Created page with "Christiana Anbri is one of the main vocalists on a new CD that entered Billboard's top-200 album chart this week at No. 14. But if her name doesn't ring a bell that's because..."
New page
Christiana Anbri is one of the main vocalists on a new CD that entered Billboard's top-200 album chart this week at No. 14. But if her name doesn't ring a bell that's because she gets no credit for her accomplisment on the CD's jacket.
Ms. Anbri, a 13-year-old from Jersey City, N.J., is among about a dozen children age seven to 13 who collectively are known as the Kidz Bop Kids. Their new album, "Kidz Bop 4," features adult and children's voices bouncing brightly through new versions of 18 current teenybopper hits, from Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" to Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From the Block" and Good Charlotte's "The Anthem."
The songs in the Kidz Bop series are rendered as cheery singalongs for children, sometimes with slightly sanitized lyrics. The vocalists, adults and children alike, aren't named and group members change with every album. Ms. Anbri sang on 10 of the new disc's songs, though her favorite is the Kidz Bop version of Avril Lavigne's "Sk8ter Boi."
"I like her version," she says, "but I love our version, too, because it reminds me of all the fun I had in the recording studio."
Despite their anonymity, the Kidz Bop Kids are a phenomenon in the low-profile world of children's music. The group is the brainchild of Cliff Chenfeld and Craig Balsam, co-founders and co-owners of a New York City independent music label, Razor & Tie.
Aggressive TV-ad campaigns tout the albums, sometimes beginning nine months before each release, on such child-oriented cable outlets as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Thanks in part to such marketing, the Kidz Bop series has long dominated the Billboard charts for children's music. Now the new disc has vaulted out of the kiddie category to a Billboard list better known as home such singers as 50 Cent and Norah Jones. "Kidz Bop 4" sold just shy of 41,000 copies in its first week, giving it the highest chart debut ever by a nonsoundtrack children's album. The franchise as a whole has sold more than 1.5 million copies domestically.
The goal in creating the Kidz Bop franchise, Mr. Chenfeld says, was to provide "something kids thought was cool and parents thought was safe and OK for the kids to listen to." The target audience: six-to-12-year-olds and their parents, "who knew they had to buy something for their kids that wasn't Barney."
Mr. . Chenfeld says the CDs' format and keeping the singers anonymous is aimed at encouraging listeners to sing along. "We wanted to keep it inclusive and unintimidating," Mr. Chenfeld says. "We didn't want four kids who run run around the country and are stars." Also, he says, since the performers change with each album, crediting the singers might confuse young listeners.
"Everybody can have a chance to be a Kidz Bop Kid," adds Mr. Balsam. "That's really the concept of the whole brand." Some performance experience doesn't hurt, however: Ms. Anbri has appeared in three Broadway musicals, attends a school in Manhattan for children who perform professionally, and landed the Kidz Bop gig with the help of her agent.
Razor & Tie boasts a few serious artists on its roster, such as the folk singer Dar Williams and the buzzed-about hard-rock band Brand New. But the label's bread and butter has been the offbeat. Its first release, "The '70s Preservation Society Presents Disco Fever," relied on gimmicky marketing to build nostalgia. The kitsch has proved lucrative: The closely held company says it has been profitable every year it's been in business, with 60 employees and annual revenue estimated at more than $75 million. Last year, when many of the big labels were struggling with shrinking sales and dwindling margins, Razor & Tie was more profitable than ever. The company releases about 40 albums a year and the Kidz CDs, while profitable, aren't the company's biggest moneymaker.
Children's music was a natural move for Razor & Tie, whose releases are distributed by Bertelsmann AG's BMG. Much like nostalgia compilations, such fare is a solid but unglamorous part of the music business that doesn't much interest traditional music executives.
Since the core music audience of high-school and college students also make up the core of online music swappers, record labels are looking for ways to market to demographic groups that are less likely to pirate their music. Fitting that bill are the very young, aging boomers, and anybody with better things to do with their time than troll the Internet for free downloads. "These people aren't the illegal downloading types," Mr. Chenfeld says.
Though it might be difficult to imagine a collection of straightforward knockoffs could itself inspire imitators, the Kidz Bop series has done just that. The just-released "Walt Disney Records Presents Superstar Kidz" shares more than just a spelling quirk with the Razor & Tie offerings: On "Superstar Kidz," four young people and adult session singers share vocal duties on 18 contemporary hits, including, yes, "Sk8ter Boi," "Jenny From the Block," and "Cry Me a River." Jay Landers, the disc's executive producer and a senior vice president at the Disney label, makes no bones about the inspiration for the CD, which charted at a respectable No. 59 its first week out. After hearing the early Kidz Bop offerings, Mr. Landers says, "we decided to form our own group."
Mr. Landers also aimed to borrow at least one quality from Kidz Bop, "that very kind of slumber-party, campfire sound that it makes it so much fun for the kids to sing." Unlike the Kidz Bop Kids, however, the four Superstar Kidz (and their grown-up co-stars) are credited by name, albeit inconspicuously. Disney hopes their Kidz -- age 10 to 12, all from the Los Angeles area -- will function as a kind of musical-talent "farm system" much like the now-defunct Mickey Mouse Club television show.
The creators of both Superstar Kidz and Kidz Bop emphasize the "safety" of their CDs -- parents don't have to worry about unsavory language or sexual imagery. To that end, a handful of songs on the first three "Kidz Bop" titles were slightly rewritten. In a version of No Doubt's "Hey Baby," for instance, the line "Watching boys and girls and their sex appeal," became "Watching boys and girls with their crazy deals."
Both Razor & Tie and Disney are already working on followup albums for early next year. EMI Group PLC's EMI Recording Music unit is also jumping on the bandwagon with its own compilation called "Kids Picks Hit Mix," which replicates the formula of the others. Disney is planning a series of high-profile competitions to audition new singers, while Razor & Tie will stick with emphasizing brand over talent -- not that the talent seems to mind. Asked what work she has planned for the coming months, Ms. Anbri says, "Just auditions -- and hopefully doing Kidz Bop again."
----
*
*
*
*
*
*
WSJ Membership BenefitsCustomer CenterLegal Policies
* Google Play
* App Store
----SIGN OUT
© 2022 Dow Jones & Company Inc.
All Rights Reserved.