Today I was vacuuming the house for my mom and I was flipping through the MC channels (MC=music choice) for some good music to jam to. Through my channel surfing, I saw "teen MC" and thought it would be interesting to listen to what people may consider "teen music." After an hour's worth of listening, I have come to the conclusion that there isn't a large difference between the music listened to on our popular radio stations and the ones that were being played on the "teen" station. There are only two differences:
The first difference was that the "teen" channel would play more girl/boy bands one in a while. Other than that, I still heard the popular music artists like Jason Derulo that adult audiences rave about with the younger audiences.
The second difference was the music on the "teen" music channel had the censored versions of the music played. On the radio, I usually here less censorship but on this channel, there were more "clean-cut" versions. Other than these two small differences, I still wonder why this channel would be considered more "teen" than the other "pop" MC channels.
Is it because of the occasional girl/boy bands?
But adult audiences listen to Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez even when they were still in their teens. Does that make their music "teen music" or just "pop music" because their audiences are more vast because of the adults listeners?
What are your thoughts?
That's a good question: what's the difference between "teen music" and popular culture music? or is there a difference? Aside from the censorship which is also carried away in radio stations. Many adults listen to Ariana Grande, Justing Beaber and Selena Gomez among others. I wonder what is the ratings for that channel.
ReplyDeleteMe too! Apparently the rating is about average which is interesting. If my memory serves me correctly, the music channel for the "older" audience is rated better. That's societal hierarchy for you!
ReplyDeleteI agree there is no real distinction between adult popular music and teen music except for the occasional bleeping out of curse words. I think that what the music industry has done is molded our thinking as a society to think in terms of whats popular and not what is age appropriate. Perfect example is the kids bop series. What is the difference in what plays on the radio and what are on those cd's except for it having a child voice covering the tracks. being that radio is publicly broadcast how is it at all possible to censor what is played and cater to a younger audience when the song that gets played in heavy rotation is vile and graphic.
ReplyDeleteI think the "clean cut"ness is also a large distinction. its like the difference of listening to 106.7 verses listening to 92.3 (92.3 plays less clean versions of songs). I also remember thinking the same thing when i listened to Radio Disney as a kid. Other then the occasional song from a Disney movie, it played plenty of songs that could also be heard on a pop radio station. It may be and even smaller distinction now though because last week i heard "Let it go" from frozen on z100.
ReplyDeleteOn the radio at least, I think the distinction would have to do with the programs between the songs. For example, there is a definite difference between the things they talk about on Z100 and the things they discuss on 101.1 WCBS. But as far as the music itself goes, ya, I cant see much of a difference.
ReplyDelete