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Imma Be

Posted on: 02/22/10 3:36 PM | by Jonathan McKee

The video released last week, the song is at the top of the charts, and the words to the song… well… I’ll get to that in a minute.

Imma Be is the title of… no, not the new, just the recently popular, kinda-new… Black Eyed Peas song. As I write this, Imma Be is the #1 downloaded song on iTunes (yes, bigger than the new We are the World) and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

If you’re a youth worker or a parent and you’re not familiar with the band Black Eyed Peas, you might want to spend a few minutes getting to know them, because our teens and tweens know their songs, are familiar with the videos and don’t hesitate to spend money downloading either. The Black Eyed Peas are a constant on the music charts. Or as teenagers today would put it, “These guys own!”

Allow me to be more specific. In 2009 the pop group Black Eyed Peas owned the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from April 12th to October 10th. Their song Boom Boom Pow owned it for three months, and then their song I’ve Gotta Feeling stepped up and began its reign for about three months. Combined, these 2 songs owned the #1 spot merely 2 days short of 6 straight months. Only 13 songs made it to the top of the charts in 2009, and of those, Black Eyed Peas’ two songs dominated half the year, leaving only 6 months for the other 11 songs. As to not repeat ourselves, I encourage you to take a look at David’s amazing summary of the top songs of 2009 on our Youth Culture Window page at the end of last year. That article will give you a deeper look at the Black Eyed Peas two #1 songs and their reign in 2009.

Now, from the same album (The E.N.D.), their song Imma Be is taking its turn riding the top of the charts.

The question that many might have is, “What is the content of this music?” Good question, a question youth workers and parents should be asking.

Black Eyed Peas have never shyed away from being risqué with front-person Fergie always showing off, and I quote, her “lovely lady lumps.” They have explicit versions, and “clean” versions of many of their songs. But I encourage you to take a deeper look at that definition of “clean.” I think you’ll find these “clean” versions about as clean as a PG-13 movie. Black Eyed Peas are great at placing plenty of sexual imagery in their “clean” material. Those of you who are new to my blog, you might want to check out my blog titled, “Look Mom, No Cuss Words! It Must Be Clean!” … where I unveiled a little bit about what you’ll see if you watch some of this group’s videos. (A little while later I blogged about some home-made videos that began emerging from this popular song.)

So what can we expect from their song Imma Be?

A quick Google search for the lyrics will tell you most of what you need to know. Here’s an excerpt… edited by me:

Rich baby, quick, quick, Imma, Imma, Imma be
The sh*t baby, check me out, be
Imma be, Imma be on top, never stop
Be, be, Imma, Imma be, Imma be, be, be

Imma, Imma be, Imma be f*ckin’ her
Imma, Imma, Imma be, Imma be, be, be, Imma be…

Do you get the idea?

But maybe the radio versions and videos edit out those cuss words… right? Yes, but this song is currently the #1 downloaded song on iTunes. What version do you think your kids are downloading?

I find that many teenagers will argue, “I don’t listen to the words.” Are they right? Do you think teens and tweens know the words to this song? Check out these three girls on the video they posted on YouTube. They know the words… and they obviously know when they’re saying something risqué. (The little girl with the glasses gives it away every time with a giggle.)

What about the official video? Black Eyed Peas debuted it last Wednesday. You’ll notice that it omits many of the cuss words, but doesn’t leave out lines like this:

Imma be a brother, but my name ain’t Lehman
Imma be ya bank, I be loaning out semen…

Gotta love censorship. “No cusswords! It must be clean!”

Keep your eyes on this band. Our kids have their eyes and ears glued to them.

Posted in Jonathan's Rant, Music, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Abstinence-only Programs Might Work?

Posted on: 02/12/10 4:11 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Let’s be honest… the words abstinence-only aren’t very popular right now to the majority. Many people (today’s U.S. voters, for example) would dismiss anything that even bears that title. Too bad… because in the last month, I’ve read several articles about a new study where an abstinence-only program proved effective in its efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

The debate is on, with heated responses from both sides. I’ve chimed in on the subject in my blog before with interesting bantar to immediately follow in the comments.

