Review: Pop Goes Your Name

As a parent there are times that I just find myself marvelling about how my children can find something relatively simple so, so amazing. I have a friend that is a DJ on our local community radio station and whenever he’s on air and I’ve got the radio on in the car or the kitchen Little Miss C is always amazed that it’s the same person that we’ve been out for coffee with. When she once heard him play a request for me she was all “Mummy, mummy – it’s you. He’s talking about you. The man in the radio knows your name and your favourite song. Wow.” It was a very similar reaction when she first heard the personalised CD that Pop Goes Your Name sent her to review.

Pop Goes Your Name produce a CD of pop style, upbeat music for your little ones and it is personalised with their name in the songs – as long as their name is in the list of about 800, but seeing as there are names in there that I’ve never even heard of, you’re probably in with a good chance. Both Little Miss C and Master C’s real names are pretty common (meant in the nicest possible way!) so both were on the list and we were sent a CD for each of them.

LMC sat down to listen to hers first and I initially hadn’t told her what to expect. The first track is an introduction one so doesn’t include their name, but as soon as we got to the bit in the second track where her name was included she sort of paused and I could see the puzzled look on her face. The second time it was replaced by a smile, and the third time she asked “Mummy – how does the CD know my name?” Since then it’s become very much her music and she’s been asking for it on several times.

Master C, being younger, has just had a bit of a bemused response to it all. He seems to really like the music and bops around the living room when it’s on. He’s just in the last few weeks started to say his own name and become more aware of the concept of that being his name, so when he’s heard it I can see him looking a bit puzzled at the CD player, but I’m not sure he totally understands yet. It’s similar when he’s come across characters on CBeebies  that share his name.

As for the music itself, well I actually quite like it. Earlier today I found myself tapping my foot along with it as I was working and it definitely doesn’t scream “children’s music” to you in the way that some CDs do. If I had to find a (very small) downside it would just be that the child’s name is not on the CD itself, only the packaging. If you’ve got more than one child it can make things a bit confusing, especially if they are trying to find the CD themselves. Only a tiny thing though.

Overall I was really impressed by the CD and I’ll certainly be making sure they go with us the next time we do a long car journey together. The sings are good, the production’s well done and I like the concept. A Pop Goes Your Name CD really would make a lovely personalised gift for a child and it’s definitely something a little bit different.

I will leave you with Little Miss C’s final thought: “Mummy, if the CD is clever enough to know my name, why is it singing that it’s my birthday when it should know that my birthday was last month?”

Disclaimer: We were sent two Pop Goes Your Name CDs for the purposes of this review. All opinions are my own.