You hear it more and more often. I mean the word tween. It comes from between and is now the term used to refer to kids in between being children and teenagers. Because they are able to speak their own minds and make their own choices to the consternation of their parents, the tween set now has its own pop culture and is a lucrative market for consumer goods.
Television fuels the trend but when the tweens are not watching TV, they listen to music and there are now a lot of CDs available for them. Take a look at the most popular releases.
Camp Rock by Various Artists: This is the soundtrack of the widely-watched TV movie from Disney. The film has been panned as just another High School Musical imitation. But who cares. The tweens love Camp Rock and considered its recent screening a major event. The music is happy and catchy and sparkles with youthful verve and the stars are all cute tween heartthrobs.
Stars are the phenomenal Jonas Brothers and the envy of tween girls nowadays, Demi Lovato. Joe Jonas is her love interest in the movie. There are other emerging stars among the talented young cast. Among them is Ana Maria Perez de Tagle, daughter of Artie Perez de Tagle who is the son of Filipino showbiz legend Sylvia la Torre.
Among the songs included are We Rock by The Cast; Play My Music by the Jonas Brothers; Gotta Find You a solo by Joe Jonas; Start the Party by Jordan Francis; Who Will I Be? by Demi; This is Me by Demi and Joe; and the Philippine version of This is Me performed by Julianne and Miguel Escueta.
Breakout by Miley Cyrus: Miley is also known as Hannah Montana, the girl her classmates do not know is a big pop star in the hit Disney series. Pretty and perky and a singer/songwriter like her father Billy Ray, she has released three CDs that all went to No. 1. Next on tap for Miley is Hannah Montana: The Movie. That means her tween fans will finally get to see her on the big screen. Playdate is set for summer of 2009 so they have to be patient and wait.
It should help that there is Miley’s third album Breakout to listen to while waiting. Parents might complain that this is just the usual Hannah stuff but the tweens do not mind that one bit. Their screams are always louder than the music anyway. Breakout and 7 Things are the first two hits. The next one should be either Just Wanna Have Fun or Simple Song.
iCarly, the soundtrack of the TV show starring Miranda Cosgrove. Disney has Hannah Montana and rival Nickelodeon has iCarly. I remember Cosgrove as a competent actress in School of Rock and she should grow up to more serious roles soon. Meanwhile she is Carly, the host of her own successful home-grown show, a sort of YouTube, where she posts anything that could be watched on the web.
iCarly the CD features music from and inspired by the show. Among the cuts are the theme song, Leave It All to Me by Miranda featuring Drake Bell; Stay My Baby, About You Now and Headphones On, all by Miranda; plus Beautiful Girl by Sean Kingston; I Don’t Wanna Be in Love by Good Charlotte; I Like That Girl by Leon Thomas III; Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne feat Lil Mama; Freckles by Natasha Bedingfield; Face in the Hall by The Naked Brothers Band and others.
I Don’t Want to Go to School by The Naked Brothers: I do not know why they call themselves The Naked Brothers because they are not named naked and are certainly never naked on TV. They star in a show about kids who make it big time as rock stars. I also do not know if Nat and Alex Wolff would grow up to become leading men materials like Kevin, Joe and Nick. As of now though, Nickelodeon’s answer to the Jonases are cute, toothy and naughty.
Musicwise though, these boys can hold a candle to anyone. Whoever said that eight-year-olds can’t create music unless they are suspected to be aliens like Mozart should listen to the stuff dished out by these boys. They make very good pop music that echoes the early Beatles. They do it all by themselves and hurray! the songs do not sound old at all. Their latest CD has titles like Banana Smoothie and Crazy Car and these sound-like songs composed and performed by kids for kids. Not adult rip-offs.
Hopefully soon, we will find in the stores A Little Bit Longer, the hot new CD by the Jonas Brothers. No tween around can imagine being without this one.