By : Ilana Kaplan Source : People The Jonas Brothers are putting their own spin on a Switchfoot classic. On Friday, the "Sucker" band shared a reimagined version of "The Beautiful Letdown," the title track from Switchfoot's 2003 album. The Jonas Brothers' version of the track, produced by longtime collaborator John Fields, features lush strings and stunning call-and-response vocals from Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas. Prior to working with the Jonas Brothers, Fields actually found his first mainstream success producing...
Read more...

By : Tina Benitez-Eves Source : American Songwriter Days after bumping Jason Aldean’s controversial single “Try That in a Small Town” and Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” off the iTunes Country and Top Entries charts, respectively, singer-songwriter Oliver Anthony has reached a new milestone with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The viral hit has now topped the Billboard Hot 100. Anthony has made history as the first artist ever to top the Hot 100 with no prior chart history. ...
Read more...

By : Lara Sanli Source : Yahoo Gen Z is searching for sad music on Spotify Technology SA more than any other generation, leading the streaming platform to dub the past few months a “bummer summer” for the youth. “Sad” is Gen Z’s most-searched term on Spotify globally, the audio service said in a blog post Monday. In comparison, it’s the 13th most-searched term for Millenials. “To match the vibe in the US and Canada,” Spotify said it’s added new “sad” playlists and even...
Read more...

By : Jake Meador Source : The Atlantic Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. That’s not unusual. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history. As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely. My wife and I wonder whether the institutions and communities that have helped preserve us in our own faith...
Read more...

By : Emily Burack Source : Town & Country It felt like I had won the lottery. I couldn't stop talking about it. After hours of waiting in a virtual queue, anxiously watching the numbers tick down and ignoring my work for this very magazine, I managed to snag six tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour on her third night at MetLife Stadium. The odds of even getting to this part of the purchasing process were slim: Just around 40% the people who registered for the presale were granted the privilege of trying to buy tickets. The whole...
Read more...

By : Ray Schultz Source : MediaPost Marketers wondering what motivates consumers to buy certain mobile phones, especially for children, are being offered some answers by HMD Global, seller of Nokia phones. While cost is a leading factor, 70% of users say they would choose a smartphone over a cheaper non-smart phone. But 83% of parents say parental controls are extremely important. In addition, child restrictions are a key feature for 64% of parents, followed by durability (57%) and location tracking (55%). read more... 
Read more...

By : Ben Berkley Source : The Hustle Hot dogs are having a moment. So much so that The Wall Street Journal declared franks “the ‘it’ restaurant order” of the summer. America’s favorite meat tubes require no introduction — US consumers already buy 900m+ pounds of them annually, per the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Perhaps an etiquette brush-up is required? The NHDSC has a guide for that. (Apparently standard hot dogs should need no more than five bites?)  read more...
Read more...

By : Xochitl Gonzalez Source : The Atlantic In the summer of 1998, the line to get into Mecca on a Sunday night might stretch from the entrance to the Tunnel nightclub on Manhattan’s 12th Avenue all the way to the end of the block; hundreds of bodies, clothed and barely clothed in Versace and DKNY and Polo Sport, vibrating with anticipation. Passing cars with their booming stereos, either scoping out the scene or hunting for parking, offered a preview of what was inside: the sounds of Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes and Lil’ Kim....
Read more...

By : Marcela Valdes Source : The New York Times The sanctuary of Northside church in Charlotte, N.C., is built for joyous adoration. Enormous speakers hang from its domed ceiling, along with an elaborate system of colored lights. Its semicircular stage has wide, carpeted steps that lead down on all sides to rows and rows of wine red pews, which hold about 2,700 people. The evening I visited last February, they filled to capacity with Latino families who had come to see the evangelical superstar Marcos Witt.  read more...
Read more...

By : Curtis M. Wong Source : HuffPost More than two years after “Drivers License” catapulted her to pop superstardom, Olivia Rodrigo is back with new music on the way. The three-time Grammy winner announced on social media Monday that “Guts,” her hotly anticipated second album, will be released Sept. 8. The album will feature the new single “Vampire,” due out this Friday. “I made the bulk of this album during my 19th year on this earth,” Rodrigo, who turned 20 in February, wrote in a note...
Read more...

By : Ashley Carman Source : Bloomberg Bruno Del Granado, head of global Latin music at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), thought the Latin music explosion would arrive in 1999. In May of that year, Ricky Martin released his self-titled album featuring Livin’ La Vida Loca, and around the same time, other artists, including Enrique Iglesias and Shakira, dominated the charts. But as summer turned to fall, Latin music faded with it, at least in the mainstream US.  read more...
Read more...

