Let's be honest, modern kids aged 1.5 to 5 years (which is the official age range for this toy) won't understand what this contraption is all about. And even though our kids are incredibly smart and capable (for instance, our 2.8-year-old son quickly learned to insert CDs into the laptop), I suggest not burdening their minds with the fact that people used to listen to music from tape players, boomboxes, and gigantic record players in the past! :)
The three buttons are as follows: a red "🔽" button opens the CD compartment, and the blue "🔄" button starts the imaginary silver CD spinning.
It actually plays 12 melodies. To switch between them, you need to press the yellow button with the "🎵" symbol (while making sure the small green switch to the left of the "frequency" display is in the lower position - phew, a bit complicated, agree?!)