WagooMusic

COMMENTARY | The 2011 Teen Choice Awards held few surprises, with awards going to favorites like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Selena Gomez. Popular movies “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” also were recognized. A record 100 million-plus votes were cast.

Normally nationally televised awards shows are full of energy and excitement. Unfortunately, this year the script was bland. There was an odd ping pong match between the host, Kaley Cuoco, and Zachary Levi. He was dressed in geeky short-shorts and pink knee-highs. I was left wondering, why?

Taylor Swift, an award show veteran, was as gracious and sweet as ever in her acceptance speech. She walked away with six awards, including the Ultimate Choice Award. Taylor received Choice Awards for Female Music Artist, Country Female Artist, Female Red Carpet Icon, Country Single for “Mean,” and Break-up Song “Back to December.” If anyone had a reason to act like a diva, it would probably be Swift. She takes it all in stride, seeming to keep her innocence and love for her fans.

Selena Gomez was awesome in her performance with The Scene. She looked great with her red lipstick, and it was obvious why she won the Female Hottie Award. Justin Bieber could even be seen in the audience enjoying her performance. She was beautiful, singing the Choice Love Song “Love You Like a Love Song.” She also took home awards for Choice TV Actress, Choice Music Group with her band The Scene, Choice Single for “Who Says,” for a total of five awards.

Ellen DeGeneres won the Choice Comedian Award, beating Jimmy Fallon, George Lopez, Daniel Tosh, and Andy Samberg. She looked great, and personally I think it’s awesome that a woman in her 50s won an award in an industry that looks so heavily on youth. But then again, Ellen does have the energy of a teenager to go along with her great sense of humor.

Ashton Kutcher gave a piece of good advice: “Don’t buy anything with a credit card, if you don’t already have money in the bank to pay for it.” He got the Choice Romantic Comedy Movie Actor award for “No Strings Attached.”

There were lots of talented people nominated and over 80 awards given out. The televised broadcast was two hours long, but unfortunately still managed to leave out showing half the awards.There were some dull moments, like the ping pong game, that could have easily been omitted to allow for more awards to be viewed.

In the entertainment world, one would be hard pressed to find anyone that is as popular as Justin Bieber these days. With apologies to Lindsay Lohan and her continual bouts with the law, Bieber’s star power has made him one of biggest draws in the music industry right now. His current tour, entitled “Believe”, is making all the teen girls swoon, but they are not the only ones being affected by the 19-year-old Canadian rocker.

It turns out that young Bieber can incite a thrill in both sexes if his latest concert in Dubai is any indication. Bieber was late into his gig when he began to play a song while sitting down at the piano. As the singer crooned away, a male fan darted out of the crowd and made his way towards Bieber. He got close enough to grab hold of, and appeared to, hug the young unsuspecting star.  Footage of the supposed attack can be seen here.

The fact that it was an apparent hug seems to make the word attack the wrong one to use in this case. The fan did not carry any type of weapon, nor did he appear to be trying to cause any harm to the Canadian rocker. That fact is borne out by the fact that the authorities did not levy additional charges against the young man. The fan did not last long on the stage as security quickly tackled him and ushered him off the stage.

There was one injury that was reported, that being the piano on which Bieber was playing. As the security guards went after the runaway fan, the man careened into the piano, causing it to flip over on the stage. The fan appeared to get away unscathed, but the piano was not as fortunate. The instrument was deemed unplayable by Bieber’s people.

Give Justin Bieber credit though, because he did not cancel the rest of the concert. Most stars, after an incident like that, would be too freaked out to carry on with the show, but Bieber would have none of that. He took a short break, which lasted under five minutes, and then returned to the stage. He proceeded to close the show with his hit songs “Boyfriend” and “Baby”.

It certainly has been a memorable tour for the young singer, as he and his entourage have encountered numerous issues. He had his monkey quarantined in Germany, made a fool of himself with his Anne Frank – Bielieber tweet, and had drugs allegedly discovered on his tour bus. The young man seems oblivious to all of the craziness, but this latest occurrence might want to make him think twice about the security minding the stage at his concerts.

