Kids Pop

Kids' pop? Who are we kidding? This awesome selection of killer tunes, representing a huge chunk of teen download traffic during the '00s, should perhaps be renamed classic pop — because it just doesn't get much better than this. Star power, vocal charisma, idol appeal . . . all of these artists have those qualities in huge Disney-sized doses, and we begin with the decade's biggest names — Hannah Montana invites us to share her rocket ride with "Let's Do This" and the Jonas Bothers crank up their amps on "BB Good."

America voted . . . and gave us some of the stars you'll find in Next Steps.

Mr. Cowell, and friends, we salute you. Nobody can deny the seismic impact delivered to the world of kids' pop by American Idol, and here we've amassed a shimmering cluster of aftershocks, in the shape of Carrie Underwood, singing for every "All-American Girl" out there, Season Six winner Jordin Sparks, tripping through the uplifting confection "One Step At a Time," and the final two from Season Seven — David Archuleta (the free-wheelin' "Crush") and winner David Cook (telling it how it is on "The Time of My Life").

There's plenty from the High School Musical pop machine, in Deep Cuts.

Good ol' Walt Disney: first he gave us Mickey, Donald, and Pluto; then, thanks to the empire he built, he sent us a new generation of '00s pop stars. The glitter-dusted list of East High alumni includes Ashley Tisdale, who gets frisky on "He Said She Said" and shows her pop-rockin' smarts on "Kiss the Girl," and Vanessa Hudgens, a.k.a. Gabriella Montez, groovin' up a storm with the lead single from her 2006 debut album, V. Keke Palmer, on the other hand, skipped TV school and went straight to Barbershop 2: Back in Business before launching her singing career: check out "How Will I Know."

There was a time when the term "kids' pop" would bring to mind "Puff the Magic Dragon" or the theme from The Banana Splits. But that was then . . . and this is now, the 21st century, where kids demand nothing less than hot, polished, world-beating mega-tunes that, more often than not, are sung by superstar teen peers (Miley, the J bros, etc.). Many of these artists got their start in TV drama, and made the transition to the recording studio as easily as a (little) mermaid takes to water; some of them went the talent show route (and we're thinking about one talent show in particular, hosted by a certain Mr. Seacrest); and others found themselves caught up in the unstoppable momentum of a blockbuster movie — Paramore's "Decode" features on the Twilight soundtrack. Any way you cut it, Kids' Pop never sounded so good.