By : Jocelyn Gecker Source : AP News Situationships. “Sneaky links.” The “talking stage,” the flirtatious getting-to-know-you phase — typically done via text — that can lead to a hookup. High school students are having less sexual intercourse. That’s what the studies say. But that doesn’t mean they’re having less sex. The language of young love and lust, and the actions behind it, are evolving. And the shift is not being adequately captured in national studies, experts say. ...
Read more...

By : BBC News Source : BBC News Nashville-based singer-songwriter Corinne Savage, known professionally as Corook, and Olivia Barton released their new song If I Were A Fish and chatted with the BBC about the song’s inception and reception. The track was originally posted to TikTok and received a massive response, with 15 million views and counting.  read more...
Read more...

By : Fenit Nirappl Source : MSN/The Washington Post Loneliness presents a profound public health threat akin to smoking and obesity, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy warned in an advisory issued Tuesday that aims to rally Americans to spend more time with each other in an increasingly divided and digital society. Murthy said half of U.S. adults experience loneliness, which has consequences for mental and physical health, including a greater risk of depression, anxiety — and, perhaps more surprisingly, heart disease, stroke and...
Read more...

By : Mary Kekatos and Youri Benadjaoud Source : ABC News The number of teenage girls experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased during the second year of the pandemic, new federal data showed. The percentage of high school female students who seriously considered attempting suicide rose from 24.1% to about one-third, or 30%, between 2019 and 2021, according to the latest results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentage of those who made a suicide...
Read more...

By : Sara Moniuszko Source : Yahoo News  Ariana Grande is speaking up about the "concerns" over her body - and setting a good reminder on why it's best to refrain from comments about someone's physical appearance in the process. After an influx of recent comments about the celebrity's appearance, the "Positions" singer, 29, shared a video on TikTok to remind followers "you never know what someone is going through." The clip has since gone viral with more than 66 million views and 12.2 million...
Read more...

By : Sara Moniuszko Source : CBS News Teens are in the middle of a mental health crisis - but there are things parents can do to support their kids. During an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell, clinical psychologist and author of "The Emotional Lives of Teenagers" Lisa Damour shared two things all kids need for healthy development: warmth and structure. "If you took all of the science we've done over decades in psychology for what parents can provide at home that is most supportive to young people - not just...
Read more...

By : Dnyuz Source : Dnyuz At the CMT Music Awards this month, the least likely nominee turned into the night’s biggest story. In a room full of country music royalty, the artist Jelly Roll — a 38-year-old face-tattooed former addict and drug dealer who got his start selling his own hip-hop mixtapes out of his car — took home the most trophies, beating superstars including Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown and Luke Combs. The crowd was on its feet as he performed his new single, “Need a Favor,” in a studded leather...
Read more...

By : Stephanie Nolasco Source : Fox News Granger Smith is walking away from his successful country music career – and he's relieved. Earlier this month, the singer/songwriter took to his social media pages and announced that his upcoming "Like a River" tour, named after his son, would be his last. The 43-year-old is gearing up to devote his life to ministry at his local church outside of Austin, Texas. His final show is on Aug. 26. "I have a huge feeling of relief now that … I’ve been able to tell the...
Read more...

By : Relevant Staff Source : Relevant It’s time for Gen Zers to check their spending habits. A new report found that this generation is accumulating credit card debt faster than any other generation. Credit Karma analyzed data from 78.2 million users, spanning from the Silent Generation to Gen Z. On average, everyone’s credit card debt is expanding. The average credit card debt for millennials rose 29 percent from the previous year to $5,800. But Gen Z experienced a 40 percent increase from one year earlier, bringing their...
Read more...

By : Cory Turner Source : NPR The statistics are sobering. Nearly 1 in 3 teen girls report having seriously considered suicide in the past year. One in 5 teens identifying as LGBTQ+ say they attempted suicide in that time. Between 2009 and 2019, depression rates doubled for all teens. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The question is: Why now? "Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia. ... Within the last 20 years, the advent of portable technology and...
Read more...

By : Tim Ingham Source : Music Business Worldwide Over the past few days, three Universal Music Group-affiliated megastars – Drake, The Weeknd, and Rihanna – have seen their vocals replicated by AI tools, and then ‘performed’ within viral music productions. The tune that’s drawn the most attention, understandably, is a cover version of Ice Spice’s risqué 2022 hit Munch (Feelin’ U), on which the vocals are ‘performed’ by an AI copycat of Drake’s voice. It’s...
Read more...

