When ‘baby shark’ bites.…
CHANCE The Rapper had a question for Cardi B: “Have you heard the baby shark song yet?”
The musician, activist, and parent was tweeting at his Best Life duet partner two months after the birth of her daughter, wondering if she’d yet encountered the most pervasive children’s song in recent memory – the one that goes, “Baby shark/doo doo da-doo da-doo”, and then “Mommy shark/doo doo da-doo da-doo”, and then “Daddy shark/doo doo da-doo da-doo”, and so on.
Like most parents these days, Cardi had indeed heard Baby Shark, never mind that her daughter, Kulture, isn’t nearly old enough yet to demand control of the stereo.
Just two days before Chance’s inquiry, she tweeted lyrics from the track, inspiring knowing replies from a range of celebrity parents. Several weeks later, she referred to herself and rapper Offset, Kulture’s father, as “MOMMY SHARK & DADDY SHARK” in an Instagram caption.
Embracing such inanity is part and parcel of parenthood and if you’re the parent of a young child, you’ve probably been subjected to Baby Shark repeatedly and relentlessly. The data speaks for itself.
The version of Baby Shark by South Korean educational brand Pinkfong went viral, following a three-year buildup overseas. As of August, it had already surpassed Korean export Gangnam Style in Youtube views, and the phenomenon has continued to build since then.
Besides the official video, featuring two children doing hand motions against a cheap animated backdrop, there is, of course, a #Babysharkchallenge, featuring all kinds of people doing the same.
James Corden got Sophie Turner and Josh Groban to perform a dramatic rendition, noting, “As a father of three young children, I’ve heard it many… many… many times”.
If you have any interaction with toddlers or their parents, you’ve probably heard Baby Shark. But did you know there’s a remix EP with Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, lullaby, and pirate versions of Baby Shark, plus one at 1.5x the original bpm?
Did you know Baby Shark is the opening track on a 20-song album called Pinkfong Animal Songs and the same company has a bunch of other releases such as Pinkfong Best Kid Songs, a 48-track behemoth comprising classic nursery rhymes like The Muffin Man, Hickory Dickory Dock, and The Farmer In the Dell?
Much to my dismay, I know these things. As the father of daughters ages 3 and 1, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time with Pinkfong music this year: in the car, in the living room, in my head even when I’m not with the kids. I have been known to start singing Baby Shark and other Pinkfong recordings spontaneously. The only escape from the company’s music is the Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood discography, a vast and growing library of Disney titles, or my progeny’s latest fixation, the Youtube phenomenon called Mother Goose Club.
This was not the plan back in 2015 when my first daughter was born. Immediately I began singing her cutesy, baby-friendly variations on Can’t Feel My Face and Fetty Wap’s My Way and subjecting her to my record collection. On my wife’s phone there is a video of me dancing awkwardly to King Kunta – seated on the floor, hands in the air like I just don’t care – while my daughter looks on, mystified.
My hope was to foist my own version of dad rock on my kids within reason, somehow raising children with impeccable taste while avoiding consigning them to social alienation.
Instead, my girls ended up forcing their music on me. Suddenly family dance parties to Baby Shark are the norm. Living life under these circumstances, you learn to appreciate the little things, like the back-to-back tracks on the Jake And The Never Land Pirates album that resemble ‘70s Eno and the Clash respectively, or the song on the Doc Mcstuffins album that sounds exactly like the New Pornographers.
Sometimes this means smiling to myself upon realising They Might Be Giants wrote and performed the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song (and Hot Dog!). Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome, but I’ve even come to like some of these songs on their own merits.
Like so much about parenting, my gradual submission to children’s music has challenged my self-image and caused me to become much lamer than I ever thought I’d allow – or more likely, it’s peeled away layers of pretence to reveal the herb who was there all along. My wife and I used to blast the Frozen soundtrack before we had kids. I was raised on Christian rock. I started cracking dad jokes as soon as I was old enough to bask in the chorus of groans.
I should have seen this coming.
So, too, should have Chance, Cardi, and Corden, all of whom were irrepressibly corny long before they reproduced. A rapper who rode a drama-club tribute to his grandma to fame, another who came up via VH1 reality shows, the ebullient Briton who invented Carpool Karaoke – they’re all-in on Baby Shark.| The Washington Post