Calls to protect children from the dangers of the internet aren’t new. But parents in one Oklahoma town are adding an unusual fear to the list: getting high from digital music.
By Katie Connolly BBC News, Washington
Three students at Mustang High School just outside Oklahoma City were hauled into the principal’s office recently after appearing to be intoxicated at school.
The students confessed that they had been “i-dosing” – that is, they claimed to be high after listening through headphones to sounds they had downloaded from the internet.
Local authorities were so concerned by this behaviour that they sent a letter to parents cautioning them about this bizarre new practice….Continue Reading
Don’t be put off by the hippie-sounding name of this August Bank Holiday music and arts festival, now in its 11th year.
Taking place in the grounds of Kelmarsh, an 18th-century stately home in rolling Northamptonshire countryside, Shambala is one of the most interesting small summer festivals around and has a refreshingly uncorporate feel. A launch-pad for cutting-edge new talent, it combines inspiring, exciting art, live music performances and creative workshops with dressing-up and generally having fun….Continue Reading
In the necessarily virtuous world of your typical children’s entertainer, the Wiggles’ Anthony Field, a man whose teeth dazzle like Simon Cowell’s, has just one skeleton in his closet. But it’s a good one.
By Nick Duerden
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Long before the 47-year-old became an integral member of the world’s biggest pre-school act, he knew his way around an Uzi.
“For some reason I’d signed up to the Australian Army, perhaps convinced that my experience was going to be like Elvis’s in GI Blues,” says this blue-eyed man child with a smile so bright it lightens up this atmospheric London hotel bar like electricity. “I did get sent to Germany [as Elvis did in the film], but that’s where the similarities ended.” This was, he adds, pre-1989, and the Wall had yet to crumble. Field’s job was to patrol the border, machine gun in hand, all the while trying to hide his true feelings of abject terror….Continue Reading
Muslim children are being withdrawn from music lessons because some families believe learning an instrument is anti-Islamic, it has emerged.
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Published: 3:51PM BST 01 Jul 2010
A number of schools are allowing Muslim parents to pull their children out of classes, even though the subject is a formal part of the national curriculum.
Dr Diana Harris, a lecturer at the Open University, said she had visited schools where half of pupils were withdrawn from music during Ramadan.
By law, children are supposed to take part in all subjects and parents can only remove children from sex and religious education.
But Dr Harris claimed Ofsted inspectors sometimes turned “a blind eye” to the issue.
In one London primary school, 20 pupils were removed from rehearsals for a Christmas musical and one five-year-old girl has been permanently withdrawn from all classes.
The details emerged in a BBC London News investigation….Continue Reading
If classical music is good for babies, the same must be true of literature. Which heavyweight tomes would you nurture children with?
By Darragh McManus
Monday 28 June 2010 09.56 BST
t’s long been recognised that reading to babies is good for them: it develops their not-literally-any-more-but-still-metaphorically-embryonic mind, inculcates a love of the word, aids the bonding process, and so on. And if you pick the right material, it can be good for you, too.
I don’t necessarily mean those specialised kiddies’ books: Paul and Mary and Spot the Dog go to the Zoo, or whatever. Those are fine educational works, I’m sure, but the nipper can read them for his or herself in a few years.
Besides, any parent with half a brain will go berserk after the 710th run-through of the titular pint-sized heroes and their zoo-based non-adventures. (I once knew an Ernie and Bert book off by heart, word for word. God, how did my poor parents feel?)..Continue reading
The singer Madonna is launching a fashion line with her teenage daughter. It’ll end in tears, says 15-year-old Olivia McAuley
By Olivia McAuley
Published: 7:00AM BST 25 Jun 2010
Lourdes, don’t do it. Do you really, really want this? Just think about what the reality of working so closely with your mother might be.
I am talking about this week’s announcement that Madonna and her 13-year-old daughter are collaborating on a junior fashion line for Macy’s, the US department store chain. It’s not that it comes as a surprise to me. After all, the general consensus among celebrities is to stay young and be “down with the kids”, and they are relying on their adolescent daughters to do just this. It’s an omnipresent trend.
