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You might think that a song with lyrics like, “If you want this good bitch/Sicker than the remix/Baby, let me blow your mind tonight” might be automatically disqualified for inclusion on an album of children’s songs. If so, count yourself out for a job in today’s music biz.
That’s because a slightly altered version of the song — Britney Spears’ “Till the World Ends” — is track two on “Kidz Bop 20,” the newest entry into the best-selling “Kidz Bop” collection. The series produces versions of current pop hits sung by children and markets them to kids aged 5-12.
Kidz Bop, which celebrates its 10th anniversary with Tuesday’s release of Volume 20, has been a phenomenal success. Kidz Bop 17 and 18 were the two best-selling children’s CDs of 2010, and the franchise has sold more than 11 million albums overall.
The franchise was born when New Yorkers Cliff Chenfeld and Craig Balsam — partners in the independent record company Razor & Tie — grew wary of letting their elementary school-age children listen to big radio hits by Eminem and 50 Cent.
“Cliff and I each have three kids and 10 years ago we realized that there was no music for kids in the 4 to 12 age demographic,” Balsam says. “So we decided we would cultivate pop music songs that were appropriate for kids, and have kids sing them.”
But this success is driven by an odd selection of tunes that includes cleaned-up versions of questionably appropriate songs, and the casual, careless and seemingly random altering of lyrics in which artist’s wishes aren’t taken into account.
“Each circumstance is different,” Chenfeld says. “There’s times we have [sought permission], and there’s times we haven’t.”
Some of the lyrical changes recall a badly
edited TV broadcast of an R-rated film. In the Spears song, “bitch” becomes “dish,” the phrase “get you off” becomes “set it off” and “let me blow your mind tonight” is converted to “come on wave your hands tonight.”
But while changes like this could be seen as innocuous, others strip songs of deeper meaning. “Written in the Stars,” by the English rapper Tinie Tempah, includes the line, “I’m like a young gun fully black Barack.” But our president — and any reference to his race or skin color — is mysteriously absent from the Kidz Bop version, which substitutes three indecipherable syllables that sound like “back and track.”
And then there’s Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” which, in its original form, is an empowerment anthem for the LGBT community, with lines like, “Don’t be a drag, just be a queen,” and “No matter gay, straight, or bi — I was born to survive.”
On the new Kidz Bop version, though, the song has been scrubbed of any mention of gender or sexual orientation.
Some New York parents see better ways to inspire their children than with watered-down versions of pop-chart staples.
“We’ve seen the commercials, but fortunately my boys thought it was ‘dumb,’ and just for ‘kids who don’t know any better,’ ” says Boerum Hill dad Arthur Schurr, whose sons are 8 and 11. “They skipped over the Kidz Bop CDs and went straight to the actual artists.”
Barbra Mack, a Carroll Gardens mother of two girls ages, 6 and 14, thinks altered lyrics might backfire.
“I don’t know why I would teach my child a song that, if they were to hear it outside of the Kidz Bop context, they would be like, ‘Oh, I know that one,’ and then the words would be changed,” says Mack. “Now, a child feels an affinity to a song that you don’t feel is appropriate. It doesn’t make sense.”
For Balsam, though, it’s a simple formula that thousands of parents have latched onto. “Kidz Bop is creating a CD full of songs that parents can feel comfortable having kids listen to,” Balsam says.
As for the artists and songwriters, many may not mind, since the songwriters receive publishing royalties — which, on a best-selling CD, can be substantial.
But if they do object to changed lyrics — well, tough luck, since artists are not consulted about their songs’ inclusion on Kidz Bop, and may not learn about it — or any altered lyrics — until the CD’s release.
(Representatives for Lady Gaga and Ke$ha — who co-wrote the Spears song, and saw her hit “TiK ToK” appear on a Kidz Bop CD — didn’t respond to requests for comment.)
One artist concerned about inclusion was Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. When a track list for Kidz Bop 10 that featured his band’s suggestive “Dance, Dance” went public in 2006, Wentz wrote this on his blog: “I can’t imagine some young kids singing ‘Crawling into bed with me’ and all.” The song wasn’t included on the CD.
But if “Kidz Bop” is occasionally cavalier about presenting kids with inappropriate content, Chenfeld assures us that Kidz Bop rejects many songs, such as Eminem.
“There are many songs that are great, but there’s something about them that’s just too much,” he says. “We have to reject more songs than we include — because if we don’t, then what’s the point of ‘Kidz Bop’?”
Say what?
A few awkward examples of how Kidz Bop producers make raunchy pop hits fit for young ears.
“Let It Rock” by Kevin Rudolf
* Original lyics: “But it broke his heart, so he stuck his middle finger to the world”
* Kidz Bop lyrics: “But it broke his heart, so he raised his hand and waved it to the world”
* “Not Myself Tonight” by Christina Aguilera
* Original lyrics: “And if you don’t like it, f – – k you!”
* Kidz Bop lyrics: “And if you don’t like it, boo-hoo!”
* “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha
* Original lyrics: “Before I leave,brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack”
* Kidz Bop lyrics: “Before I leave, brush my teeth and then I go and pack”