GROWING WITH HER AUDIENCE

By CORINNE FLOCKEN

Oct. 31, 1996 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Toss out the Play-Doh. Joanie’s music is maturing.

Or so it seems. In her latest release, “Adventures With Family and Friends,” children’s singer Joanie Bartels gets further away from the baby-and-preschooler sound of her first recordings, opting for a sophisticated pop-rock blend. The bubble-blowing hippos and rockin’ dinosaurs have been replaced by original and cover tunes that salute self-reliance, relationships and maybe--cootie alert!--romance.

Bartels--who will perform at Orange Coast College on Saturday with her four-piece band, the Noisy Boyz--recorded her first tape (“Lullaby Magic”) in 1985 and has seen her audience grow from toddlers to preteens.

“I was watching them basically go from ‘Barney’ to MTV in their listening choices,” she said.

“Nine- and 10-year-olds don’t want to be thought of as babies, but a lot of what they are listening to just isn’t appropriate for them. I think [my new album] gives them hip-sounding music that’s similar to what they’re going to hear on the radio but also has lyrics suitable for their age.”

Bartels, who had taken baby steps toward a hipper sound in the past, has released a couple of videos that wrap some of her more popular tunes in fantasy story formats. She is also working on an independent children’s television project that she hopes to have on the air in 1998.

The messages contained in the “Family and Friends” cassette are fairly consistent: Family is important. Good friends are worth keeping. Life is what you make it.

In “Pen Pals” she salutes long-distance friendships (“It really doesn’t matter who you are or where you live/You can make a friend forever.”). “Daddy Loves to Rock & Roll” celebrates a fun-loving relationship, and “Family Tree” is a tribute to budding environmentalists.

The musical range is more diverse than ever. Originals run from the light, tropical “Lucky Girl” to a synth-infused ode to buddyhood called “Best Friends.” Bartels even gets to soar a little in “There’s Somebody (Watching Over Me),” a gospel-style tribute to mom’s comforting vigilance--an especially poignant song for the singer, whose mother died last fall.

And then there are the covers: Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family,” Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach’s “That’s What Friends Are For” and Michael Bolton’s “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.” Bartels thinks many adult contemporary tunes can speak to a range of ages, even songs with a potentially high mush factor like Bolton’s.

“A lot of these songs may have been skewed to adults when they were written, but their messages can be made vital to kids too. I’m sure ‘Love Is a Wonderful Thing’ was meant to be a guy singing about his girlfriend, but to me, it’s also just the joy of life, the joy of loving yourself or your brother or your sister or your best friend.

“I think the whole message is that no matter who we are or what our age is, relationships are blessings that we need to appreciate and nurture. That’s what really matters.”

* Who: Joanie Bartels and the Noisy Boyz.

* When: 2 p.m. Saturday.

* Where: The Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa.

* Whereabouts: Take the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway to Fairview and drive west. Turn right onto Arlington Drive to enter the theater parking lot.

* Wherewithal: $8-$18.

* Where to call: (714) 432-5880.