Music Archives - Page 16 of 23 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

Media Consumption

Posted on: 01/22/10 4:46 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at our new Youth Culture Window article that will be featured on our front page all this coming week. We just put it up on the site.

As you heard from my last blog, the Kaiser Foundation just released their most recent media consumption report, and WOW!

If you didn’t see the report, David provides us with a great summary. Here’s a snippet:

According to the long awaited and highly anticipated Kaiser Family Foundation’s report entitled Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds, students between 7th and 12th grade spend 7 hours and 38 minutes every day (or 53.4 hours, weekly) taking in various forms of “entertainment media.”

That’s more time than is required to drive from coast to coast. (Google it if you don’t believe me.) …

Every week, kids spend over 53 hours listening to music, surfing the web, watching TV, taking in a movie, thumbing through a magazine, playing video games, enjoying mobile apps on their cell phone…or all of the above…at the same time.

That’s right. Since kids tend to “media multitask” – for example, watching TV while listening to music at the same time – KFF inquired about that tendency, and found that kids actually cram a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes of different media into the span of 7 hours and 38 minutes!

That’s like an all-you-can-eat media buffet!

Click here for the entire article

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8-18 Year-olds Average 7 hrs 38 minutes Daily to Entertainment Media

Posted on: 01/20/10 11:17 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Yes, it’s true, 8-18 year-olds average 7 hrs and 38 minutes per day consuming entertainment media. Do those numbers sound high? They should. Because today’s average daily media consumption in the lives of 8-18 year-olds has increased by over an hour per day since the last study 5 years ago.

7 hours and 38 minutes is the brand new total released just TODAY from the Kaiser Family Foundation that you’ll be seeing quoted in reports everywhere for the next 5+ years. The report is called Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18-Year-Olds.

Five years ago Kaiser released their March 2005 report, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds. Since then, the Journal of Pediatrics, Pew Internet, CNN… EVERYONE… have used those numbers in their own reports about young people and media consumption.

Well… the new numbers are in. And media consumption is way up across the board. (Duh!)

This Sunday David and I will release our article with the summary of these findings in our weekly Youth Culture Window article. For those who want to get a sneak peak at the full Kaiser report, click here. Here’s some of what you’ll find:

Check out that increase in just the last 5 years!

Wow… kids are really reading that print-media, huh! 🙂

That’s just a snippet. You’ll also learn fun tidbits from the full report like the fact that cell phone talking and texting is NOT counted as media use (page 18, paragraph 2). That’s right, on top of the average of 7 hours and 38 minutes that young people spend per day in the above activities, there is also texting and talking on the phone.

11-14 year olds spend an average of 1 hour and 13 minutes per day texting, and 36 minutes per day talking.
15-18 year-olds spend an average of 1 hour and 51 minutes per day texting, and 43 minutes per day talking.

Add those numbers to 7 hours 38 minutes!

I’ve been looking forward to this report for a while now. Last week, Amanda Lenhart from Pew Internet told me that it was coming out today. (Another fascinating conversation… I had emailed her because I saw a report released from an organization I won’t name, a report that said that young people were spending 2.5 to 3.2 hours a day online. I read these reports all the time and that sounded high. A similar Nielsen report showed young people- depending on age- only spent a little over an hour per day. That’s an hour to two hours per day different! After examining both reports, I feared that this “un-named” organization was doing an internet survey. Think about that for a moment. “Let’s use the internet to poll people on the internet how often they are on the internet!” 🙂 Sure enough, my guess was correct. But I also emailed Amanda- I really respect her research– and asked her as a third party what she thought. She basically said, “Let’s see what Kaiser says next week!” Sure enough, this new report released today only reveals an average of 1 hour and 29 minutes of daily internet time.)

Again, we’ll give you the full summary next week on our Youth Culture Window page. But for those who have time, I really encourage you to read Kaiser’s full report. Just glimpse at some of their charts. Fascinating stuff about this young generation and their love for media.

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Miley… Voted Worse Influence

Posted on: 11/5/09 10:25 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay… maybe some of you have already voted off Miley in your own minds. But you’re not alone.

That’s right… her own fans just voted her as the worst celebrity influence of 2009, joining the ranks of Britney Spears and Kanye West.