But it’s hard to deny facts. Look at these results as reported by the Washington Post last week:

Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years, researchers found. Nearly half of the students who attended other classes, including ones that combined information about abstinence and contraception, became sexually active.

The article provides detailed results a little further down:

Over the next two years, about 33 percent of the students who went through the abstinence program started having sex, compared with about 52 percent who were taught only safe sex. About 42 percent of the students who went through the comprehensive program started having sex, and about 47 percent of those who learned about other ways to be healthy did.

The abstinence program had no negative effects on condom use, which has been a major criticism of the abstinence approach.

Pretty cool. I’d be curious to see more of these kinds of studies.

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Parental Boundaries Work

Posted on: 02/11/10 9:25 AM | by Jonathan McKee

For the last few weeks you’ve been hearing me chime in quite a bit about the new Kaiser Family Foundation media consumption report (kids now average 7 hrs and 38 minutes a day consuming entertainment media). For the last two weeks we’ve seen articles on the subject popping up like prairie dogs. Earlier this week, USA TODAY’s Health & Behavior section featured one that I think is worth peeking at.

The article’s title says is well: Teens do better with parents who set limits. (Rather apropos, considering this week’s Youth Culture Window article on our web page, “Dad, Can I Download This Song?”) The USA TODAY article contends that parents who keep setting boundaries make a huge difference.

Some of the highlights:

…And it doesn’t stop with screen time. Other recent studies have found:

•Teens who had a bedtime of 10 p.m. or earlier, set by parents, got more sleep and were less likely to be depressed or consider suicide than those allowed to stay up past midnight. (The study was published in Sleep in January.)

•Teen drivers whose parents set and enforced rules were more likely to wear seat belts and less likely to speed, get in crashes, drink and drive, or use cellphones while driving. (That study was in Pediatrics in September.)

Teens whose parents set rules also smoke less, delay sex and do better in school, research shows.

“The reality is that teenagers care deeply what their parents think,” says Kenneth Ginsburg, author of the driving study and a specialist in adolescent medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The challenge for parents is to get across rules and boundaries in a way that doesn’t feel controlling.”

In the driving study, as in many other studies, the most effective parents were those researchers call “authoritative.” They set firm rules but explain and enforce them in a warm, supportive way. Parents who set no rules, fail to enforce them or rule with a “because I said so” iron grip are less effective.

Click here for the entire article.

(ht to Ypulse.com)

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More of the Same from the Grammys

Posted on: 02/1/10 9:00 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I don’t think I can say it any better than I did last year the day after the Grammys when I said, “Why are adults surprised that kids listen to raunchy music? Kids are only following their example.”

Last night, the Grammys once again gave us a true glimpse of who and what adults value in this world. And I couldn’t help but chuckle when I found out Beyonce received 10 nominations, winning six awards. This week it’s going to be difficult for Beyonce-fan moms to tell their own little girls, “You can’t go out dressed like that!” After all… Beyonce does it.

And how are moms going to impose boundaries on their teenagers cell phones, when they’ve got Beyonce’s hit song “Video Phone” (currently the 17th most popular video download on iTunes) blaring on the radio, spewing these lyrics:

What? You want me naked?
If you likin’ this position
You can tape it
On ya video phone

David pulled back the covers a few weeks ago here with his expose’ on Beyonce in our Youth Culture Window section of our web site.

Beyonce isn’t alone in her smut peddling. The top songs on the charts paint a pretty bleak picture right now. David’s current Youth Culture Window article about our kids’ daily increase in music saturation not only reveals an eye opening glimpse of some of the songs in the Top 10 right now, but also shares an interesting study about how much lyrics really affect kids. Fascinating stuff!

But I guess America would rather forget all the facts… and just keep awarding these “artists.”

Here’s a few of the awards given last night:

Album of the year
Taylor Swift, Fearless

Female pop performance
Beyoncé, Halo

Rap/sung collaboration
Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West, Run This Town

Rock album
Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown

Record of the year
Kings of Leon, Use Somebody

Country album
Taylor Swift, Fearless

Song of the year
Beyoncé, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

Pop vocal album
The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.

