By Laura Yao
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 7, 2008

Wyeth Castillo has to stand on his tiptoes to rest his elbows on the bar. It's not very crowded at the 9:30 club, but he still leans forward to make himself heard. The bartender doesn't skip a beat, even though Wyeth is 10 years old.

He's ordering a Coke, hold the rum. It's mid-afternoon on Saturday, and the club is overrun with kids, the youngest in a stroller and the oldest no higher than a parent's waist. It's not the kind of scene the 9:30 usually caters to -- the signs up front that say "NO ILLEGAL DRUG USE TOLERATED" aren't pertinent now. Today, Kidz Bop -- three boyz and three girlz, all dressed in vaguely '80s garb -- have come to town, bringing their show to one of the most prominent live-music venues in D.C.

The Kidz Bop motto: "Your favorite hits, sung by kids, for kids!" The albums consist of recent Top 40 songs, repackaged by Kidz Bop with new music tracks, new singers, and no irony.

The franchise grew out of Razor & Tie, a record label known for its compilations. The label has churned out 13 albums in the last seven years, with "Kidz Bop 14" hitting the market this summer; the first live tour hit the road in 2007. To say that the kids sing covers of popular songs at these shows would be misleading: Two grown people sing, and the kids, for the most part, just chime in on the "yeah yeahs" and "oohs."

Onstage, they do choreographed dances, alternately acting out lyrics and pirouetting in front of a live band. Several costume changes are involved. The parents in the audience look at each other and laugh, especially when the Kidz Bop girls come out in poodle skirts for Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape." But several of the parents are mouthing the catchy lyrics in spite of themselves. The kids just look awed by the noise and colorful costumes.

The Kidz Boppers who sing on the CDs are ages 6 to 10, but the ones on tour range from 11 to 16. This tour only lasts the summer so the kids don't have to miss school, although most of the kids are home-schooled so they can be groomed for careers in show business. The current bunch consists of Emily Arrington, Lauren Brianna Chavez, Jade Gilley, Coleman Keffer, Nathaniel Carter and Antony del Rio. But you don't exactly need to memorize those names. Turnover makes them nearly anonymous: There are new Kidz every year, harvested through nationwide auditions. The current ones aren't even named on the Kidz Bop Web site. And the ones who tour aren't the same ones who sing on the albums.

If the singers aren't the point, then how do the albums do so well? Though sales have slackened with the last few Kidz Bops, nine of the first 10 CDs were gold-certified, meaning they sold over 500,000 copies. The albums are advertised on the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and other kid-friendly TV channels; they're sold first by mail order, then in retail stores, for nearly $20 each.

For one thing, parents love the idea of cleaned-up lyrics and so are willing to buy the albums. Most of the songs are already PG, but the kiddie voices in the background make anything sound more cheerful. Although it's still a little creepy to hear kids singing Christina Aguilera's "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)."

The Kidz Bop albums also compile a bunch of popular songs on one handy disc; the success of the all-hit series "Now That's What I Call Music!" is an example of the allure of easy access. And third, this is the demographic that still buys albums because it hasn't figured out how to download music: The kids are too young, the parents too naive or busy.

The youthfulness of the audience is nowhere more apparent than in the front rows. There's . . . kind of a mosh pit. Except the kids are standing stock-still -- no singing, no dancing, no bopping at all. They get animated only when the Kidz Boppers lean down to high-five them; a grinning, 10-year-old Lexi Oser exults after the show that she got to touch everybody's hand.

As incongruous as it is that the beer-stained floors of the 9:30 club are being trodden on by little feet, it's a win-win. The club makes use of its mid-afternoon dead space, the kids have a good time and the parents get to go to the 9:30 for the first time since they gave birth.

Krista Schneider, who used to live in Washington but is visiting this weekend from Toledo, Ohio, brought her 4-year-old son, Isaac. "I just love this club. It reminds me of my life in D.C. so much, and I wanted to bring my son," Schneider says. "I don't even know who Kidz Bop is, but it must be cool or else they wouldn't have it here."

Jordan Roumel, 7, wears a black leather jacket every day, even in July. He and two new friends he made at the concert jam together before the show starts, playing air guitar on their glow sticks. Jordan loves rock-and-roll, and his favorite artist is Michael Jackson (for now . . . last week it was Elvis Presley). But he loves all music, so he's okay with Kidz Bop, even though he's never heard of them before.

The Kidz Bop boys get a chance to show off their vocal stylings on Daughtry's "Home." Antony dedicates the song to a "very special lady" in the crowd. It's adorable. Coleman gets to sing a few lines of the song by himself: "These places and these faces are getting old," he chirps, his bowl-cut blond hair flopping. Coleman is 11.

It's a testament to the audience's musical diversity and tolerance that in one concert, Kidz Bop can cover "Since U Been Gone," "Walking on Sunshine" and a cleaner version of "Party Like a Rockstar." They let Nate, the only African American in the group, do all the rapping.

"Put your hands up! Put your hands up!" Nate chants during "Party Like a Rockstar." No one does, except for a mom in the back row. Her small, plaintive daughter pulls her hand back down immediately. " Mommmm," she chastises. "That's embarrassing."