It’s been 10 years since I was signed to RCA Records in Nashville to release my song “We Must Take America Back,” though it seems like only a heartbeat.
Since that life-changing event, being unceremoniously dropped and gagged by the record company because a handful of influential radio programmers found my music to be too conservative, life has never been dull.
Certainly there have been tough times, but I was always sustained knowing God had a plan for my songs and that there were radio programmers and listeners out there who would support my music as long as I kept writing and recording it.
So maybe I’ve gotten wiser in the last 10 years. One thing is certain: I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about the mainstream entertainment business.
The most painful lesson I’ve been forced to accept is that the record companies are poisoning the minds of our kids … many times with our knowledge and complicity.
I decided recently that I could not sit quietly anymore and allow that to happen. (I may have grown wiser over the years, but the fire in my belly still burns as hot as ever!) I wanted to create wholesome, fun music for kids and their parents to enjoy together.
I created two new CDs full of fun songs. Then I called a few radio programs who have been very supportive of my “political” music in the past and asked if they’d be willing to have me as a guest to talk about the record companies, kids’ music and my new CDs.
I was in for a surprise. They all couldn’t have cared less.
Their attitude was essentially, “What’s music for kids got to do with a hard-hitting conservative political radio show?” They wanted no part of it.
I’m here to set the record straight: Music for children and their families is as political an issue as there is.
Wouldn’t radio hosts would be shouting from the rooftops if they knew someone was poisoning the water our children drink or the food they eat? Of course! Isn’t it just as dangerous that someone is poisoning our children’s minds? We’ve all bemoaned the fact that the mainstream entertainment companies are cramming our kids’ brains full of inappropriate messages and themes – whether it be Britney Spears’ or any of a hundred other pop artist’s provocative lyrics and images. But “inappropriate” is too gentle a word. They are poisoning our kids! There should be music available that is enjoyable and appropriate for kids. We should demand nothing less.
You see, the big record companies don’t put music specifically for children out anymore. They assert that artists such as Spears and Aaron Carter represent kids’ music of the 21st century, that those type of artists are what kids want. That’s a bunch of hooey.
What alternative choices do we have as parents? Raffi? No thanks. He may be musically innocuous but his eco-friendly “one big happy world” message is enough to make this conservative ill. The other choices in kids’ music, sad to say, are lame-brained wimpy folky troubadours that are so busy trying to “educate” children with their songs they forgot that music can be great and fun for its own sake. Kids’ music should never be condescending or jammed full of politically correct messages.
And come to think of it, whatever happened to music that kids and parents could enjoy together? You may be too young to remember, but I have fond recollections of watching TV with my whole family, singing at the top of our lungs when “Sing-along With Mitch Miller” was on. Same with when Roy Rogers or Burl Ives were on TV. They all had memorable melodies and fun lyrics appropriate to the whole family. Where can you find that today? Nowhere, thanks to the big record companies.
Put all these reasons together and it’s clear music for kids is a political issue as important as any.
The unfortunate irony is that the stations and hosts who embraced me 10 years ago because the mainstream shunned my conservative music are now shunning me themselves. As my dad used to say, “Who’d have thunk it?”
I guess the next 10 years are going to be just as educational as the last!
Steve Vaus’ new kids CDs and all of his albums from the last 10 years are available at www.stevevaus.com