Ke$ha ('s 'Die Young' Radio Airplay Drop-Off Steadying After Initial Plunge)

Ke$ha's 'Die Young' Radio Airplay Drop-Off Steadying After Initial Plunge

This applies to Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks" as well. A terrible tragedy that will end up imposing a gun ban. Now this propaganda.... it's truly sad seeing America crumbling before my eyes. Obama "supposedly" cried for these innocent people who died in such a tragic way. Why doesn't Obama cry for the thousands of children he's killing in Lybia and Syria with unmanned preditor drones? Are they not as important as us? Plus, he does bypasses congress to fire the first strike .... that makes him a war criminal! Now he's imposing a gun ban and trashing our amendments. The whole situation is heartbreaking. I say we ban the big pharma drugs! It's a proven fact that ALL of these killers were on prozac, zyban, you name it. It says on the inserts these drugs can cause psychotic behavior and tendancies! Still, as our country continues to implode, we talk about banning music. Why not ban "I Shot The Sheriff" or "Only The Good Die Young"? This whole propaganda is only to to take our minds off of the true issues at hand. Peace~

Adult pop station WDAQ Danbury, Conn., located about 10 miles from Newtown, stopped playing the track after Friday's tragedy, with the station's program director, Rich Minor, telling Billboard (Dec. 18), "We've been playing it before Friday but not since and I think we're now done with it. Even though it's a fun pop/dance record about seizing the moment, all people are going to hear right now [are] those two words in the title."

Airplay for the song in the Northeast was noticeably lower after Friday, although not all stations in the region have dropped the song permanently. "We backed off 'Die Young' initially [but it's] back in regular rotation," Pop Songs panelist WODS Boston PD Dan Mason told Billboard (Dec. 18). "So far, no negative calls or texts from listeners about it."

"Out of respect to the victims, and to be sensitive to parents in our listening audience, we did pull ['Young'] temporarily from rotation. It will return [Dec. 19]," adult pop WSJO Atlantic City, N.J., assistant PD/music director Heather DeLuca echoed (Dec. 18).


Ke$ha 'Was FORCED' to Sing 'Die Young' Lyrics, Singer Tweets

Even Ke$ha herself has expressed sorrow over the timing of "Young." "I'm so so so sorry for anyone who has been effected by this tragedy.and I understand why my song is now inappropriate. words cannot express," she Tweeted on Tuesday (Dec. 18). As of Wednesday evening, she has not updated her account since.

However, a look at airplay for "Young" on Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 17 and 18) shows that it's actually trending back up nationally since the weekend. According to BDS, on the more than 1,200 stations monitored for the Billboard Hot 100, the song logged approximately 2,300 plays each day. That's up slightly from about 2,100 spins each on Dec. 15 and 16.

Notably, "Young" did begin to decline sharply from Dec. 13 through Dec. 15, which sandwiched the Dec. 14 tragedy. Over those three days, plays for the song fell from 3,000 to 2,700 to 2,100. Until then, the song was peaking at around 3,000 all-format plays per day. Its decline appears to have hastened due to programmer concerns about potential insensitivity but it's important to note that the downturn is also part of the song's natural chart arc. Additionally, RCA Records had already announced the release of the song's follow-up single, "C'mon," which is receiving airplay on more than 50 pop stations early into its radio promotion.

On the Radio Songs chart this week, "Young" dips 3-5, down 19% from last week's sum of 120 million to 97 million audience impressions. The fall marks the greatest plummet in airplay among titles in the chart's top five since Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us" fell to No. 5 after spending five weeks at No. 1 (descending from 128 million to 105 million) the week of Feb. 4, 2006.

Going forward, "Young" is likely to continue decreasing in airplay, again through a combination of extra lyrical analysis from PDs and the typical decline of a former No. 1 Pop Songs hit.

Stations, especially those serving communities in Connecticut, meanwhile, continue to respond to the needs of listeners following the events of last week. Adult contemporary WRCH Hartford, Conn., PD Allan Camp says that the station has since made several changes in its programming. "Initially, we simulcasted our all-news AM sister station, WTIC. Once we returned to playing music, we adjusted our current all-Christmas playlist away from novelty cuts and added more comforting songs into power rotation.

"Psychologist Dr. Elaine Ducharme spent Monday morning with us and we put her breaks up in podcast form online, along with additional links to helpful resources," Camp says. "We're also posting videos of artists who've written songs in honor of the victims."

Camp feels that the role of radio is always to be about more than just the music, even more so during trying times.