I see it at my tutorial college in South Kensington, where I will soon be studying for my AS levels. The 20-40 mums are everywhere: 20 from the back, 40 from the front. They are skinnier than us, wear tighter jeans than us, higher shoes, have clearer skin; they outdo us in every sense. It’s as if all the advantages we have because we are young, they have too…Continue reading
US comedy-musical show credited with renewed interest in school singing
By Alexandra Topping
Friday 18 June 2010 17.14 BST
When English teacher Katie Paine opened the doors of her school choir rehearsal last term only 12 students entered the room.
But, inspired by her favourite TV show which she knew was loved by her pupils, she decided to try something different.
At Surrey’s Effingham school’s first Glee Club rehearsal, more than 50 eager students turned up, expecting to be transformed into the dazzlingly-attired, perfectly-timed and always-in-tune show choir of the US TV show, which ended this week…Continue reading
My mum’s worth £1.5m: That’s the official amount a woman could be paid to bring up a child
Last updated at 5:04 PM on 18th June 2010
They are our personal cooks, cleaners and counsellors.
And thankfully their services are free – otherwise it would be the mother of all bills.
Multi-tasking mothers could make a cool £1.5million if they started billing their children for all the services they provide, according to research.
Parenting experts and professionals were asked to take into account all the jobs and duties the average mother carries out for her children from birth to 18.
Calculating the time spent on each service and converting it into how much it would cost for a professional to do it, experts worked out a grand total of £1,424,504.
The services these million pound mums provide include cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and school runs, among countless others…Continue reading
Drama training – in everything from circus skills to musical theatre – has never been more available. But are courses giving students what they need to survive in the real world?
Posted by Lyn Gardner
Thursday 10 June 2010 11.53 BST
Pick up a copy of The Stage on any given week and you’ll find dozens of adverts for theatre training. Over the past 10 years, there has been an explosion of courses aimed at over-16s, post-A levellers and mature students, perhaps most of all in the area of musical theatre. But what is the function of this training? Is it simply to provide a steady stream of talent that can be slotted into West End musicals or plays, just as our wider education system was designed to provide workers for an expanding industrialised economy? Or is it to produce self-sustaining, independent artists who might help shape the future of theatre and musical theatre itself?
Traditional routes into the profession via established drama schools such as Rada, Lamda (which has just appointed a former artistic director of Salisbury Playhouse, Joanna Read, as its new principal) or Drama Centre are now supplemented by hundreds of other courses – some at universities, some at more recently established schools specialising in subjects such as musical theatre, circus or puppetry…Continue reading
The music industry has a strange relationship with teenagers. Like a loving parent, it spends a small fortune trying to understand what on earth it is they want, before lovingly indulging them with treats.
Cyberclinic Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Like an anxious parent, it gets nervous about their capricious, unpredictable behaviour. And like a dysfunctional parent with anger management issues, it blames them squarely when things start going wrong. “Young people have an inherent sense of what copyright is, but choose to ignore it,” is a typical research finding, and such reports give the impression that they’re all little horrors hell-bent on bringing an industry to its knees. Apparently, 86 per cent of teenagers copy music for their friends, says one statistic. Now, it’s so long since I was a teenager that I barely remember The Icicle Works (the Eighties Liverpudlian wimp pop combo), but I do remember a friend copying their debut album for me, along with dozens of others. Are teenagers really entering a new era of moral bankruptcy? And are adults any better?..Continue reading
There was a birthday party in our street last weekend. A top club DJ supplied the music, the dancing went on until 5am
There was a birthday party in our street last weekend. A top club DJ supplied the music, the dancing went on until 5am, and the following morning one of the guests was found face down on the front lawn wearing his trousers as a turban.
Just another night of teenage binge-drinking in the suburbs, you might think. Except the birthday boy in question was celebrating his 45th.
These same people will be heading down to the Isle of Wight as the summer festival season kicks off next week.
Men and women old enough to know better will be flashing their wristbands and doing some serious dad dancing to the likes of the hip rock band Vampire Weekend.
What’s happened to the world? There seems to be some kind of role reversal going on. While the younger generation worry about serious stuff like their future career prospects and whether they’ll ever get a foot on the property ladder, their parents have turned into Peter Pan people who refuse to grow up…Continue reading
TheLonelyTuber — May 10, 2008 — A South Korean toddler has become a worldwide Internet sensation after his parents posted a video of him performing the Beatles’ hit song “Hey Jude” when he was three years old.
