She might be a little too old at this point, but you might want to consider going outside of easy-to-digest Western music.
When we're very young, our brains are still in the process of forming connections, so there may be benefits to being pretty experimental instead of staying "safe," in terms of what you give kids to listen to. From
an interview with Daniel Levitin, a musician and neurologist:
Quote:
| Musical taste can vary greatly from one person to another. But this shouldn't be a surprise. Not everyone likes chocolate, not everyone likes spicy food . . . the biology of aesthetics and taste isn't clearly understood. One thing we do know is that people in general like music that has something familiar. If you were born listening to Chinese Opera, which uses a separate set of scales that are foreign to Western listeners, it's very unlikely you'll suddenly develop a liking for Rhianna. And vice versa - we learn to appreciate those tonal structures that we're surrounded by as children, just as we learn to speak the language we're brought up with. If you're exposed to Janis Joplin and The Doors as a child, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily develop a liking for psychedelic music. But you'll have been exposed to 'Western tonal music,' the major scale. . . these are the foundation for classical, jazz, hip-hop, metal . . . all these use the same 12 notes. You may find you prefer one of these genres to another, but it's unlikely that you'll be able to make sense out of, say Indian ragas or Pygmy music, which are just as nuanced, complex and interesting (if not more so) but which depend on forms and structures that most of us haven't developed the neural circuits to understand. |
In other words, it works unintuitively. Don't start with what you think is easy or basic and then try to expand her horizons. Start her off with a wide variety and let those neural circuits develop; hypothetically, she'd then be able to become more selective.
Just remember that what you think sounds familiar and intuitively kid-appropriate (from a musical standpoint, not a lyrical one) might actually be more restrictive than what a kid is capable of processing.
In short, Waits may not be so bad a choice, since, while his songs are rooted in Western traditions, they're pretty weird with all of the off-key singing and the crazy percussion. But, hey, maybe give crazy-sounding, non-Western stuff a try. It would definitely give her a world of alternatives beyond Hannah Montana, that's for sure (although you also can't underestimate the social aspects of pop music).
