Kindie rock

Kindie rock, kindie or family music is a style of children's music that "melds the sensibility of the singer-songwriter with themes aimed at kids under 10." Many popular kindie rock artists first gained fame as adult performers, including Dan Zanes and They Might Be Giants. The term was coined by Salon.com writer Scott Lamb in 2006, and has gained in popularity since. Although its original name implies a rock music style, kindie has never been purely rock music, instead encompassing innumerable musical styles. In recent years, artists have increasingly used the less specific term "kindie music" or "kindie." Playtime Playlist, a kindie directory website, notes that the term kindie "comes from merging of 'Kid' and 'Independent'" and that kindie is differentiated from conventional children's music by the way that "artists are free to make music that comes straight from their heart and isn't bound by commercial formulaic rules." As pointed out by Stefan Shepard of the kindie music blog Zooglobble, kindie artists' primary aim is to make child-oriented music with the same care and thought as adult music. It is also defined by its opposition to "mainstream" or commercial children's music. Community is also an important part of the modern kindie scene, as exemplified by the biannual KindieComm conference and the yearly hootenanny gathering.