Colleen Reviews Kidz Bop Part 1

                                                  
           Since I've been stuck at home due to COVID19, I thought I would do something fun on my blog. Instead of just writing my usual stories, I thought it might be fun to review Kidz Bop versions of popular songs.  Kidz Bop is a brand of musical compilation albums that feature songs by popular artists remade especially for kids. Sometimes popular songs on the radio may have profanity or lyrics parents may not want their kids singing. So Kidz Bop replaces those lyrics and re records the songs with children's voices and on the earlier albums, an adult would sing with the kids.

So my goal is to try to review one song per album and give it a rating between 1 and 10, with 10 being the best. Since I owned a few Kidz Bop albums as a kid, I'm going to try to choose songs that I've never heard the Kidz Bop version of before. I will start with the first five albums....

The Original Kidz Bop
Waiting For Tonight by Jennifer Lopez
I chose to review this song because it is my absolute favorite Latin pop song of all time. But since the subject matter is rather mature and romantic, I was a little unsure of how it would sound with kids' voices. I just couldn't imagine kids singing, "Tossing and turning emotions were strong. I knew I had to hold on."  However I was pleasantly surprised with how closely this one resembled the original song. The adult singer actually had a good voice and the kids mainly served as back up singers for her. You could only hear them On the chorus. But they weren't overpowering and didn't take away from the song as much as I thought they would. Overall I would give this one a solid 8 . I was pleasantly surprised with how close it sounded to the original. But the subject matter is still a little questionable.

Kidz Bop 2
Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days
This is another one of my favorite songs and while I actually owned Kidz Bop 2 As a kid, I do not remember this song being on there. So I was very interested to hear this version. Honestly though, I think this is one of those songs that just doesn't sound right with kids' voices. At least they eliminated the word "Shit" from the second verse and it wasn't the most noticeable elimination. But the lyric "How many lovers would stay?" Still doesn't seem child friendly to me.  There was an adult singer but the kids voices overpowered him in the chorus and just sounded annoying. Plus he wasn't that great of a singer and didn't quite have the right vocal range for this particular song. Overall I would rate this song a 5 . It's definitely not the worst Kidz Bop song I have ever heard. But it just sounded a little off with kids' voices.

Kidz Bop 3
A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton
This song was one of my favorites back in the day and I think it was a great choice for a Kidz Bop album because it is so natural and clean. Honestly though, it was a bit annoying with kids' voices but definitely not as bad as other Kidz Bop songs. The kids did a lot more singing on this song than the previous two I reviewed, which I think would make it more appealing to kids but annoying for their parents. As for the adult singer on here, she could definitely sing but I felt she was trying too hard to sound good and sing like a pop diva, which made her voice rather irritating and maybe not the right fit for this particular song. Overall I would give this one a 6. Not horrible. But not great either.

Kidz Bop 4
Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne
I will admit that I cheated a little on this one! I owned this CD as a kid so it was near impossible to choose a song I had never heard the Kidz Bop version of, so I just went with Sk8er Boi because it was my favorite song at age 10. And I have to say, Kidz Bop did a pretty good job recreating this song. It actually sounded pretty close to the original and the kid singers weren't as annoying here. As for the adult singer, she definitely didn't have the strongest voice. But it's not like Avril Lavigne herself has a big powerhouse voice, so I guess this singer fit the song well for that reason. Overall I would give this a solid 7. Could have done without the kids yelling "yeah!" In the intro and climax parts. But for the most part it was pretty good.

Kidz Bop 5
Cinderella by The Cheetah Girls
I was an absolute Cheetah Girls fanatic back in the day, so I could not wait to hear the Kidz Bop version of this song. But at the same time I was a little surprised that Kidz Bop would choose to cover this song because it's from a Disney movie and I could imagine kids would want the Cheetah Girls soundtrack rather than Kidz Bop. Anyway, I have one thing to say about this song, what in the world was that? I don't even know where to start with how much Kidz Bop destroyed this song!! First of all, the instrumentation was too loud and just all over the place. I couldn't even hear the singing very good in certain places, mainly the first verse. Then they completely changed up the melody in the chorus. It was much lower than the Cheetah Girls version, which just made it boring. However the worst part was the pointless lyric changes. The one that bothered me the most was "Don't wanna depend on no one else" instead of "Don't want to be no no no one else." It was very obvious that a lot of the lyrics were changed because they ruined the flow of the song and I could tell they just didn't fit in. None of the Cheetah Girls lyrics could have been considered inappropriate, especially because it was from a Disney movie. So I have no idea why Kidz Bop changed them. But it annoyed me to no end! Overall I'm rating this a 1. Just awful!! Enough said!