The most beautiful girl in the world, who just happens to be my gorgeous granddaughter, is approaching her first birthday. She has always enjoyed music, loves being sung to, and 'bops' and moves happily to the music she hears all around her on a daily basis from radio, tv etc. However she was recently sent a CD from the 'Early Learning Centre' as a special offer for her birthday. The CD contained many songs which she listened to quite happily, responding in her usual way. But then on came a version of 'Cockles and Mussels' a song which, to our knowledge, she had never heard before. A few bars in she began to look quite concerned, and by the end of the first verse she was crying uncontrollably, sobbing real tears. We switched the music off and she stopped immediately, becoming her usual sunny-natured self. But whenever she hears it now, her reaction is the same, so we have to skip over it every time. She had exactly the same response to a song by Will Young, 'All Time Love'. We have spoken to other people, but haven't come across this extreme reaction in any other babies. Is there anyone out there who can explain why she gets so upset? And is it common?

That's really interesting.
One of my girls (the younger) is more musically inclined than the other, and reacts a lot more strongly to music in general. There are some songs which will stop her in her tracks and enthrall her, others in which she has no interest whatsoever.
Being so young, maybe yours is reacting purely emotionally to the sounds she's hearing. Different chord changes, for example, create different emotions. Like, minor chords usually are more 'sad sounding' than major chords. Some people are just really sensitive to these kinds of sounds. Similar to how different colors affect peoples' moods in different ways. Perhaps those songs just "sound" upsetting to her?

Just an idea, anyway.

I think this is pretty unusual. I've worked in a daycare for the last nine years, and have never seen this reaction to music, though I have seen it to other sounds. It may be that there is something in the music that scares her - the same way some babies can't stand the vacuum cleaner or a fan going.
It may indeed mean that she is extra - sensitive to music. Maybe you have a budding Mozart on your hands who can't stand hearing 'alive alive oh' - are they singing off key?

My son used to hit me when I sang when he was a baby, he couldn't bear it! Turned out that he has a very good ear for music, perfect pitch etc. My singing just offended him.

Or perhaps she doesn't like the Irish accent?

Funny. I've noticed that some babies seem to be very sensitive to the timbre of other people's voices. My kids tended to absolutely loathe high pitched baby talk from women.
I know that one of them could not stand their teacher's voice and it made for a long tiring year because the woman really did have an annoying high pitch. I think when she sang it must have been hellish for them.

I have a low voice and always sang around the kids, so perhaps they preferred a lower voice.

As to the minor keys, as a musician, I love minor keys and prefer them to major keys. People would probably put me in the happy range of voices, but I really prefer a minor key for some reason.

Try some Celtic music to rule out Jane's theory. My daughter had this one cassette of mine that she loved because she knew I was going to dance with her.

And possibilty...pretty farfetched...if she has happened to heard the song on her favourite Tv programme, she may be looking for her favourite characters?

Thank you all for your comments. I shall pass them on to my daughter who is intrigued by Emma's response to music. We shall continue to expose her to as much music as we can, and will let you know if there are any others which affect her in the same way. Incidentally she loves to 'play' the piano and selects her notes most carefully. I'm hoping she'll be a musical genius...

Maggie maybe it`s possible that the child is reacting to words that she doesn`t understand the meaning of or that she is mistaking some of the words for "bad" (not swearing but just words that she associates with wrongdoing) words. Our daughter Natasha aged 2.5 will come into my computer room and dance happily to most of what I play but some music genres like goth and punk cause her to complain and if I don`t change the music she will simply leave. Perhaps your granddaughter is simply complaining in a manner that suits her at this stage.