Male pop vocal performance
Jason Mraz, Make It Mine

R&B song
Beyoncé, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

Rap album
Eminem, Relapse

Rap song
Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West, Run This Town

Dance recording
Lady Gaga, Poker Face L

Electronic dance album
Lady Gaga, The Fame

Click here for USA TODAY’s complete list of the winners.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Music, News, Sexuality, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Under-aged Texting

Posted on: 01/28/10 11:05 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Did you know that the average American teenager exchanges 3,146 text messages per month?

I get emails from Nielsen about their newest studies and research. This week they sent and interesting little tidbit from their 2009 research about texting. Nielsen is no joke. They analyze more than 40,000 mobile bills every month gathering data. Here’s a chart comparing the growth of texting over the past few years between kids under 12 (the blue line) and those age 13-17 (the red line).

In Nielsen’s 1/27/10 update, Roger Entner writes this:

The anecdotes documenting the love affair between teenagers and texting are countless. Many parents can attest that their offspring text rather than talk, even when they sit next to each other in the back of the car. Their children text in the morning before they brush their teeth and continue late into the night with the last text messages, also called SMS, sneaked in under the covers right before they close their eyes to sleep. Until now, there has been very little firm data available about how pervasive texting has actually become among the under-aged.

He goes on to break down the 3,146 messages per month that kids are using.

that’s more than 10 messages every hour of the month that they are not sleeping or in school
even the under 12 segment are sending 1,146 messages per month which is four text messages per waking hour that they are not in school

Read the whole report here.

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Virginity Sells… Sex Sells

Posted on: 01/26/10 6:15 PM | by Jonathan McKee

On January 17th VH1 News presented a piece called “The New Virginity.” (You can catch some very amateur-captured glimpses of it all over YouTube) VH1’s website brags that the show “explores the roots of our current obsession with chastity–the stars who’ve made their virginity a major part of their public persona.”

You know- the Jonas Bros, Selena, Demi… VH1 seems to hint that their “purity pledges” will be short lived. They argue that stars want to keep their audience as they get older. The pattern that we see so far from artists like Britney is to be innocent, then slowly become more and more provocative.

This article about the VH1 show says it like this: “virginity may sell when you’re a teen, but sex sells when you’re an adult.”

The article goes on to present some polarized views:

Sexuality, not virginity, VH1 said, is the key to success for these soon-to-be adult stars like Cyrus and Gomez.

If purity rings and pledges aren’t practical for long-term Hollywood success, VH1 wasn’t any more positive about their value to even normal teens. If abstinence isn’t going to sell records or land you a TV show, don’t bother taking purity pledges, since they create “unrealistic expectations.”

“There’s now an iPhone application,” said Jessica Valenti, author of “The Purity Myth,” “that’s a purity ring that you can have on your phone to show that you’re a virgin. I guess it’s actually kind of useful because once you lose your virginity – like most kids who take virginity pledges do – you can just trash it.”

Since teenagers can’t control themselves, Valenti said that “sexual education,” not abstinence, should be the focal point.

“Thirty-three percent of kids that take the pledge are more likely to initiate sex,” she said, “yet very few of them know anything about protection, so they’re less likely to actually use a condom and more likely to get an STD or get pregnant.”

That’s one way to read the statistics. Another way would be to note that the 33 percent is 8.8 percent less than the 42.4 percent of non-pledgers who initiate. And that pledgers are no less likely to use a condom when they do have sex.

VH1’s description of the show contends:

“In a world where tweens grow up too fast, a public declaration of chastity until marriage is a statement against the fast and furious life that many young stars succumb to, particularly those in the entertainment industry. But, as the show will point out, virginity doesn’t stop celebs from looking and acting provocatively–playing both sides with impressive marketing results. The stars aren’t the only ones caught up in virgin-mania. At Purity Balls across America, dads and daughters are living an abstinence fairy tale.”

