Entertainment Media Archives - Page 43 of 50 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

The Chart-topping Message of “So What”

Posted on: 10/1/08 12:03 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Pink is back on the top of the charts… and boy is she pissed!

Her angry new song, “So What” is heard everywhere- radio, internet, iPods and ringtones. Her video is being downloaded by the millions. Kids know the song. Many have seen the video. The question is, “What message are kids getting?” and “How can we talk to them about this message?”

You’re in luck. On Monday I just penned a discussion that youth workers and parents can use with their kids about this trendy new song.

Pink, the #7 most popular artist on MTV’s coveted list, has been around for a while. In 2000, Pink’s name became known when she jumped into the Top Five of the charts with her hit song, “Get the Party Started.” She’s bounced around the charts since, but only recently rose to #1 with this heated new song, “So What” that she performed live at the recent MTV Video Music Awards. Now “So What,” a song expressing Pink’s reaction to hurt, has been riding #1 for a while. Today, it’s #2 in the Billboard Hot 100, #2 iTunes song, #3 iTunes video, and #3 iTunes Top Ringtone.

The video shows Pink’s reaction to pain. She responds with denial (“I’m alright!”) and violence. (“I wanna start a fight!”) it’s a message you just have to see for yourself.

Here’s her video, including Pink’s live introduction on MTV2.

So how should our kids react when bad things happen? Should they take Pink’s advice and get drunk, vandalize, and get into fights?

That’s what we discussion in this new MUSIC DISCUSSION on our web page.

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Sex… MTV Style

Posted on: 09/29/08 4:20 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Tonight MTV launches their brand new show Sex… With Mom and Dad.

What a title.

I’ve got two words about this show: Dr. Drew.

Dr. Drew is the doctor giving advice on the popular radio show Loveline. If you’ve worked with kids for a while, then you’ve probably heard a mention of this racy show. In my city, it aires at 10:00 p.m. on one of the most popular radio channels. It’s truly X-rated. Kids and young adults call up for sexual advice. It’s hard to listen to. If you are a parent or youth worker, I encourage you to listen to it once. You won’t believe your ears.

This is the kind of advice kids are getting when it comes to their sexual decision making.

Now, we can probably expect the same kind of discretion with the new MTV show. This week David’s Youth Culture Window article tells you all you need to know about it. Take a look at that if you haven’t already.

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Almost All American Teens Play Video Games

Posted on: 09/17/08 9:48 AM | by Jonathan McKee

“Almost all” … that’s a pretty big number.

Pew internet & American Life Project just conducted a survey finding that 97% of teenagers ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games.

Some of the findings:

50% of teens played games yesterday.

86% of teens play on a console like the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii.

73% play games on a desktop or a laptop computer.

60% use a portable gaming device like a Sony PlayStation Portable, a Nintendo DS, or a Game Boy.

48% use a cell phone or handheld organizer to play games.

I always find it interesting to see what games kids are playing.

The ten most popular games among American teens:
1. Guitar Hero
2.Halo 3
3.Madden NFL
4.Solitaire
5.Dance Dance Revolution
6.Madden NFL 08
7.Tetris
8.Grand Theft Auto
9.Halo
10.The Sims

What about game ratings?

32% of gaming teens report that at least one of their three favorite games is rated Mature or Adults Only.

79% of M- and AO-rated game players are boys, and 21% are girls.

A USA TODAY article touched on game ratings as well, summarizing some of the key findings of the report:

Young people are routinely able to get their hands on games that are rated “M” (for mature) or “AO” (adults only). Three-quarters of parents who were surveyed said they “always” or “sometimes” check the ratings on their kids’ games. And yet, half of boys who were questioned listed a game with an “M” or “AO” rating as one of their favorites, compared with 14% of girls.

You can view the entire Pew report here. It starts with a “summary” section that only take a few minutes to read- fascinatiing stuff.

(shout out to YPulse once again for highlighting this report)

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If parents said, “you can’t watch this…”

Posted on: 09/15/08 5:29 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Time Magazine just came out with an amazing article called “The Truth About Teen Girls.” My favorite part of the article- a quote from an MTV producer who tells it like it is. Wow!

