I think that it is important that children be exposed to music at a young age. Babies and toddlers should be exposed to simple easy to follow melodies, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Mares Eat Oats and Does Eat Oats,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “This Old Man” (aka the Barney song) etc. This is why the melodies from Disney movies and shows like Annie are so easilly comprehended by children–nothing too complex. The point is not to make them smarter, per se, but to develop their ears and to keep them from growing up tone deaf (a terrible fate if there ever was one). Parents should be encouraged to sing to kids like they are encouraged to read to kids. The earlier children are regularly sung to the earlier they begin to distingush pitch and rhythm and the sooner they start singing themselves.
All the other stuff, like whether Bach or Frank Zappa is on the stereo while they’re playing with their blocks, is superfluous. When kids get old enough to start turning the dial on the radio for themselves they will develop their own tastes in music and that will have very little to do with what kind of music is played around the house. I’ve reached this conclusion both from my own experience with music growing up and from my experience in raising a now high school aged daughter. It should be about giving them the ears and the sense of rhythm that will allow them to develop their own musical tastes–which they will do whehter we like it or not.
