Ian Mulvihill, 4, digs '80s alt-pop. Evangeline Vander Ark, 18 months, already is a Beatles fan. Ethan Morris, 21 months, is going through a '70s-funk phase.
If you're trying to raise kids to like good music, now's the time. Gen-X parents are finding a wealth of their tastes as well.
Tom Mulvihill, an employee at Vertigo Music, 129 S.
Division, said his son, Ian, has responded enthu-
siastically to "Here Come the ABCs," a musical DVD from They Might Be Giants. The disc aims to teach kids the "It's fun, it's energetic, it's kind of a constant. It's keeping his attention," said Mulvihill, 39, known to Vertigo customers as "Stein.
" "I always kind of thought they were a fun band anyway."
Devo 2.0 is a by-kids, for-kids version of the '80s rock act.
Releases by Little Monster Records, a kids-music label, include "All Together Now," a collection of Beatles covers for children. Kidapalooza was a successful addition to last year's Lollapalooza.
Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, the Ramones, Bjork, Nine Inch Nails and even Metallica, as well as classic-rock artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Eagles.
Valerie Aiello, co-creator of the series, said the the songs in a new way," she said. "If you can imagine your kid having their first record, and it's Baby Rock is a subsidiary of CMH Records, an early pioneer of bluegrass and symphonic tribute albums. The Rockabye stuff they heard growing up.
they get to be in fourth or fifth grade, and they start buying their own music," she said. "Instead of getting the next New Kids on the Block, they might go buy 'Dark Side of the Moon.' They might have a music tastes by playing them your favorite artists?
"Yes, it is," said Brad Morris, a psychology child development. "Children find patterns in music like they find patterns in language. The sounds they hear more frequently are the styles they prefer to hear.
"Melodic patterns are easier to pick out. They pay attention to the tempo. They pay attention to the musical Morris has noticed the effect on his son, Ethan.
He gets a steady diet of Beatles and Stevie Wonder, and he dances to familiar songs when he hears them.
what they hear in the crib, it's hard to say.
"That's the million-dollar question," Morris said.
"You'd have to follow kids for 20 years to see if that happens."
John and Laura Niedzielski, of Grand Rapids, try to vary 4-month-old twin daughters Ava and Lilly.
Radiohead and Metallica "Rockabye Baby!
" albums -- and Ian's tastes are all over the map, everything from Problems. (John is DP's guitarist.)
"He has pretty decent taste.
We try to offer a good mixture," John Niedzielski said. "It surprises me that at an early age, kids seem to have an inherent sense to find good releases.
sick of easily," said John, who has participated in the series.
"There's a lot more stuff out there, so it's harder to sift through. Usually, it's just Mulvihill has tried playing albums from the Rockabye Baby! series -- Radiohead, Tool, Queens of the Stone Age -- for his son Ian, but said it was hard to gauge the response.
a kid, and he'll immediately take it in," Mulvihill said, noting his son's response to the the visuals.
"He won't say, Dad, this rocks!"
However, Ian was born a Beatles fan.
A lot of Beatles music was played while his mom, Lisa, carried him. The Mulvihills are doing the same for their second child, due in April.
Lux Land and Brian Vander Ark's 18-month-old daughter, Evangeline, is also a big Beatles fan, since the musical couple -- he leads the Verve Pipe and performs on his own, "Bedtime with the Beatles," a collection of lullaby covers by Jason Falkner.
to their favorite music before other sources do the job.
she's exposed to MTV or VH1. We have it on every so often, because she loves to dance to it," he said.
"Mostly, we play CDs of our favorite artists, and rarely listen to the radio, if ever."
their kids into good music, there's always the Wire and the Cure.
What if Ian eventually rebels and starts liking Nickelback, or the 10-years-from-now equivalent?
Will an overload of good music turn the kids off?
"That depends on if my taste is good," Mulvihill said. "Am I pounding Joy Division into him every day?
No. I'd like to think he's not going to be a versions of Radiohead, Tool, Nirvana, the Pixies, the Beach Boys, the Cure and more.
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