I’ll give you the whole paragraph, emphasis mine:

Middle school counselor Julia Taylor of North Carolina had a conversation with her sixth-graders last year that worried her. “A lot of them were watching The O.C.,” she says. “I just remember the show’s multiple sexual partners, the cocaine use, and then at the end, they drink, they drive, they set fires, but all is well! There are never any consequences.” Taylor understands the media better than many. Her sister Mary is a producer who has worked on MTV shows including My Super Sweet 16 and Spring Break. “I’m messing them up, and she’s fixing them,” says Mary jokingly. But Mary also suggests that if nobody were watching the shows or buying the products that are advertised on them, they wouldn’t succeed. “We’re not Little House on the Prairie anymore,” she says. “The world is different. If parents said, ‘You can’t watch this,’ and the ratings dropped, maybe we would change things.”

The entire article is good. Here’s another snippet:

…teenage sexuality is growing only more heated. Girlhood sexiness seems to be everywhere: on TV shows and in movies, in advertising, in teen magazines and all over the Internet. Most disturbingly, it seems to be coming from the girls themselves: the way they dress, the way they text, the way they present themselves on Facebook and, oh, mercy, what they get up to at parties. There are whispers, stories for which the anecdotal evidence–from school counselors and child psychologists and mothers–keeps accumulating like a national pile of unwashed laundry. These suggest teen girls are getting very liberal with sexual favors, especially of the type detailed in the Starr report. In one generation, girls seem to have moved from Easy-Bake to easy virtue.

Click here for the whole article. (thanks to David and Ypulse for bringing the article to my attention)

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Post VMA Regrets?

Posted on: 09/11/08 9:08 AM | by Jonathan McKee

There’s a lot of hype this week following the “purity bashing” and “slut bashing” that went on at the MTV Video Music Awards this past Sunday night.

If you missed the craziness, David and I summed it all up in our Post VMA Thoughts article Monday.

Basically, the host of the show, British comic Russell Brand, bashed purity all night, using the Jonas Bros as the main target of his jests. Then Jordin Sparks snapped back with a few thoughts of her own, defending purity pledges and ending with, “Not every guy and girl wants to be a slut.”

Now we’ve seen a myriad of articles and blogs chiming in on the aftermath. OMG! Yahoo reports:

The Jonas Brothers have no beef with Russell Brand after he mocked their virginity on Sunday’s 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

“For us it’s cool to see that he recognizes we are gentlemen,” Nick Jonas told BBC’s Radio 1.

Sparks says that she wishes she would have worded things differently, but doesn’t regret that she said something. Hollywood Insider gives the scoop:

Attending the show for the first time, the American Idol winner went off-script after being agitated by host Russell Brand’s repeated mocking of the Jonas Brothers’ promise rings. “It’s something I feel strongly about,” she tells EW.com. “I wish I would’ve worded it differently — that somebody who doesn’t wear a promise ring isn’t necessarily a slut — but I can’t take it back now. It was a split-second thing, and it came out kind of wrong. Still, I don’t regret it.”

I don’t regret that she said it either. Her comments can’t be torn out of context. She stood up after 90 minutes of crude jokes, sexual references and racy songs… her comments were the lone voice siding with purity (because no one else spoke up). Her message had to be that polarized to even break through the smoke. It didn’t insinuate that people who aren’t virgins are sluts at all. It communicated that those who were making it light that night probably were sluts.

It was a risky move for Sparks. It wasn’t a popular opinion to verbalize. It was the highlight of the show.

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MTV VMA’s Poke at Purity All Night

Posted on: 09/8/08 8:10 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last week we prepped you for the MTV Video Music Awards show that aired last night, one of the most reflective and predictive youth culture barometers of the year. This year, British comic Russell Brand was the host… and I guess he was intimidated by the purity pledge of the Jonas Bros.

The Jonas Bros are not only the hottest thing to arrive to the tween world since Miley, they actually have a pretty clean slate. Last night Brand ridiculed the Jonas Brothers’ public stance on sexual purity. All three of these pastor’s kids wear a promise ring and have vowed to remain celibate until marriage.

In his opening remarks, the British funnyman pointed out to the audience,

“In case you are unaware, each of the Jonas Brothers does wear a tiny ring as a mark of their commitment to God. I’d take it a little bit more seriously if they wore it on their genitals. And also, it is a little bit ungrateful, cause they could literally have sex with any woman that they want…they’re just not gonna do it. That’s like Superman just deciding not to fly and to go everywhere on a bus. Bless em, though, them lads.”

