Lullabies that will rock the baby’s cradle
HERE’S a tip for aspiring public relations executives: If you’re ever announcing a Beyoncé-themed baby product, try to do so a few days before she Instagrams her pregnancy.
Such was the most recent stroke of good news in the potent, enduring tale of the Rockabye Baby series, which for 11 years and 78 albums has tried to mitigate one of the worst parts of being a parent – the music – with lullabied instrumental covers of songs from, you know, real bands.
The Beyoncé version is the latest in a list that includes Prince, the Beatles, Springsteen, the Pixies, David Bowie, Eminem, the Cure, Guns N’ Roses, Rush, Kanye West, Radiohead, Adele, Cyndi Lauper, Tool and Iron Maiden.
In its field, the Rockabye Baby series has carved out a “Weird Al”-esque dominance: 1.6 million units sold, 1.8 million single-track downloads and 130 million streams, although, to be fair, some of those might be from parents who have nodded off.
Rockabye’s wares – branded by a decade-old design template and teddy bear mascot – are prominent in boutiques and baby shops nationwide in the US. Steven Tyler and Joe Elliott wrote liner notes for their bands’ versions; Elton John and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett have gushed to the media.
“The obvious audience is the parent/music fan who has a sense of irony,” says Lisa Roth, executive producer of the series. “The musical palette is for the baby, but the packaging and homage to the artist is for the adults.”
The Beyoncé instalment, produced and performed by Andrew Bissell, includes definitive marimba-and-glockenspiel versions of Hold Up, Sorry, Drunk in Love and other songs that would get virtually anyone fired from day care. That said, it’s shocking how well the melody of Single Ladies translates to bells and a xylophone.
“When you’re a parent, there’s a part of you that gets put on the back burner,” she says. “I like to think we’re a little bridge between the person you were pre-baby and the person you think you have to become post-baby.”
The Beyoncé lullaby record wasn’t pegged to her pregnancy – Roth found out about it on Instagram, like all of us. And Beyoncé would have received attention anyway. “It was just super-with-acherry-on-top lucky,” Roth says.
“So much of the kid-friendly music out there is super commercial and painfully grating,” says Robin Hilton of NPR’S All Songs Considered. “But these tinkling little instrumentals are oddly comforting. Much of the appeal is the novelty. But these are also really deftly arranged. They tap into the kinds of bands parents would have listened to growing up, so there’s a nostalgia factor.”
There’s also the factor of being spectacularly marketed. The series is part of the CMH Label Group, the 45-year-old bluegrass-and-roots indie that houses the Vitamin String Quartet and the Pickin’ On series.
Are there bands that can’t be lullabied? “Never,” says Roth. “You would think a band like Black Sabbath, all minor chords, or somebody like Kanye, who sometimes raps with the melody missing, would be a challenge, and they were. But that’s the art of it.” – The Washington Post