Music
Their music can be divided into three basic types:
- Traditional children's songs, whether native or international;
- Covers, or songs in which the melody is borrowed from a popular song (often from the English-speaking world) but the lyrics are unrelated; and
- Original songs invented by the group. This accounts for the largest number of songs, especially in the more recent releases.[1]
In all cases, the lyrics in the songs are upbeat and playful, and their music has been likened to bubblegum pop.[3]
Examples of famous international children's songs whose melody has been borrowed and given entirely new lyrics:
| Lollipops song | Original[4] |
|---|---|
| Was zieh ich an | When the Saints Go Marching In |
| Yo, wir gehen zum Rodeo | Old McDonald Had a Farm |
| Ich hab ne Tante in Marokko | She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain |
| Von den blauen Bergen kommen wir | She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain |
| Radio Lollipop | Polly Wolly Doodle[5] |
| Gib mir bitte einen Kuss | Chicken Dance |
| Tanz bis dir schwindelig wird | Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes |
History
Die is German for "the" (plural); Lollipops is a loanword from English. The most common German word for lollipop is Lutscher, but like its English counterpart "sucker", it has come to be supplemented in modern times by Lollipop. The band debuted in July 2000 with a self-titled album which contains what are today many of their most famous songs. Since then, they have released new CDs, videos, and audio books at the rate of about two per year. As of 2005, their label had sold more than 1.5 million of their CDs and videos, of which 8 made it to gold and one platinum.[6] Note that the meanings of the terms platinum and gold are different for different countries: in Germany gold signifies 100,000 sales and platinum 200,000.
The band is notable for using girls between the ages of about 11 and 16 as its lead singers; most children's groups in the USA either use adults or very young children. Thus the girls are older than their target audience, but young enough that their voices have a girlish sound. Because the band has been around for eight years, they are constantly replacing the singers with younger ones, and so the newer music sounds somewhat different than the older music. Most of the time, there are two lead singers with occasional accompaniments by other singers who are not named; for a short time there were three main singers. The current duet started recording in late 2007 with Susi and Fiona (then 12 and 11 years old respectively), and released an album called Einfach tierisch in March 2008. Previously the band had used two girls named Maria and Maike, who had been in the band since March 2005. Peter Hoffmann has remained the producer since the group's inception.[7] One song, "die Lollipop-Song", makes reference to a "DJ Klaus"; this is Klaus Büchner, founder of Torfrock and also the composer of many of the Lollipops' earlier songs.
Due to the language barrier, the Lollipops are largely unheard of outside the German-speaking world. Their music can be downloaded via websites such as Amazon.com.
|
|
460