Last week AOL’s JSYK.com, a website aimed at 9-15 year olds, released the results of their poll where Miley took 42 percent of the votes for worst celebrity influence. Reuters reports:

Miley Cyrus, one of Disney’s hottest stars of the past three years with hit records and hit films, has been voted the worst celebrity influence of 2009 by the very people who made her a star, tweens and teens, according to an online poll on Wednesday.

Cyrus, 16, took 42 percent of votes in the poll for AOL’s JSYK.com (Just So You Know) website aimed at 9-15 year-olds, pushing Britney Spears and rapper Kanye West into second and third places, respectively, in a section on worst celebrity influences of the year.

I’ve actually gone to bat for Miley a few times in my blog. She’s young… and I did some stupid things in my teenage years. But it’s difficult when she keeps returning to her vomit like that Proverbial dog, with antics like those at this year’s Teen Choice Awards. Come on Miley… my kids like you!

But I guess not all kids do… 42%… to be specific.

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Chris and Wayne Moving Up Fast

Posted on: 11/1/09 8:46 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last Tuesday a new song and video was released by Chris Brown and Lil Wayne, a song called I Can Transform Ya.

I blogged about it earlier in the week, predicting that it would move up the charts fast. Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly how accurate my guess would be. Today the video (only 5 days old) is already #5 on iTunes, and rapidly moving to the top 10 in downloaded songs. It’s crazy how fast this song is moving up the charts. When I checked iTunes this morning, the video was #7. It has risen 2 spots in just 10 hours!

This song, where Lil Wayne says that he can “transform a good girl to a freak” (my earlier blog about it gave you a glimpse of the lyrics) is the same ol’ trash that hip hop has been dishing out for years. It’s not “explicit” by the world’s standards (no cuss words), it just objectifies women and refers to sex as casually as any other recreational activity.

Sigh.

I’m just sad that I was correct about its rise on the charts.

Keep your eye on it… it will keep rising.

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Chris Brown + Lil Wayne = Same ol’ Trash

Posted on: 10/27/09 5:00 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Chris Brown is back, and he’s not alone.

I guess Chris’ mom never warned him to be careful who he hangs out with, because after a long period of silence since pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna, Chris has now joined forces with a guy with a little legal trouble of his own- Lil Wayne – for a new song and video called, I Can Transform Ya.

Watch the charts, because this one will move up fast!

Today it is the #26 most downloaded song on iTunes and #16 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart (but watch, it will be moving up the Hot 100 very soon!) Kids are downloading this one like mad, and if parents only block songs deemed explicit, then this song will slip under the radar, because it’s not explicit… it’s not clean either.

Instead of whining about the “rating system” just do a quick Google search for the lyrics. You’ll find this:

hehe, i take you to wherever its warmer,
then i gotta rip off your dress like a warm up,
hehe, but Im just getting warmed up…

cos her form puts me in a trance,
i transform smaller and she puts me in her pants,
Swiss on the Beat, Chris move ya feet
and we can transform a good girl to a freak

Nice Chris! See what happens when you let Wayne in on your material?

If you’re curious what your kids will be seeing, you can check out the video for yourself on MTV.com in this article about the premiere of this video. I don’t see the video on iTunes yet (which, by the way, has quite a few clean videos in the Top 10, including David Crowder’s How He Loves at #7, Owl City’s Fireflies at #9, and Taylor Swift’s Fifteen at #1. Pretty cool. Just don’t look at videos 11-20… all but one are pure trash. Funny how the rankings turned out today.)

(ht to Tom B.)

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Taylor Swift Hype

Posted on: 10/26/09 6:57 PM | by Jonathan McKee

She’s country, but she gets mainstream airplay, she’s clean (wow!)… and four of her concerts just sold out in two minutes!

19-year-old country singer Taylor Swift has only become more popular in recent months, with songs continually in the top 10 of Billboard charts, and winning MTV’s best female video (having that moment swiped by Kanye).

On Friday, tickets to four of her 2010 Fearless tour dates sold out in literally two minutes! According to this article, she was the best selling artist of 2008 and will play 37 shows in the US and Canada and seven down under.

