Lullaby Babies Ltd Gives Nursery Rhymes A Makeover

For hundreds of years parents have used soporific music to lull their children to sleep each night and opted for more up-tempo numbers when trying to engage and entertain their children during the day. 

According to Richard Jenkinson, Managing Director of Lullaby Babies, these days you're more likely to here children singing the questionable lyrics of songs from their favourite pop stars like Katy Perry and Lily Allen!

According to Jenkinson:

"This worrying trend has stemmed from an increasing number of parents allowing their children to listen to pop music at home from a very young age.  Parents often argue that their children are too young to understand the lyrics and the sexual and drug-related references they contain and that it's therefore completely harmless.  I strongly disagree with this point of view as children these days seem to soak in information like sponges and they often understand a great deal more than we give them credit for.

As many children have unrestricted access to the internet they can also watch the accompanying music videos on their phones and home computers.  Many of these videos are provocative and their negative impact on impressionable youngsters has been demonstrated in a number of recent studies."

David Cameron is currently backing a campaign to force unsuitable music videos to carry an 18 certificate to combat the increasing sexualisation of the nation's young.  It's an interesting concept that Jenkinson believes will work:

"This is a great idea but we need to give young children (and their parents) a viable alternative. The traditional recordings of classic nursery rhymes just don't cut it.  That's why we created 'Dance and Dream.'"

'Dance and Dream' is a collection of twenty traditional nursery rhymes featuring acoustic instrumentation and modern production. 

Jenkinson argues that the classic children's songs should be protected as part of our culture and warns they dying out due to under use. He claims over 80% of parents cannot recite the lyrics to Mary Had A Little Lamb and attributes this to the fact that the majority of the nursery rhyme albums sound dull and archaic:

"The songs themselves are great and the catchy hooks and repetitive melodies have a lot in common with today's pop songs!  However, the quality of the recordings is often poor with cheap instrumentation, harsh vocals and tacky production."

The recordings from Dance and Dream are designed to be pleasing to today's discerning music listener.  The hope is that they tempt parents to play their children the songs that their parents and grandparents used to play for them.

Studies have shown that learning the words to nursery rhymes and performing simple actions along with the music such as clapping and dancing can even help increase a child’s cognitive development.