Headscratchers / Kidz Bop

• Aside from Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, have any other artists ever reacted to Kidz Bop covering their songs? It'd be hard to imagine there'd be many musicians unaware (hehe, “underwear”) given the popularity of the franchise.
• Why did Pete Wentz prevent "Dance, Dance" from being included on Kidz Bop 10 anyway if there's nothing objectively inappropriate about it aside from the "I only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me" and "Why don't you show me a little bit of spine you've been saving for his mattress?" lyrics?
  • As it's been pointed out, just censoring the lyrics doesn't change that the songs are about. Even if you censor those lines, it's a pretty sexual song.
• Why is Kidz Bop starting to cover rap a lot more often if pop is their primary genre? They do have a history of covering rap songs if they have a poppy chorus, but recently they've gone beyond pop-rap territory and taken stabs at pure hip-hop, like "Mood", "God's Plan", and anything by Cardi B and Post Malone.
  • Probably just because of rap becoming a lot more mainstream. If they kept avoiding them entirely, it would look weird and they might even get accused of racism.
• Why didn't "Hit the Quan" make it onto 31 if "Watch Me" and "JuJu on That Beat", similar novelty rap songs, made it onto 30 and 36 respectively?
• Why wasn't "Can't Feel My Face" on 30? Yes, it's about cocaine addiction, but Kidz Bop has reinterpreted several songs whose meanings are explicitly confirmed by their performers ("Cake by the Ocean" anyone?). Plus, it was nominated for a Kids' Choice Award and covered by Canadian imitator Mini Pop Kids. But most importantly it doesn't contain any explicit mentions of drugs in the lyrics, the worst things being references to death and being numb. Even the title can be reinterpreted as nothing beyond a Silly Love Song.
  • But why put in that much effort to sanitize a song about drugs? There was a lot of backlash to "Cake by the Ocean."
• What's the point of covering a song if it's entirely clean? The whole point of Kidz Bop is to alter any objectionable lyrics to make the songs kid-friendlier, so why cover a song if no edits are to be made?
  • Their slogan isn't "kid-friendly versions of songs." It's "by kids, for kids." The point is to get a version sung by kids, which will supposedly excite kids.
• Why did Kidz Bop never cover "Bad Guy" for 40?
  • "Bad Guy" is so inappropriate for kids. It's just a fully embraced Villain Song bragging about being evil, and contains the line "might seduce your dad type." It's absolutely not a kids song.
• Why was "We Are Young" not on 22?
  • About half of it is about drugs, that's why.
    • HOWEVER, it was released as a digital exclusive single around that time, so they probably just couldn't fit it on an album.
• Why did Kidz Bop stop releasing two-disc deluxe versions of their albums after 5?
  • They probably just saw it as easier and more cost effective to limit the number of songs on each album.
• Why wasn't Drake's "Hold On, We're Goin' Home" on 25? It's cleaner than most of his other songs.
  • Being "cleaner than most of his other songs" doesn't necessarily make it clean, or remove any subtext.