Today, Taylor is all over the charts:

Her album Fearless is #1 on Country Albums, and actually #7 on the Billboard 200 album charts (it peaked at #1)
Her title album (Taylor Swift) is #13 on the Country Albums chart (it peaked at #1)
Her song You Belong With Me is #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at #2)
Love Story is #9 on the Adult Contemporary chart (it peaked at #1)
Fifteen is #11 on the Country Songs chart, #67 on the Hot 100 chart, and #53 on the Radio Songs chart

Keep your eyes on this girl. Our kids are watching her.

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Lil Wayne Pleads Guilty… but Doesn’t Feel Guilty

Posted on: 10/24/09 10:20 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s so hilarious to me, it’s hard for me to even report.

Here it is, in a nutshell: Lil Wayne gets pulled over AGAIN because the police smelled Marijuana emanating from his tour bus (not the first time this has happened). When authorities entered the bus, they saw him throw a Louis Vuitton bag to the floor… a bag that contained a .40 caliber.

My words of advice to Lil Wayne:

1. Don’t carry a gun.

2. If you’re gonna carry a gun, don’t brag that you always carry a gun, like in your foul song, Always Strapped

3. If you’re gonna carry a gun, don’t also brag that you carry a gun AND are “ducking the law,” like in your song, F**k the World, or your song She Feelin’ Me where you say “f**k the police” and then describe that your gal hides weed in her… (Well… I just don’t think I should dive that deep into a woman’s anatomy in this blog- peek at the lyrics for yourself if you’re curious) … but Wayne, you’re just daring a cop to pull you over!

4. If you’re gonna carry a gun, brag about carrying a gun, AND badmouth the police, don’t carry a gun in New York, where in 2006, they passed a bill, that then-Governor George Pataki changed into law, where mere possession of a loaded weapon in New York State is a felony, whether you planned to use the gun or not.

5. If you’re gonna carry a gun, brag about carrying a gun, badmouth the police, AND get pulled over in New York, then don’t whine that you’re treated unfairly and act like such a victim. You got caught. Face it. Do your time like T.I. and shut up about it. After all, this isn’t your first run in with the law:

In August, 2006 you were arrested in Atlanta for possession of a controlled substance. During your stay at the Twelve Hotel, management smelled marijuana and called the police, who found two illegal drugs. (Yeah, you eventually beat those charges.)
Out on bond, you got arrested in Boise in October 2007 for a felony fugitive charge linked to your Atlanta arrest (Yeah, you beat those too.)
In January 2008 your tour bus was stopped in Yuma, AZ where border patrol agents found marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy. (You still have to stand trial for that one next March. Beat that one!)
Those arrests don’t even include your legal suits like the one you settled with The Rolling Stones for sampling their song, and the two suits by concert promoters for taking advances and not performing (you’re obviously a real man of integrity!)

But Wayne… I’ve gotta give you props for being smart enough to plea on this New York gun charge. You’ll probably only do 8-10 months, where if you wouldn’t have plead, you’d have been looking at 3 and a half years if found guilty by trial.

Thus endeth my advice to Lil Wayne.

Perhaps Wayne is finally going to eat his words. He talks pretty big in all his lyrics, in songs like, F**k You, where he said, “Murder ain’t nuttin’ but a misdemeanor.”

Well too bad gun possession is a felony!

Even though Wayne is finally going to be held accountable for his actions, it’s interesting that in this country, it looks like he never will be held accountable for his words. This week’s plea by Lil Wayne is rather timely, only days after the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released their report that “the effect that popular music has on children’s and adolescents’ behavior and emotions is of paramount concern.”

Then I wonder what effect the lyrics of Lil Wayne’s hit song Lollipop had on our kids, a song that adults gave him a Grammy for, the song that rode the number one slot more than almost any other song last year, the song that was the #3 most downloaded song last year.

Hmmmmmmmm.

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Owl City at #1

Posted on: 10/21/09 10:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

“Who the heck is Owl City?”

That’s what I wondered when I saw them in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and at #4 on iTunes early this week. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I opened up iTunes and saw their song “Fireflies” at #1.

