LAST MONTH, when Harper Beckham was born, her parents David and Victoria unwittingly gifted a music company a massive profile boost.
Victoria confessed that David had downloaded Rockabye Baby tunes to get her to sleep. The US online store specialises in rendering rock, indie and funk classics into tinkly lullabies, and has notched up celebrity endorsements from the likes of Elton John and Kate Hudson. From The Beach Boys to Madonna, Björk to The Flaming Lips, they are a saccharine reboot of songs mum and dad snogged to.
The idea harnesses parental nostalgia and wraps it up in retro plinky-plonkiness. It's no surprise that Rockabye Baby has an ironic bias towards heavy metal, to remind parents of their own teen petulance. Even Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (pictured) has said that when his son was born, he played him the jewellery-box version rather than the rabid riffing of Enter Sandman.
This writer should confess that her son owns T-shirts bearing images of The Clash, The Ramones and Grinderman (saying “heathen child” in gothic lettering). All were gifts, but aimed more at the parent than the four-year-old.
This trend isn't confined to music. Illustrator Andrea Kolb has created a picturebook based on David Bowie's Space Oddity. Not many kids care who Major Tom is, but the book could replicate the huge success of Adam Mansbach's Go the F**k to Sleep. This kidhulthood behaviour will embarrass our kids when they're older, but not before we've bought them Bagpuss toys and a Blondie T-shirt.
See rockabyebabymusic.com and kolbisneat.com/spaceoddity.htm