Ouch!!!

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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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Who Teenagers Call, Trust, Talk With…

Posted on: 01/11/10 1:02 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Who would your kids call first if they were in trouble? Mom? Dad? Friends? Boy/Girlfriend?

Good question. I’m sure Mom and Dad would be curious of that answer. What about these questions?

Who do they trust the most?

Who understands them best?

Who can they talk most openly with?

These are just some of the questions asked in a recent study by Harris Interactive. Check out the top two answers to each question, by age, recorded on this chart:

Mom and Dad scored pretty high on the first question, and stayed on the chart with most the questions to 8-12 year-ods. But Dad dropped off the radar with teenagers on question number two, “Who do you trust the most?” Sad. Actually, Dad drops off the list for every other question to teenagers, where Mom maintains her status as number two in many instances.

Interesting stuff. And a sobering glimpse for dads.

Harris Interactive has a little youth culture newsletter that goes out every few months titled “Trends & Tudes.” It’s usually got some pretty good studies about today’s teenaged attitudes and trends.

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I guess we’re “missing the mark”

Posted on: 01/4/10 11:13 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I get all kinds of emails and feedback from people about the free resources and articles we provide. Here’s an interesting one to ponder. I can’t say I like this person’s first sentence: “The youth culture window that you guys offer is missing the mark.”

He’s talking about our Youth Culture Window (YCW) articles, featured in the big magnifying glass on the front page of our web site each week.

Let me be the first to verbalize, “Don’t worry David (David writes over 80% of our YCW articles), I think you’re right on the mark! Critics are a dime a dozen. I appreciate your work!”

Here’s this guy’s entire email to us:

The youth culture window that you guys offer is missing the mark. Lets be honest, the majority of the posts deal with sex. This is what our culture as a church thinks is crucial to fight. Violence is also out there. Then comes what about the good stuff going on in culture? It is sad that all you can find in culture is things to complain about. Ultimately, what you are addressing is the symptoms of the larger issues within culture. Please, PLEASE, read Niebuhr’s “Christ & Culture” and see if you can incorporate something more than the “Christ against Culture” attitude.

It’s interesting that he observed that most of our posts have to do with sex. I agree. We simply report what’s going on in today’s youth culture and the media, and that’s pretty sex driven. I wish it wasn’t.

I also find it intriguing that he mentioned how much of this was “bad news.” David and I talk about this frequently as we research current attitudes and trends. We constantly are asking, “Isn’t there something mainstream that’s good that we can report about” And that’s the key– we want to try to focus on attitudes and trends that are predominant across the board, not the exception.

Considering his criticism, I looked at the list of our last few articles released and the subjects they covered.:

The New Form of Phone Sex (1/2/2010)
Beyoncé’s Newest Song “Video Phone”
This article is about Beyonce’s newest song and video which are filled with sexual imagery.

The #1 Hits of 2009 (12/11/2009)
A Review of 2009’s Top Songs and Their Message
This article reviews all the top songs of 2009, whatever their message.

Culture’s Confusion Over Sex (12/4/2009)
And The Impact It’s Making On Teens
Yes, this article is about sex, specifically new research about the confusing messages our students are being inundated with.

Fireflies from Owl City (11/28/2009)
Is That a Christian at the Top of the Charts?
This article is about a new song and artist that is not only popular… he’s clean!

Twilight Goes ‘Emo’ (11/12/2009)
Bella’s Self Destructive Dependence on Edward
This article is about on of the biggest media youth culture phenomenons of the year, the newest film from the Twilight series. The article focuses most of its attention on self destructive behavior.

Do Threesomes Come in Threes? (11/4/2009)
Youth Media Ups the Ante with Sexy Trios
This article focuses on the abundance of recent threesomes in the media, as well as the onslaught of “bi-curious” attitudes and activity portrayed.

“I’m Trying to Talk to You!” (10/30/2009)
Getting the Attention of Teenagers
This article discusses the different communication technologies used for contacting students and their effectiveness.

So… are our YCW articles a misrepresentation?

Thoughts?

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