Text from Youtube:
TheLonelyTuber — May 10, 2008 — A South Korean toddler has become a worldwide Internet sensation after his parents posted a video of him performing the Beatles’ hit song “Hey Jude” when he was three years old.
Now, 4-year-old Ha Youngwoong, which means ‘Hero’ in English, is a star on the Internet and has attracted over 4.5 million viewers who have clicked on the video clip named “Youngest Baby Beatles in Diaper” on the video website Youtube
In the video Hero is seen performing his favourite song on his parent’s couch, holding a guitar and wearing diapers.
Despite the guitar being oversized for his small hands, the Beatles fan was a huge hit with viewers all around the world.
“Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. And then Youngwoong. Total five,” said Hero when he was asked to name the Beatles members.
Hero’s parent said they did not help him to learn the songs and despite not being taught English nor music, he is able to sing all the songs without skipping a word or note.
Hero’s father’s business website plays some Beatles songs and that is when Hero was introduced to the band and started to memorise and perform the songs by ear. Two months later he was able to sing the entire first Beatles album “1″.
As a non-English speaker, he has difficulty distinguishing “R” and “L”, but for his fans it makes his renditions even cuter.
Despite the small pronunciation difficulties, he now can sing almost every Beatles song and about 20 other old pop songs, his parent say, and he aspires to one day sing before large audiences.
“I want to travel all around the world to perform like the Beatles. Please come and see me. Wink!” said Hero. Hero’s parent hope to see their child’s potential as an artist expand with the help of a good teacher who will be able to develop his talents.
“I want my son to find a teacher who can open a decent path for his life and give him chances,” says Hero’s mother Seo Ji-na.
Hero has made mainstream television appearances and was introduced as a pop-song and language prodigy. He is hoping to make history as the youngest Beatle and to transform his Youtube fame into something even better, performing his talent live to the world just like his favorite band, the Beatles.
Musical talent and blindness have often been thought to be linked – and now there’s proof in the form of new research
Lucy Tobin
The Guardian, Tuesday 18 May 2010
On a normal after-school evening in South Godstone, Surrey, one school boy’s bedroom is ringing out to the sounds of a live concert of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and Tony Christie’s Amarillo, with a dash of opera in between.
Listening outside, you might think this was a very eclectic concert of stars. In fact, the performances are all coming from 12-year-old Joshua Black, a blind student with perfect pitch and an astonishing musical ability.
Joshua, who was born prematurely at 32 weeks, is registered blind, with no sight in his right eye and only small amount of peripheral vision in his left eye. He plays the violin, trumpet and African drums as well as singing; he is academic, but music is his passion. “It helps me overcome everyday stress; when I’m upset I go to music,” Joshua says.
“I love to sing, I hear music on the radio and make up harmonies all the time. My favourite song right now is Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.” As Joshua gives me a musical rendition, I’m astonished – it’s hard to believe this is the voice of a 12-year-old.
His mother, Clare, reiterates the impact music has had on Joshua’s life. “As a baby, he was always soothed by music, especially opera – when we played La Traviata, he would go completely still,” she explains. “By the age of two, he was singing nursery tunes to himself, beautifully, and he did a solo at nursery school when he was three. We never pushed him to do it, he was just always drawn towards music. Now he sings all the time.” … Continue reading
The Conservatives pledged that every child would have the chance to sing or learn an instrument. Bravo, says Stephen Hough.
By Stephen Hough
Published: 8:41AM BST 18 May 2010
It seems a long time since the publication of the three political party manifestos, and now we find that two of them have had to be combined into one bumper volume – with duplications expunged and contradictions resolved or ignored. But one item from the Conservative Party’s arts manifesto delighted me, and I hope it will be kept on the table in the new Government.
In the days leading up to the election I came across an interview with Jeremy Hunt, who is now Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport. He said that a Conservative government would ensure that “every child will have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument; that every child has the chance to learn to sing; that every child is able to receive a solid cultural education”.
