line today. She was having trouble posting a comment to my earlier post linking to the AP story about Dan Zanes and kids' music.
Rather than just getting it posted as a comment, though, I thought I'd post it here to hopefully trigger more comments:
I love your quote and Amy's, Bill, but why do these writers insist on creating this myth about Dan Zanes being the "first" person to ever record a cool kids' record? The truth is that, like today, you could never in the 1990s just walk into your regular record store or big box retailer and find good stuff. There was PLENTY of great music for kids in the 90s when my kids were small, it was just very hard to find. LUCKILY today we have bloggers and new media folks like you and Amy who are making good things happen for very deserving indie artists.
Thoughts?
(And if anyone else is havng trouble posting comments, can you drop me a line and describe the problem? show AT sparetherock DOT com is the address...)
Permanent link • Posted at 7:07 PM
7 comment(s)
7 Comment(s):
I say we devise a list of "cool kids' records" from years gone by.
The offending comment says this:
"The notion that a real adult musician might want to make music for kids has become more than merely acceptable. It's almost hip.
But the resulting cacophony makes it's [sic] easy to forget that somebody had to go first. Somebody willing to risk a little dignity, to shelve their snarl. Somebody with nothing to lose.
Maybe somebody like Dan Zanes."
I've written elsewhere about Zanes and his ubiquitous presence in what I've called YAKMAs (Yet Another Kids Music Articles). I agree that the focus on Zanes is unfair to other artists recording great music.
To play devil's advocate, here's why Zanes is important -- before Zanes, I don't think there was an "adult" artist who decided to solely travel down that kids and family music path.
Ella Jenkins and Raffi, bless and love 'em both, always played for kids. Pete, Woody, and Lead Belly always had their feet planted in both camps. Tom Chapin, John McCutcheon, Trout Fishing in America, both camps.
And I know that Justin and Laurie both released CDs before Dan did, but, no disrespect intended, they had nothing to lose, meaning, they didn't have a prior career as a mildly successful rock musician to make recording a kids' record appear to be a "step down." (I disagree with the article -- I do think Zanes had something to lose.)
Zanes is the first person to have had a career in the adult world and then decided to devote himself fully to the kids and family world. There are obviously many other artists before him who are devoting themselves to the kids and family genre, but none had made the leap Zanes did.
Yeah, the media seems to have an awfully short memory. And an awfully small tolerance for risk. Praise the electric interwebs and the wonderful writers you are, Bill and Stefan and Amy and Warren, who can cross over and stretch the boundaries.
I do get perplexed (this is not at ALL directed at Beth) at the anger I read around regarding DZ and the attention he gets. While I whole heartedly agree that it ought to be shared around, I think he did open the door for a lot of musicians who are working now. I think he brought and continues to bring tons of attention to kids or family or whatever this genre is called music. People move on from his music to other musicians and it all flows in lovely rivers throughout the genre. I hope the writers who start with an article about him will move over to the west coast and see the great stuff we have going on here and to Chicago and Austin and Phoenix and everywhere else. There's SO much to tell folks about.
Dan Zanes does kids music? I thought he did music for the entire family, community, and world. I'd say that's a step up.
I love what DZ is doing, don't get me wrong. It's the journalistic "short memory" thing that bothers me.
Yeah, Tito, we'll leave aside the whole idea that kids music is somehow a musical backwater and that its practitioners are somehow to be pitied.
But your point -- that DZ has explicitly avoided the "kids' music" label in favor of family-inclusive music -- helps explain interest in his music.
Beth, I would imagine that the number of people who have been writing about kids' music for even ten years (let alone twenty) has to be exceedingly small...
I think there are several reasons DZ is seen as being at the forefront of "cool" kids' music, even though many others came before him.
For one, he has a TV presence and is highly recognizable. He has a distinctive "look" that has served him well.
Secondly, he has a clear (and well-articulated) aesthetic.
Thirdly, he represents the front end of GenX parents and their desire to enjoy music with their kids. His cross-over into kids' music coincides almost perfectly with many front-end GenX-ers settling down and having kids.
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