The jesting went on throughout the evening, until American Idol icon Jordin Sparks hit the stage and had a chance to retort. All these details and more in this week’s Youth Culture Window article on our website.

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Britney Opening the VMAs

Posted on: 09/5/08 1:52 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I’ve been blogging about the VMAs all week. (you can catch most the hype here, and here). David’s Youth Culture Window article is preparing us with what to expect. And now we know something new… Britney will be opening the VMAs.

No, she won’t be performing. Who knows what MTV has up their sleeves. But Britney will be kicking off the show.

ET says…

The pop princess herself told us Wednesday afternoon, “How can I not be there to kick off their 25th VMAs? I’m excited to open the entire show, to say ‘Hi’ to my fans and to be nominated,” also noting, “MTV has long played an important role in my career.” (ET online, 9/3/08)

Hmmmmm.

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Predicting the Content of This Year’s VMAs

Posted on: 09/3/08 1:07 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Last year’s MTV VMAs (Video Music Awards) were one of the most sexually charged award shows I’ve seen (I talked about it here). This year, it will be interesting to see if they continue down that route. We’ll find out this Sunday night.

Why do I wonder if it will be different? Several reasons:

1. The emergence of Miley and the Jonas Bros.

The fact is… two of the most popular artists of today are pretty dang clean. Miley has had her scandals, but overall I think she brings a positive element to music. She is up for the best new artist category for her “7 Minutes” video.

The Jonas Bros are not only from a Christian family (more about them in our Youth Culture Window article here), but their music and videos have maintained a pretty clean slate. Their “Burnin Up” video is actually up for the coveted “Video of the Year” spot.

2. The recent Teen Choice Awards were as clean as I’ve seen them.

Every year we review three shows that we feel are the biggest youth culture barometers: The MTV Movie Awards, The Teen Choice Awards, and the MTV VMAs. And every year all three are depressing. But this year’s Teen Choice Awards was actually clean. It still featured shows kids shouldn’t watch and awarded celebs who are not positive role models… but the “show” was actually clean (my Youth Culture Window article on that show here). That’s the first time in a while. So it will be interesting to see where this year’s VMA’s fall.

But I’m probably pre-mature if I predict a clean show this year. After all, just a couple months ago we saw MTV’s Movie Awards and they were far from clean (you can read our Youth Culture Window article on that show here).

So what do you think? Do you think this year will go dirty as usual? Or might they clean up a bit? David provides the list of nominees and gives us his two cents in this week’s Youth Culture Window article.

One interesting note is the five finalists for video of the year. Of the top five videos, only two of them are really sexually charged. Here’s the list:

Chris Brown
“Forever”

Jonas Brothers
“Burnin Up”

Pussycat Dolls
“When I Grow Up”

Britney Spears
“Piece of Me”

The Ting Tings
“Shut Up and Let Me Go”

Can you guess which two are?

Now… one of the remaining three isn’t great. Typical R&B. Lyrics like “ecstasy, pleasure, all night” scattered throughout the song. A pretty clean video, not much more than dancing, kissing, embracing…

But then two of them are pretty fun.

You can take a peek for yourself here on MTV’s page.

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Youth Culture Barometer

Posted on: 08/30/08 2:37 PM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s that time of year again… the time where we gain a little insight into the collection of media that kids are putting into their heads. A few weeks ago we saw this via the Teen Choice Awards and I offered my two cents. This coming week we see the biggest youth culture barometer of them all… the MTV MVAs.

David wrote the pre-VMA piece for this week’s YOUTH CULTURE WINDOW article, a great summary of what to expect. Next week I’ll write the afterthoughts.

This week I’m checking out this page– the MTV.com VMA page that allows you to peek at all the nominees for the different awards, including Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Male Video, Best New Artist, etc.

Keep your eyes on this blog. I’ll be writing about a lot of these this week.

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Rock Me Sexy Jesus

Posted on: 08/24/08 9:43 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I’m warning you… you will be offended with this one.

David wrote all about this brand new movie in our current Youth Culture Window article. The movie is called Hamlet 2 (in theatres now), and this “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” scene is in the climactic presentation of the play at the end of the movie.

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