This seemed like a wonderful idea, and something that I had given up hoping for even when I was at school myself, almost half a century ago. I’m used to my profession being thought of as a luxury, something in which to indulge after the serious business of real life has been taken care of.
Politicians in Britain – left, right and centre – have nodded at the arts with respect over the years (one even conducted symphony orchestras), but usually as a sideline to the main event; a cherry on top of the cake rather than deep in the very mix of the dough.
But what I found so refreshing about this Tory proposal was its emphasis on the active: not so much “music appreciation classes”, but rosin on a bow, reed in a mouth, fingers on keys. It recognises that learning a musical instrument is something positive in itself – a discipline that helps a person to acquire skills of co-ordination, concentration and perseverance. It shares these with sport, of course, but there is more. … Continue reading
Listening to Mozart does not increase intelligence, scientists have concluded after more than 15 years of studies into the claims.
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Published: 6:25AM BST 11 May 2010
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
The finding is a blow to believers of the so-called “Mozart effect”.
The phenomenon was first suggested by a scientific study published in 1993 in the respected journal Science.
That showed that teenagers who listened to Mozart’s 1781 Sonata for Two Pianos in D major performed better in reasoning tests than adolescents who listened to something else or who had been in a silent room.
The finding, by a group at the University of California whose study involved only 36 students, led crèches in America to start playing classical music to children and the southern US state of Georgia even gave newborns a free classical CD.
However, since then many have suggested that the effect is a myth after further research failed to replicate the findings…. Continue reading
Young people are putting their hearing at risk by listening to music at the same volume as jet engines, a researcher has warned.
Published: 6:30AM BST 21 Apr 2010
iPods and MP3 players are to be fitted with maximum volume control
Playing MP3 players at high volumes and using earphones that fit into the ear canal could lead to loss of hearing, he said.
Professor Peter Rabinowitz, from Yale University School of Medicine in the US, said some players generate volumes in the ear in excess of 120 decibels – ”similar in intensity to a jet engine”.
Writing online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), he said the leading cause of preventable hearing loss is exposure to excessive levels of noise.
”Traditionally, noise-induced hearing loss was a disease of adults who worked in noisy occupations or used firearms,” he said.
”However, concern is growing that children and young adults are developing noise-induced hearing loss as a result of ‘environmental’ over-exposure to amplified music, especially through the use of personal music devices such as MP3 players.
”As with mobile phones, the use of personal music players has grown faster than our ability to assess their potential health consequences. … Continue reading
Teenagers’ music taste is determined by their desire to conform
A glimpse inside the teenage mind has revealed how adolescent insecurity can dictate the pop charts. Brain scans have shown that teenagers’ music choices have less to do with whether they like what they are hearing than with the horror of failing to conform with their peers.
The study — conducted on teenagers listening to songs via social networking sites such as MySpace — suggests that they will change their minds about music once they realise that the tracks are popular with other people their age.
If their musical preferences do not match those of others, their brains recoil with terror.
“We wanted to know, for example with Amazon.com, when you see a four- or five-star rating of something, does that make you like it more?” said Gregory Berns, Chair of Neuroeconomics at Emory Univerity in the US, whose findings were published recently in the journal NeuroImage.
Youngsters aged 12 to 17 were played a track and asked to rate how much they liked it. After an interval, they were asked to rate it again — after some had seen a popularity rating based on how many times the track had been downloaded.
Without knowing whether others liked a song, such ratings changed 12 per cent of the time. When the youngsters found out that a tune was a hit, however, they changed their ratings 22 per cent of the time, and more than three quarters switched in the direction of the song’s popularity rating. The first time that they heard a song, brain scans revealed, regions associated with reward and pleasure were activated. On the second hearing, those associated with anxiety and pain would light up, suggesting that fear made people change their ratings…..Continue reading
Babies are born to dance and find the rhythm and tempo of music more engaging than speech, research has shown.
A study of infants aged from five months to two years suggests that babies are preprogrammed to move rhythmically in response to music.
Psychologist Marcel Zentner, who led the University of York team, said: “Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants.
“We also found that the better the children were able to synchronise their movements with the music the more they smiled.
“It remains to be understood why humans have developed this particular predisposition. One possibility is that it was a target of natural selection for music or that it has evolved for some other function that just happens to be relevant for music processing.”
