Really crap music for babies is worse than none
A quick rant about "musical" toys for babies. Leave aside, for now, the issue that the baby's been given far more toys than he will realistically ever want or need, despite being part of a fairly anti-consumerist family. And also leave aside the unavoidable issue that small children's taste for music is bound to drive the parents mad, even if they like the same stuff, because the kid will want the same piece played over and over and over and over long after the adults are sick of it.
No, the thing that really winds me up is when the "music" is actually a tinny electronic bleep that makes the sound capabilities of a 1982 Sinclair ZX Spectrum seem advanced. The tune might be just-about recognisable, but it's been edited almost out of recognition into a bastardised version that makes no musical sense. Then to make it even worse, it's woefully out of tune and the rhythm's all wrong. And you get it repeated over and over and over.
Who in their right mind things this is a good thing to give babies? Sure, music is fantastic for children - **FIXME really loves it. But some of the "music" offered to kids is really, really dreadful. It's the equivalent of thinking "Oh, I really enjoy a good hand-reared steak done rare, so a plate of unwashed mechanically-recovered specified bovine material served raw is just the job for my little one". Or noting that single-estate never-held-hands olive oil tastes great on a salad, and deducing that a drizzling of used engine oil will encourage your child to eat their greens.
It might at root be the same sort of thing, but really, there's a quality threshold below which it's far better to go without.
No, the thing that really winds me up is when the "music" is actually a tinny electronic bleep that makes the sound capabilities of a 1982 Sinclair ZX Spectrum seem advanced. The tune might be just-about recognisable, but it's been edited almost out of recognition into a bastardised version that makes no musical sense. Then to make it even worse, it's woefully out of tune and the rhythm's all wrong. And you get it repeated over and over and over.
Who in their right mind things this is a good thing to give babies? Sure, music is fantastic for children - **FIXME really loves it. But some of the "music" offered to kids is really, really dreadful. It's the equivalent of thinking "Oh, I really enjoy a good hand-reared steak done rare, so a plate of unwashed mechanically-recovered specified bovine material served raw is just the job for my little one". Or noting that single-estate never-held-hands olive oil tastes great on a salad, and deducing that a drizzling of used engine oil will encourage your child to eat their greens.
It might at root be the same sort of thing, but really, there's a quality threshold below which it's far better to go without.