By : John Stonestreet and Shane Morris Source : Christian Headlines Saint Augustine famously observed that the human heart is restless until its rest is found in God. That applies not only to individuals but also to cultures and entire generations. Practically speaking, this “restlessness” can take many forms, including an unprecedented mental health crisis. The recent and much talked about report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes precisely that. As a CDC spokeswoman bluntly stated, “young...
Read more...

By : Peter Weber Source : The Week A Wall Street Journal/NORC poll released Monday found that "patriotism, religious faith, having children, and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations" have fallen steadily since 1998 and even 2019, the Journal reports. About 38 percent of respondents in the new poll said patriotism is "very important" to them, versus 70 percent in the Journal's 1998 poll, while 39 percent said religion is very important, from 62 percent in 1998. The only tested...
Read more...

By : Common Sense Media Source : Common Sense media ChatGPT is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate text. Launched by research company OpenAI, it gathers large amounts of data from the internet to create responses on demand. ChatGPT is unique because its answers are in conversational format, similar to how people write and speak. It can write essays and computer code, solve math problems, and much more.  read more...
Read more...

By : Wyatte Grantham-Phillips Source : USA Today TikTok is rolling out a new screen time limit for users under 18. On Wednesday, the social media platform announced "changes to help teens manage their time on TikTok." Every account belonging to TikTok users under 18 years old will soon automatically set to a 60-minute daily screen limit, the company said. The default time limit for eligible accounts is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.  read more...
Read more...

By : Alexis Jones Source : Pop Sugar Ed Sheeran is getting vulnerable ahead of the release of his new album, "Subtract." In a handwritten journal entry posted to Twitter and photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the singer-songwriter opened up about his tumultuous past year and mental health struggles, both of which influenced his latest album. "I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be....
Read more...

By : Roger Friedman Source : Showbiz 411 Well, that’s it. There will be no more “Justice” for Justin Bieber. The balance of his 2023 tour has been cancelled. Previously, Bieber had cancelled the bulk of his 2022 dates after being diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, partial paralysis of his face. In September 2022, he cancelled the rest of the year through this month. Now the rest of it is all gone. Fans will be sent their money back to credit cards, etc. Many will complain about lost money on travel reservations,...
Read more...

By : Brent Schrotenboer Source : USA Today The three sons of Deion Sanders are expected to play big roles this year for the football team at Colorado, including one who is expected to be the starting quarterback and another who plays defensive back. But it’s the other son, the oldest, who may have had the biggest impact so far on the program his father is trying to build with the Buffaloes in Boulder. His name is Deion Sanders Jr. Though he doesn’t play football anymore, Sanders Jr. instead is using a video camera and...
Read more...

By : Daniel De Vise Source : The Hill More than 60 percent of young men are single, nearly twice the rate of unattached young women, signaling a larger breakdown in the social, romantic and sexual life of the American male. Men in their 20s are more likely than women in their 20s to be romantically uninvolved, sexually dormant, friendless and lonely. They stand at the vanguard of an epidemic of declining marriage, sexuality and relationships that afflicts all of young America.   “We’re in a crisis of...
Read more...

By : Caitlin Gibson Source : Washington Post Driving a car was once a widely coveted rite of passage, but a rising number of kids no longer see it that way: 60 percent of American 18-year-olds had a driver’s license in 2021, down from 80 percent in 1983, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration. In that same period, the number of 16-year-olds with licenses dropped from 46 percent to 25 percent. Today’s driving-age teens are navigating a very different world, filled with new complexities and anxieties. ...
Read more...

By : Derek Thompson Source : The Atlantic American teenagers—especially girls and kids who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning—are “engulfed” in historic rates of anxiety and sadness. And everybody seems to think they know why. Some psychologists point to social media, whereas others blame school shootings; others chalk it up to changes in parenting. Climate-change activists say it’s climate change. Atlantic writers like me blather on about the decline of physical-world interactions. These...
Read more...

By : Adrianna Rodriguez Source : USA Today Teen girls are experiencing record levels of violence, sadness and suicide risk in the United States, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday. Data showed 57% of high school girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 – a nearly 60% increase and the highest level reported over the past decade. In comparison, 29% of boys the same age reported the same feelings. “High school should be a time for trailblazing, not trauma,”...
Read more...

By : Daniel De Vise Source : The Hill The sports betting market has multiplied tenfold in three years and may have reached $7 billion in 2022. More than half of the nation can now legally gamble on sports. Fifty million Americans are expected to bet on the upcoming Super Bowl. Five years ago, betting on live games was illegal in most of the United States. A Supreme Court ruling in 2018 removed the ban and transformed the industry. Now, 33 states and the District of Columbia allow wagers on games. Addiction experts fear a coming...
Read more...