Infants listened to a variety of stimulating sounds including classical music, rhythmic beats and speech….Continue reading
Learning to play a musical instrument can help children to learn languages by increasing the brain’s sensitivity to sounds including speech.
Tests revealed that exposure to music can be beneficial to the brain in its developmental stagesPhoto: ALAMY
Music lessons could have a direct impact on a child’s ability to learn languages by affecting the mind’s sensitivity to all sounds, scientists have claimed.
Tests revealed that exposure to music can be beneficial to the brain in its developmental stages, and would have advantages for all children, including those who are dyslexic and autistic.
Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago, America, established a link between musical ability and the capacity of the nervous system to take in sound patterns.
Professor Nina Kraus, who led the team, said playing an instrument had an impact on automatic processing in the brainstem, the lower section of the brain which governs breathing, the heartbeat and reaction to sounds… Continue reading
Learning to play a musical instrument could help to improve children’s reading and their ability to listen in noisy classrooms, according to new research.
The part of the brain that interprets sound, known as the auditory cortex, responds faster in people with musical training and is better primed to pick out subtle patterns from the huge volumes of information that flood into the brain from our senses. Photo: ALAMY
Neuroscientists have found that musicians benefit from heightened brain activity that allows them to process information from their eyes and ears more efficiently than non-musicians.
They found that the part of the brain that interprets sound, known as the auditory cortex, responds faster in people with musical training and is better primed to pick out subtle patterns from the huge volumes of information that flood into the brain from our senses.
Professor Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist and amateur musician at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has also found that this part of the brain plays a crucial role in reading.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego on Saturday, she called for music to become a more important part of school syllabuses to help children develop better reading and language skills.
She said: “There is a strong argument for more musical education, especially in schools.
“Our eyes and ears take in millions of bits of information every second and it is not possible for the brain to process all of that, so the sensory systems in our brains are primed to tune into regularities or patterns in the signals it receives.
“People who are musically trained are better at picking up these patterns because they learn to recognise notes and pitches within melodies and harmonies.
“The better you are at picking up these patterns in music, the better reader you are. This makes sense as letters and words on a page are really just patterns.”
Professor Kraus and her team have used a method known as electroencephalography, which measures electrical activity in the brain, to examine how musicians and non-musicians brains respond to different stimulus.
She found that people who are better at picking out harmonies and timing in sounds are also better at reading. … Continue reading
Many sufferers of the debilitating head pain can find that light is a trigger and doctors often recommend lying in a dark room until an attack passes.
Researchers found that light rays trigger activity in specific brain cells within seconds of hitting the optic nerve, at the back of the eye.
They believe these cells are responsible for causing the debilitating pain light can trigger in migraine sufferers.
Even when light was removed the cells remained active until up to half an hour later, animal tests show.
The scientists, from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, in Boston, now hope that drugs can be developed to block the signal to the brain cells, removing the pain.
It is thought that around 85 per cent of migraine sufferers are also extremely sensitive to light, a condition known as photophobia.
“Migraine patients may wear sunglasses, even at night,” said Prof Rami Burstein, from BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, who added that even extremely dim lights can make migraine pain worse.
But doctors have found that even blind migraine sufferers can experience photophobia… Continue Reading
‘I want to annoy. And I’m going to enjoy it!” is the provocative opening line of Caesar, the catchy debut single from I Blame Coco. I Blame Coco feat. Robyn – Caesar
It’s quite an introduction to the musical alter ego of Eliot Pauline Sumner, aka Coco, daughter of Sting (Gordon Sumner) and Trudi Styler.
Just 19 years old, Coco Sumner turns up for her interview on a wet, winter’s morning wearing T-shirt, shorts and hiking boots. “I never get cold,” she sniffs, unconvincingly. Tangly, pre-Raphaelite locks of unwashed-looking hair hang around her face, so that she appears to be talking through a shaggy curtain. Her voice is low and gravelly; her most overused phrase, “uhm, yeah”.
She curls up on a couch, with a paperback of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, with which she says, she is persevering even though she’s not actually enjoying it. “He’s so dogmatic. I’m not sure if it makes me really angry or it makes me laugh.” She keeps rubbing her eyes and yawning, as if she is having difficulty waking. Well, its only 11 o’clock. “I went to bed really early last night,” she apologises. “I think I’m suffering from too much sleep.”