Here’s the bizarre part of all of this… Owl City has the reputation of being G-rated. The lyrics are clean, they’ve toured with Relient K… I’m curious if we might have another clean band in the Top 10! Wouldn’t that be cool. (It’s actually pretty sad that I’m getting this excited about something clean making it to the top 10. I guess that reflects on what usually is in the Top 10.)

Apparently Owl City basically consists of Adam Young, a guy who started making music in his parents’ basement. Young’s songs became the buzz on MySpace, reaching play counts in excess of 10 million at the end of 2008. Young/Owl City’s album Ocean Eyes was released on iTunes on July 14, 2009, and debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200. Somewhere along the way, he produced Relient K’s song “Terminals.”

I don’t know much about Young. Some articles refer to him being “upfront about his strong Baptist faith,” and his lyrics never veering “anywhere near objectionable territory.”

Currently the song is #1 on iTunes (that’s HUGE), knocking three biggies down a notch: The Black Eyed Peas song Meet Me Halfway, Miley’s Party in the USA, and Britney’s trashy little number, 3.

Pardon me for cheering outloud real quick.

Anyone know anything about this guy? I wanna know more!

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Miley in ‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ Sequel

Posted on: 10/19/09 4:11 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I’m DONE sharing my two cents about Miley- I’ll just report the facts. Last time I defended her, she showed up the next day at the Teen Choice Awards… uh… well… just click here if you don’t know.

And now, Miley seems to have made another “interesting” decision, the decision to cameo in the sequel to Sex in the City: The Movie (The MPAA gave the first movie an ‘R’ rating “for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language”)

Let me back up. Back in 2008 Miley shared with her fans (dare I remind you- girls aged between 6 and 14) that her favorite TV show is HBO’s Sex and the City and she wished that her own Disney kids show could be more like it. (read her exact words here)

Last month, rumors began surfacing that Miley might show up in a cameo in the Sex and the City: The Movie sequel. Now those rumors are confirmed. Miley is going to be in the film as herself, showing up on the red carpet wearing the same dress as Kim Cattrall’s character in the show, Samantha.

Sigh.

Nice collar!

Okay, okay. No other comments from me about that.

I just think that youth workers and parents need to keep in mind that this young lady is definitely a role model to our kids, specifically our young girls. As I type this, her “Party in the USA” song has made it to #1 yet again on iTunes. Miley’s influence is only growing.

She’s in the limelight. The question is, “What are our kids seeing in that light?”

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Britney’s New Hit about a “Threesome” Jumps to Number One

Posted on: 10/8/09 7:34 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Ooops… she did it again.

Britney has discovered the secret to releasing number one songs- over-the-top sexuality!

On September 29th Britney released a new single called “3” … a song about a ménage a trios. Here’s a glimpse of the lyrics:

Merrier the more
Triple fun that way
Twister on the floor
What do you say?

Are – you in
Livin’ in sin is the new thing (yeah)
Are – you in
I am countin’!

1, 2, 3
Not only you and me
Got one eighty degrees
And I’m caught in between
Countin’
1, 2, 3

You can read all the lyrics here on BritneySpears.com.

The song isn’t even 10 days old and it’s already the number one downloaded song on iTunes. If you’re curious what people think of this song, jump on iTunes and read some of the comments from listeners like, “it’s fun, catchy, and filled with playful lyrics about having a threesome- what more could you want?!”

Billboard reported that the song was part of the “Britney Spears The Singles Collection,” a hit compilation due Nov. 24 on Jive.

Produced by Swedish hitmaker Max Martin (Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson), “3” finds Spears singing about the racy subject of a ménage a trios with her signature coy delivery. “Three is a charm, two is not the same,” Spears coos seductively on the verse. “I don’t see the harm, so are you game?”

Hmmmmm. “I don’t see the harm, so are you game?” (This is the mindset I was just talking about out of Spears and other celebs in my Gaga article– point #3, ironically, at the bottom of the article)

I almost wonder if this song will slip under the radar again like so many pop songs do, with little tweens singing “1, 2, 3…” and their parents won’t have a clue what they’re singing (Just like If You Seek Amy and the Superman dance). Teenagers, on the other hand, definitely know what she’s singing about. They just don’t admit that the lyrics DO affect them.

(shout out to Haley with Campus Life for the heads up!)

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