Britain’s shoppers feel they are being bombarded by the same Christmas music again and again on the High Street. this comes as a study reveals the songs people most and least want to hear while out buying Christmas presents.

Immedia Plc (immediaplc.com), which provides music solutions to retailers, carried out research among UK consumers to find out what they liked listening to the most and the least at Christmas.

The results show that the festive classic ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ by Slade remains the favourite song to put Britain’s shoppers in the holiday spirit. meanwhile, mr Blobby’s Christmas in Blobbyland is the one song that people don’t want to hear, with Justin Bieber’s ‘Mistletoe’ and David Hasselhoff’s ‘Stille Nacht’ not far behind.

Crucially however, while shoppers enjoy hearing ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’, they don’t want to hear it over and over again as they go from store to store. Over two-thirds (68%) of shoppers polled by Immedia felt that the music they hear in shops over Christmas is too repetitive.

According to Immedia’s survey, the list of favourite Christmas tunes is dominated by songs from previous decades. the top ten includes:

1 – Merry Christmas everybody – Slade2 – I wish it could be Christmas everyday – Wizzard3 – do they know it’s Christmas – Band Aid4 – Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra5 – Fairytale of New York – the Pogues, Featuring Kirsty MacColl6 – Last Christmas – Wham7 – Winter Wonderland – Bing Crosby8 – Driving home for Christmas – Chris Rea9 – (Simply having) a wonderful Christmas Time – Paul McCartney10 – Let it snow – Michael Buble

Immedia also asked shoppers about the songs they don’t want to hear. the novelty track ‘Christmas in Blobby Land’ by mr Blobby came top, followed by Justin Bieber’s ‘Mistletoe’ and ex Baywatch star David Hasselhoff’s ‘Stille Nacht.’

Other songs in the top ten ‘least favourite’ list included songs by Gary Glitter (Another Rock and Roll Christmas), S Club 7 (The Spirit of Christmas Past) and Cliff Richard (21st Century Christmas).

Immedia plc CEO Bruno Brookes says that the results illustrate the need for retailers to think more carefully about the sounds that represent them:

“the problem is, at Christmas there isn’t a sound of each retailer’s brand, there is instead a generic sound of the High Street. That means retailers are losing an opportunity to target shoppers with a unique sound that provides the right aural environment for them to buy.”

Commenting on the least favourite Christmas songs, Bruno Brookes says:

“if anything, Justin Bieber’s place on a ‘Christmas Playlist from Hell’ illustrates the need for retailers to think carefully about their own sound. yes, judging from our results, a lot of adults find Justin Bieber annoying.

“yet his record speaks for itself and he has a huge fan base of (mainly) 10-14 year old girls. For example, when Bieber says ‘good night girls’ on social media, he typically gets over 29,000 replies.

“as a result, if you are an electronics retailer, then Justin Bieber probably shouldn’t feature on your playlist. if however, you run a teenage accessories or fashion store, he might well work for you.”

According to Immedia’s scientific advisor Dr Vicky Willliamson:

“A number of psychological effects are likely to play a role in our reaction to Christmas songs, as revealed in the Immedia survey. the ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ predicts that our liking for music over time will follow an upside down U-shaped curve.

“More exposure to a song will increase our liking, but we then reach a peak after which further exposure results in increasing dislike. hence hearing Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ a few times is pleasing. Hearing it over and over could become annoying.

“Then there is the ‘Reminiscence Effect’, also referred to in scientific literature as the ‘Darling, they are playing our tune’ effect, which could explain why many of the favourite songs on our top ten list are older.

“we enjoy music that has positive autobiographical memory associations for us, and Christmas songs certainly fall into this category; hearing them can trigger memories of happy times with friends and family.”.”

For further information contact the Immedia team at Rabbit, 0208 123 9541,

Published on: 8:45AM on 13th December 2011