Coco couldn’t be any more teenage if Harry Enfield’s scriptwriters had dreamt her up. She has that whole autistic adolescent thing going on, where you imagine her holing up in her bedroom for days on end, reading philosophy, fiddling with her computer and playing electric guitar and drums, very loud. Which, I gather, is not far from the truth. “I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to music,” she says, with a shrug. “I like studio gear. I’m always looking it up on eBay and seeing what I can afford.” But somehow I don’t think her parents have anything to worry about.
For one thing, most teenagers don’t emerge from hibernation clutching a smart, funny, sonically bold debut album on which they have written all the songs and played all the instruments themselves. And, let’s face it, it could have been so much worse, especially when you consider the behaviour of other pop offspring on the party circuit. “I’m not in this for money or fame,” insists Coco, who has a fiercely focused seriousness about her. “I’m purely in it ’cos I love making music… Continue Reading
Parent Pages lists lots of information, advice and resources for parents with babies, children and teenagers. We list online and local organisations, so whether you are looking for something national or something on your doorstep you will find it on the Parent Pages website. You will find information on local schools, tutors, nurseries, pre-schools, childcare, childminders, days out, as well as useful information on home-educating, pregnancy, childbirth, fostering and adoption, divorce and separation, holidays. We list many local and national charities offering advice and support for children or parents with disabilities, special needs, adhd, autism and other learning difficulties.
Parent Pages lists lots of information, advice and resources for parents with babies, children and teenagers. We list online and local organisations, so whether you are looking for something national or something on your doorstep you will find it on the Parent Pages website. You will find information on local schools, tutors, nurseries, pre-schools, childcare, childminders, days out, as well as useful information on home-educating, pregnancy, childbirth, fostering and adoption, divorce and separation, holidays. We list many local and national charities offering advice and support for children or parents with disabilities, special needs, adhd, autism and other learning difficulties.
Pianist and composer appointed to conducting staff of Seattle Symphony
Alexander Prior has been appointed to the staff of the Seattle Symphony. Photograph: Lorna Roach/Observer
British musical prodigy Alexander Prior has secured his first professional appointment with an orchestra at the age of only 17, it was confirmed today.
He has become the assistant to guest conductors – a job rarely given to someone so young. The role involves being on standby to conduct the orchestra if guests are forced to cancel their engagements.
“Serving on the conducting staff of a major orchestra is a key professional development opportunity for young conductors, although most are not given the opportunity at such a young age,” a statement from the Seattle Symphony said… Continue Reading
Parent Pages lists lots of information, advice and resources for parents with babies, children and teenagers. We list online and local organisations, so whether you are looking for something national or something on your doorstep you will find it on the Parent Pages website. You will find information on local schools, tutors, nurseries, pre-schools, childcare, childminders, days out, as well as useful information on home-educating, pregnancy, childbirth, fostering and adoption, divorce and separation, holidays. We list many local and national charities offering advice and support for children or parents with disabilities, special needs, adhd, autism and other learning difficulties.
Studying showbusiness isn’t all about being famous.
By Wendy Miller
Published: 12:00PM GMT 12 Jan 2010
Making it: students get to work at the Brit School in the hope of emulating alumni such as Leona Lewis, Amy Winehouse and Katie MeluaPhoto: Paul Grover
It’s a cold, wet Monday morning in south London, but unlike many of their contemporaries up and down the country, none of the pupils at the Brit School are gazing out of the window. They’re far too wrapped up in what they’re doing.
On the ground floor, two woolly-hatted bands are practising for the school concert, while in the dance studio next door, the ballet class is rehearsing an ensemble piece in black leotards.
Upstairs, a group of actors is rehearsing a gritty, modern play about British soldiers, while in the new recording wing, some of the school’s composers and songwriters are transferring their music onto computer, with the help of Sibelius (a software program that turns recorded music into a written score).
