Rockin' Barbie

I've been wondering about what would make Barbie want to dance these days. She's on tip-toes all the time so her moves have to be somewhat restricted. And if you were to pay close attention to her proportions, you'd probably wonder about how standing would be a struggle and dancing might be downright impossible. But forget all that! What kind of music moves the girl?

I called my goddaughter Mary the other day and she told me she was playing with her Barbie. What is Barbie doing? I asked. She said they were watching TV and trying on outfits. I was reminded of my own Barbie days and what I remember most are the records Barbie listened to. These records (yes, records—this was before CDs entered our world) were not sold in packages as accessories in the toy store like the Corvette or Dream House or shiny disco dresses. No, these were records I made for Barbie. I was a kid who saved her weekly allowance to buy 45s at the local record shop, so it only followed that my Barbie would also have the same records I had and loved. My DIY records were simple: circles cut out of paper with the song written on them in tiny print.

Barbie would put on the fake record on the imaginary record player—any surface would spin records in my imaginary Barbie world, because anything was possible in my Barbie world—and she'd dance. It didn't matter what she was wearing and it didn't matter if she danced with Ken or another Barbie. Her blonde hair bounced as she rocked from side to side. Imagine the girls from the "Peanuts" animated specials dancing and you can picture my Barbie in motion. Sometimes her pointy-toed legs would kick up like a Rockette's or she'd flip over joyfully.

So I told Mary that my childhood Barbie liked to dance and that I made fake records for her (explaining to her that a record is an old-fashioned CD). She liked that and told me her Barbie liked Kelly Clarkson. Could I make her a Kelly Clarkson CD? Of course, I told her. Then I asked if I could do something even better. What if I made her other records that her Barbie might like? I could write the song name on the fake record and she could go on the computer with her mom to find the song online, then listen to find out if she liked it. Wouldn't that be fun? I asked. Cool, she said.

No disrespect to Kelly, but my gut tells me that Barbie might also want to rock out to something else and I'm happy to be an influencer. I could begin by making records by non-"American Idol" artists with some girl power, starting with some Pretenders, Stevie Nicks, X, and Sonic Youth and move on to Silversun Pickups, Sleater-Kinney, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Arcade Fire. Mary wants to learn to play the violin, so I'll start with Arcade Fire.