Tween Music/Culture

[lesliepear]

We are a Nick/Noggin family, not watching much Disney TV - for no other reason than habit - my husband found Sponge Bob on TV when Alan was a baby and figured cartoons were ok for him to watch - that's how it started.

Anyway, Alan's watched some Disney stuff over the summer at daycare - he's seen High School Musical, and High School Musical 2. He's also seen the DVD of Camp Rock.

Recently his two favorite Cd's in the car are High School Musical 2 and Camp Rock.

I like High School Musical 2. The songs are more of a traditional musical format, catchy and upbeat. They haven't bothered me to listen to a zillion times - even when they've become stuck in my head. My least favorite track which is the last one Humuhumunukunukuapua'A is still pretty tolerable.

Camp Rock I don't like so much. For a movie having to do with a rock and roll summer camp, there is an awful lot of hip hop/techno influence on it. I know those songs do have positive messages and kid friendly lyrics, but they don't appeal to me.

One other thing I've noticed is that there is very little merchandise from these movies marketed to boys - a boy might get a book derived from the movie and that's it. Alan who is interested in seeing High School Musical 3 - was thrilled to see some Dannon yogurt with the characters from HSM 3 on it, and insisted I buy it (I did). At Target the other day, I saw some adorable girls athletic gear decorated with the Wildcats team from High School Musical's East High - it was in the school colors of red/white/gold. It was a change from the usual very girly tween HSM, Hannah Montanah, Camp Rock stuff. Something like that could work for boys also, but of course it's not done.

Nick/Noggin doesn't really do anything for boys with Naked Brothers Band merchandise. What little there is, is definitely girly in terms of T shirts. It reminds me when Alan started liking Dora the Explorer. All the clothing etc was geared to girls. Then they invented Diego which was ok for boys - and immediately started turning Dora into Barbie, Jr - another story :(

Anyone else think that all of the tween shows don't really play to boys with the merchandise at all?

Comments

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. Everything is for girls and it's annoying. Elijah likes Dora more than Diego, but I had to steer him more towards Diego just so we could actually buy the stuff!

Thank god Elijah isn't into shows like that yet. He definitely has his likes and dislikes. And some of the shows I've noticed him interested in seem to be more directed to tweens and especially girls but he enjoys watching the action ones. I can't think of any names because I don't pay attention to them, lol.

But what I find so interesting is how into these tween things our young boys are. Or young kids at all. Should 5 year olds really be watching Hanana Montana? It just seems so young!

[tabbyfoo.livejournal.com]

My dad went to East High in Salt Lake, which is where they film the HSM series.

So did Roseann Barr, for that matter... :P

Anyway, my point is, you could probably find some actual East High gear online. :)

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

If Disney doesn't try to get $ from it, I bet East High could make some money from online shirt sales (are they actually the Wildcats like in the movie?)

[tabbyfoo.livejournal.com]

I think they are.

[tabbyfoo.livejournal.com]

It looks like the wildcats were invented for the movie. East's mascot is the leopards. The other thing they've done is filmed some of the stuff at Murray High, which is where David Archuleta from AI went to high school... but they're the Spartans - that's where my step-sister graduated from. I'm sure you could call the school and see if you can get a plain red shirt with East High on it or something for Alan, because the school colors are right, at least.

http://www.mury.k12.ut.us/MHS/

http://east.slc.k12.ut.us/

[cathymg2.livejournal.com]

I agree completely about the marketing, but I'm not too sad about it. Ethan has a ton of Spongebob gear, some Star Wars things (he's seem Phantom Menace and pieces of the rest), and some Indiana Jones (again, he's seen pieces of Last Crusade -- we did some editing while we watched it). He's not into Naked Bro. or Jones Bros.

Oh, he LOVES Phineas and Ferb, the new-ish cartoon from Disney. It was a summer cartoon, but it's still on. It's ok, and we did find a shirt for him at the Disney outlet for $5. He wears it every time it's clean.

[allykatt.livejournal.com]

i love phineas and ferb, too! perry RULES!

[cathymg2.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it? I can't stand whiny Candace, but we will frequently burst out with "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!" And I loooove the bith with Peter the Panda and the Dr. Phil show.

[allykatt.livejournal.com]

i hadn't really looked in the disney store to see if they have boy stuff for HSM, my son isn't as into it. he LOVES camp rock and the jonas brothers, but we haven't bought him much. i did buy him a toy microphone, and want to get him a sing-along karaoke thing for christmas, because he LOVES to sing. the mic i bought him was generic.

most of the character stuff we buy him is either toy story or cars, sometimes nemo.