To the first-time visitor, it’s like walking into a Channel 4 drama series about talented young teenagers trying to make it in showbusiness. Everyone’s confident, everyone’s got opinions, everyone’s dressed like they’re on their way to a rock gig… Continue Reading
Parent Pages lists lots of information, advice and resources for parents with babies, children and teenagers. We list online and local organisations, so whether you are looking for something national or something on your doorstep you will find it on the Parent Pages website. You will find information on local schools, tutors, nurseries, pre-schools, childcare, childminders, days out, as well as useful information on home-educating, pregnancy, childbirth, fostering and adoption, divorce and separation, holidays. We list many local and national charities offering advice and support for children or parents with disabilities, special needs, adhd, autism and other learning difficulties.
The schools secretary, Ed Balls, has enlisted a rapper famous for his violent and obscenity-strewn lyrics to promote diplomas, Labour’s alternatives to GCSEs and A-levels.
Kano, a “grime” star who sprang to fame in 2005, has produced a new song and video, released for free download today, which pupils studying for the qualifications have helped to produce. The song, More Than One Way, has been featured by the Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe in his “hottest record in the world today” slot.
The song’s lyrics are mild by Kano’s standards — although it does include a reference to Gordon Ramsay and “The F Word” — but the choice of Kano, 24, is likely to prove controversial given his previous work such as Ghetto Kid.
That included lines such as: “Don’t f*** with me / I’ve got my knife and I could get a nine milli [9mm pistol] / And niggas know I’m blowin’ up shows like a terrorist.”
Balls’s choice of Kano, born Kane Brett Robinson in East Ham, east London, is an unlikely embracing by the Establishment of a form of music once seen as the preserve of alienated black youth…. Continue Reading
Parent Pages lists lots of information, advice and resources for parents with babies, children and teenagers. We list online and local organisations, so whether you are looking for something national or something on your doorstep you will find it on the Parent Pages website. You will find information on local schools, tutors, nurseries, pre-schools, childcare, childminders, days out, as well as useful information on home-educating, pregnancy, childbirth, fostering and adoption, divorce and separation, holidays. We list many local and national charities offering advice and support for children or parents with disabilities, special needs, adhd, autism and other learning difficulties.
Dr Tobias Greitemeyer says that his studies show that students are more helpful after listening to ‘pro-social’ song lyrics than they would be otherwise. Lady GaGa Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
It’s a scenario every parent of a teenager will recognise: the bedroom door closes, a volume dial is rotated clockwise and loud music fills the room for hours at a time. But there is some good news – this routine might actually make your child more caring and socially responsible.
After years of studies purporting to show the harmful effects of young people listening to songs with violent or misogynistic themes, a psychologist has concluded that music containing a positive message has a beneficial impact on listeners.
Parent Pages lists lots of information, advice and resources for parents with babies, children and teenagers. We list online and local organisations, so whether you are looking for something national or something on your doorstep you will find it on the Parent Pages website. You will find information on local schools, tutors, nurseries, pre-schools, childcare, childminders, days out, as well as useful information on home-educating, pregnancy, childbirth, fostering and adoption, divorce and separation, holidays. We list many local and national charities offering advice and support for children or parents with disabilities, special needs, adhd, autism and other learning difficulties.
It sounds like the start of a joke: one of Sting’s children is being tipped by HMV to be a breakthrough musical artist of 2010. Except there is no punchline. Not yet.
Coco Sumner is the daughter of Gordon Sumner, who is better known for being in the Police, saving rainforests, wearing vests, playing the lute and still insisting, aged 58, that people call him Sting. Coco fronts the brickbat-beckoning I Blame Coco, who play the very worst genre of music created by Man: ska-punk. If we just consider the bare facts, none of this looks good.
Surely we shouldn’t subject Coco to our blinkered preconceptions and bitter snap judgments about the prodigy of pop stars and their presumed talent deficit?
Except we should pre-judge them precisely because their surname gets them a fast-tracked easy ride to the doors of record company A&Rs, a position that takes other acts years of unglamorous slog to achieve. That is not to suggest that years of anonymous grafting is synonymous with explosive talent, but music fans have always backed the underdog.
Much as they will argue that their talent is their own, musicians such as Coco are marketed entirely on their bloodline. Do you like Sting? Then buy this music by someone who shares his DNA as that’s almost certainly going to be fantastic… Continue Reading
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