By : Pesala Bandara Source : PetaPixel In a year that has seen the rise of blurry photos and 0.5 selfies, there has also been a new pose taking over Instagram in 2022. Featuring a blank stare and lifeless rolled eyes: meet the lobotomy-chic aesthetic. For over a decade, Instagram users posed with the signature “duck face” expression favored by the picture-perfect Kardashians, sucking in their cheeks and pursing their lips to create a playful pout. However, according to a piece published by Rayne Fisher-Quann in i-D, the duck...
Read more...

By : Ethan Shanfeld, Jem Aswad Source : Variety Takeoff, one-third of the hip-hop trio Migos, was shot and killed in Houston, a representative for the city’s police department has confirmed to Variety. He was 28. The rapper was shot and killed at a bowling alley in downtown Houston where he and Quavo, his uncle and Migos bandmate, were playing dice at around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Officers told KPRC Houston that a crowd of approximately 40 or 50 people was at the scene when the shooting took place, and there was a man with a...
Read more...

By : Bethany Hamilton Source : Bethany Hamilton People ask me all the time, “how accurate is your movie Soul Surfer?” It’s actually extremely accurate! When my family and I were working on the script, we really wanted to make every scene represent what we actually went through as much as possible. We wanted the world to get a very real perspective of my story, not an overly-dramatized version for Hollywood. Of course, there’s always little extra things to just make the storyline run a little smoother, but...
Read more...

By: Gary Trust Source: billboard.com Taylor Swift scores one of the most historic weeks in the 64-year history of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as she becomes the first artist to claim the survey’s entire top 10 in a single frame. Swift surpasses Drake, who logged nine of the Hot 100’s top 10 for a week in September 2021. Leading the way for Swift on the Hot 100, “Anti-Hero” launches at No. 1, marking her ninth career leader. All 10 songs in the Hot 100’s top tier are from Swift’s new LP...
Read more...

By : Anahad O'Connor Source : MSN No matter how old you are, or how much junk food you consume, it’s never too late to start undoing the damage caused by a poor diet. That’s the message from scientists who study how our food choices affect our life spans and our risk of developing diseases. They have found that people can gain sizable health benefits at any age by cutting back on highly processed foods loaded with salt, sugar and other additives and replacing them with more nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts,...
Read more...

By : Rob Litterst Source : The Hustle New social media apps tend to have limited shelf lives. Even BeReal, which has grown users ~2300% this year, is showing signs of trouble, with only 9% of Android users opening the app daily. Now there’s Gas, an anonymous app that prompts teens to say nice things about each other. Last week, it became the No. 1 free social app in the App Store, per The Wall Street Journal.  read more...
Read more...

By : Jacob Cohen Source : The Hustle Over the past couple years, “more like TikTok” has become a business strategy for tech companies, large and small. Many are “TikTokifying” themselves, scrambling to embed carbon copies of the app’s defining features in their platforms. As they forge ahead, TikTok itself is flipping the trend on its head, laying the groundwork for features rivaling those of Google, Amazon, Spotify, and more.  read more...
Read more...

By : Dzhoro Ivanov Source : Phone Arena There is a reason why many people feel like everyone and their mother owns an iPhone. Apple’s devices have continuously dominated the smartphone market, especially in the US - that much is common knowledge. What is more surprising, however, is the iPhone’s prevalence amongst youngsters. According to one recent survey, 87% of teenagers in America own an iPhone. This is more than double the share 10 years ago. This information was first brought forward by MacRumors in a dedicated...
Read more...

By : Rob Litterst Source : The Hustle In 2016, a Tumblr executive called GIFs “the file format of the internet generation.” Six years later, the looping image format is being described as “cringe” by younger generations, per The Atlantic. What happened? In short, a combination of things: Accessibility: GIF-searching features on Facebook, Twitter, and iMessage brought the format to the masses. Over-usage: As using GIFs became easier, more people started using them, often selecting the same ones over...
Read more...

By : Jacob Cohen Source : The Hustle If it wasn’t clear already, us humans — we really love paying for things on a monthly basis. New data from the National Research Group found that while 44% of consumers have tried to cut back on spending at the grocery store amid ongoing high inflation, only 18% did so with their streaming subscriptions. Among subscriptions generally, NRG found Amazon Prime is among the least likely to be canceled, trailing cloud storage and music streaming services. Most likely to be...
Read more...