"It's a tender time and we continue to try and be there for listeners who need the escape from the news cycle, while remaining respectful and caring to the people of Newtown and the state," he added. "It's a big difference when something like this happens in your neighborhood. We are treading carefully."

Keith Dakin, operations manager of adult pop WEZN and rock WPLR and WFOX in Bridgeport, Conn., likewise says that recent days have been difficult. "It's been a very challenging time, that's for sure. Newtown is only about 20 minutes away, clearly in our listening area.

On Friday morning, when we got the news, our general manager, Kristin Okesson, and I decided to flip the station to all-talk from about 11:30 a.m. to 10 at night," Dakin says. "Our morning show came back to the station and did six hours live simply with news, information and calls. We did the same thing on WPLR and WFOX."

Dakin says that by Friday night, WEZN returned to playing music, but with changes.

"We tried to take out anything that was too 'up' or just felt wrong. We produced special promos and sweepers that ran all weekend. We also ran news at the top and bottom of each hour," he says. "By Monday, we were back to regular format but we dropped songs that felt insensitive, Ke$ha's being a perfect example. Also, no remotes, liners, contesting or silly morning show games and bits."

Going forward, Dakin says, the station is aiming to help in an even more tangible way. "We're focused on a radiothon that we will be staging on Friday (Dec. 21) to raise money for the Sandy Hook Support Fund. From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., we'll be taking donations on all three radio stations. It's been a few days that hopefully we will never have to go through again."

It's a sad tragedy, and an unfortunate coincidence of timing for Ke$ha, and frankly it could happen to anyone. There's always a knee-jerk reaction at times like this, which is understandable but here seems to be aimed at the wrong targets (for want of a better phrase). It's common to some forms of music to glamourise and glorify a lifestyle where gun ownership and usage is second nature, and that sends a far worse message to the general audience who hero worship these people without the thinking to differentiate whether the message is a good one or not.

Looks as though Ke$ha's troubles have passed from mild ones like working with Pitbull, to altogether more serious ones:

Kesha sues producer Dr Luke for sexual and physical assault

Ke$ha's ongoing attempts to break free from her Sony contract seem to have come to nothing.

Kesha's 'slavery' case against producer dismissed

A New York judge has thrown out pop star Kesha's legal bid to scrap her recording contract with Sony Music and producer Dr Luke.

The 29-year-old singer - real name Rose Sebert - had accused Dr Luke of rape and other forms of abuse.

She said he bullied her to lose weight until she was so traumatised that she developed an eating disorder and spent two months in a rehabilitation clinic in 2014. Kesha's lawyers had also argued that her contract amounted to "slavery".

Dr. Luke denied all allegations and filed a countersuit against the singer and her mother.

However the latest judgement leaves her with little legal room for manoeuvre.

Yes, sadly, no surprise. It'll also be Bieber, Mendes. Mendez, Rihanna ... you name it. We
don't have much for real singers now. We have "models" with a sexual appetite. This goes into conspiracies I could start on ,but will end on that. I won't even get started on Miley lol. In today's sick world, getting promoted comes at a price, especially the youth. We all knows pedos run the world.

On the one hand, and whilst I'm obviously sympathetic to any victim of rape, I am reminded that George Michael had contract troubles with Sony (and Prince's were I think with Warners), so this is hardly news

On the other hand, I think Ke$ha's records are all utter crap

Her career recovery continues with a surprise appearance at the Coachella festival:

Helping out DJ Zedd

Her troubles with Dr Luke have returned to the news this week after her invitation to perform at this weekend's Billboard Awards thing was revoked because Dr Luke would be there, or had an act there, or something. But that has since been countermanded, and she will be there to perform after all.

She's still fighting Dr Luke:

Kesha releases 'abusive' emails from producer Dr Luke

In the leaked messages he criticises her for having "Diet Coke and turkey while on an all juice fast", and says songwriters "are reluctant to give [her] songs because of her weight".
He has always denied mistreating her and says the emails have been taken out of context.

Oh dear

She's 30 today

Dr Luke and Ke$ha's Mom have apparently dropped lawsuits against each other.

She's already promoting a new single "Praying", which she's been waiting to release for a year.

She's performing with Camila Cabello at the Grammys:

#MeToo moment

The singer, who sued superstar producer Dr Luke over claims of verbal, physical and sexual abuse, will sing her ballad Praying - in which she urges her tormentor to seek redemption.

She's had a setback in her case with Dr Luke:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51412420

And her new album High Road entered the UK album charts at a lousy #63 

She's finally been able to settle the court case with Dr Luke, out of court.

Her recent new album Gag Order reached #27 in the UK.