We’ve all heard about Facebook and Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Certain apps and social media platforms are as ubiquitous as, well, the smartphone you’re probably clutching in your hand right now. But kids flock to some apps that we parents are sometimes woefully unaware of. The Musical.ly app may be one of those. On the […]
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So Spotify just did a thing. According to their new public hate content and hateful conduct policy, they’ve chosen to take R. Kelly’s music off of their streaming playlists. His music will still be available on Spotify, but will no longer be promoted. After nearly 20 years of allegations that the artist has had sexual […]
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You don’t have to look further than your news feed to find plenty of disheartening news. And we’ll deal with some of that shortly. But before our weekly deep-dive into the overlapping realms of entertainment, popular culture and what’s happening with kids today, I thought we’d begin with an encouraging reminder from Homeword’s Jim Burns: […]
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My first job was as a high school teacher in inner-city Philadelphia. Fresh out of college, I was eager to teach and dying to make an impact. It was a wonderful time in my career that came with many amazing moments. But it came with some moments that were extraordinarily difficult, as well. It was […]
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American Idol is back. On a new network (ABC), and sporting three new celebrity judges (Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan). That’s a quick summary of what’s changed. What hasn’t changed? Well, almost everything else. After a two-year hiatus, ABC’s reloaded version of Idol is almost exactly the same reality singing competition it was […]
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I bought a CD last night. (Rock guitar instrumentalist Joe Satriani’s latest release, if you must know. But I digress already.) I bought it because even though I listen to tons of music digitally (streaming, and in my 15-year-old iTunes library), I just like having a real, physical copy of my music. It’s tactile. Reliable. […]
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Dear Justin Timberlake (can I still call you JT?), I am writing to inform you that we’re through. I’m breaking up with you. Let me back up. I realize it’s been awhile since we last talked. In fact, I know that this is actually the first time. You don’t know me from Adam, and that’s […]
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The outgoing year is often depicted as an old, tired man with a beard down to his knees. But this year, that depiction felt all too true. With all the natural disasters and political unrest and international crises afoot, 2017 probably made us all feel older than we should. Back in the day, many folks […]
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We sometimes get emails that take us to task for “hating” what we review. To an extent, I get that. There’s lot to critique, and sometimes it can feel as if all we do is categorize varieties of moral dreck. But I have a confession: One of my great joys is when a musical artist […]
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Each December, speculation builds about who Time magazine will select as its Person of the Year. That tradition that dates back to 1927, when Charles Lindbergh was selected as the inaugural honoree (according to Wikipedia’s entry on the subject.) Past recipients include almost every U.S. president since then (with the notable absence of Gerald Ford), […]
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Many of us mark our seasons by firsts: the first robin of spring, the first sunburn of summer, the first interception by our terrible quarterback of the fall. The Christmas season is no different—or, at least, so mall music supervisors tell us: It begins with the first Christmas carol playing in the vicinity of cash […]
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Miley Cyrus just threw Hannah Montana under the bus. Hannah Montana, of course, was the famous character who rocketed young Miley into the stratosphere of superstardom. The Disney Channel series of the same name aired from 2006 to 2010. It spawned a concert tour (Best of Both Worlds) and a concert-tour movie (Hannah Montana & […]
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Today’s vehicles are packed with more safety and collision-avoidance technology than ever before. But traffic-related deaths in the United States have nevertheless risen sharply over the last two years, up 14.4% after decades of generally trending downward. Curiously, certain kinds of folks are increasingly prone to be involved in fatal car accidents than others: pedestrians, […]
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Editor’s Note: Rapper Lecrae’s new album, All Things Work Together, drops today (Plugged In will review it soon). With featured mainstream performers such as Ty Dolla $ign, the album appears to be a departure for the Christian rapper, and a bid to increase his reach into the secular music world. But while Lecrae might not […]
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On Sunday night, two television titans squared off against each other in a clash of old and new, awards-show glitz against prestige-TV glam. It wasn’t even close. Despite going head-to-head against MTV’s once-vaunted Video Music Awards show, HBO’s salacious sensation Game of Thrones set yet another high-water ratings mark, drawing 12.1 million viewers for its […]
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