Popular Music (2012) Volume 31/3. © Cambridge University Press 2012, pp. 417–436 doi:10.1017/S0261143012000335 The new ‘tween’ music industry: The Disney Channel, Kidz Bop and an emerging childhood counterpublic TYLER BICKFORD Department of Music, Columbia University, 2690 Broadway, MC 1813, New York, NY 10027, USA E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract This article examines the expansion of the US children’s music industry in the last decade. It con- siders the sanitising of Top 40 pop for child audiences in the Kidz Bop compilations, the entrance of Disney into the popular music market and the meteoric rise of tween music products such as High School Musical, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber. It shows that, as children increasingly consume mainstream musical products, in the converse dynamic children’s artists themselves play an increasingly prominent role in popular culture and in many ways have taken the lead both in commercial success and in stylistic innovations. Examining public expressions of age-based solidarity among celebrity musicians associated with children, this article argues that children’s music is increasingly articulated through tropes of identity politics, and rep- resents the early stages of a childhood counterpublic. Over the last decade, children’s music has been at the forefront of a remarkable trans- formation in the children’s media and consumer industries. Children’s musical pro- ducts, once dominated by folk singers and animated musicals, now sound and look increasingly like the mainstream pop aimed at youth and adult audiences. With sophisticated production values, professional songwriting, and talented and stylish performers, the children’s music industry has become a powerful force in popular music.