iTunes for Kids

Just in case anybody had noticed, many of my allegedly top tracks on my Last FM are the result of my IT savvy kids hijacking iTunes and putting a bizarre selection of songs on heavy rotation. It's an interesting experiment to see how long you can keep them away from the likes of McFly and Sandy Thom but it's weird to discover the kind of stuff they really get into when they only get to hear their parents' music.

The current top 10 are:

1. "Spanish Bombs" by The Clash, once played about 20 times owing to "rewind!" requests from the back of the car on a long journey to Wales.
2. "Everyday I love you less and less" again by the Kaiser Chiefs. Every time I heard this tune I loved it less and less - the opposite of what other family members thought.
3. "I predict a riot" by the Kaiser Chiefs. We once heard this as part of a rabble rousing soundtrack to the one and only pro Ice Hockey match we went to and so it got onto the playlist. Misheard locally as "I predict a carrot"
4. "Popcorn" by Hot Butter. A bit of a connoiseur's choice apparently - this 1970s predictor of arcade game music was the only one to be singled out of the most recent "Guilty Pleasures 3" compilation.
5. "Steppin Out" by Joe Jackson. A forgotten favourite of many, this appears as the last track on Dirty Vegas' "The Trip" mix CD. I had to download the lyrics and it was sung repeatedly. There was even a brief possibility of it being sung acapella at "Show & Tell"
6. "The Undefeated" by Super Furry Animals is apparently a really good tune to go ape to while being restrained in a car seat. The machine gun noises and silly squeaks at the end also entertain the younger end of the demographic.
7. "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley & The Wailers was got into via a substandard Freddie McGregor version on Trojan's excellent "Reggae for Kids". Includes another classic lyric mishearing: "Three little birds, sitting on my naughty step"
8. "World in Motion" by New Order was the "driving to the supermarket with all the windows down" song of 2006's World Cup (what was yours?). Obviously a patronising parent's attempt to put the efforts of Embrace in their place.
9. "You get what you give" by the New Radicals. Totally unclassifiable song that is either loved or more often hated by adults. 100% of children I know love it for some reason. Also on the aforementioned Dirty Vegas mix.
10. "Lost in the Supermarket" by The Clash. Was already very familiar before Ben Folds did a version at the end of "Over the Hedge"

So there you have it - a great excuse for any apparent overfondness for any dodgy songs on my lists.......