Music is More Important Than Food and Rock Still Rules According to First of Its Kind Survey of Music Trendsetters.

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Sept. 21, 1998--

Madonna Seen as Best Music Ambassador

Hanson Seen as Best Castaways

Young people would rather give up food for a day than give up music for a day according to a groundbreaking new survey of Music Trendsetters from MTV and Youth Intelligence. The Music Trendsetters Survey is a first of its kind study of young trendsetters' attitudes and interests around music. The Music Trendsetters Survey conducted for MTV by Youth Intelligence is the result of interviews with more than 300 young people between the ages of 14-30 who are identified as being "on the edge" with music and much of popular culture. These in-person interviews were conducted in New York, Los Angeles and Austin, TX.

The Music Trendsetter Survey is a first of its kind study designed to reveal emerging trends around music which have already begun to or will soon begin to be integrated into the mainstream. The Music Trendsetter Survey revealed two key emerging trends in music -- revealism and fragmentation.

"Trendsetters indicate that we will continue to see a trend toward `revealism' in music with the ongoing rise of singer/songwriters, increased importance of lyrics, and increased interest in knowing the stories around the music," commented Todd Cunningham, Vice President, Research and Planning, MTV Networks. "Based on this study, we can also conclude that we will see a continued fragmentation in the music industry with young music consumers demonstrating interest in a variety of different music genres."

The results of the Music Trendsetters Survey also illustrate the passionate connection that young people feel towards music.

64% of young people surveyed said that they would rather give up food for a day than give up music. The majority of young people would rather be music stars (56%) than movie stars (24%), famous politicians (10%), sports stars (7%) or TV stars (4%). In addition, the majority of young people surveyed would rather listen to music/watch videos (65%) in their spare time followed by read books (14%), go to the movies (12%), watch non-music TV (5%), use the internet (4%).

Despite the fragmenting of music tastes and the proliferation of new music genres it is Rock and Roll that is going to be remembered. Rock and Roll is still the measuring stick that carries the most weight even among the most experimental group of music lovers.

The majority of young people surveyed (40%) said that Rock and Roll will be the genre of music people remember best 100 years from now followed by Hip Hop (16%), Jazz (11%), Classical (9%), Rap (5%), Punk (5%), and Techno (5%).

Music savvy individuals also felt that music videos have had the most influence in music in the past fifty years.

49% of young people surveyed said that music videos have had the most influence on music in the last fifty years followed by CDs (24%), Computers (13%), Movie Soundtracks (9%), Radio (5%), and TV Soundtracks (1%).

Music trendsetters would choose Madonna to be our music ambassador if aliens landed on Earth. In addition, music trendsetters picked Hanson as the music group they would most like to push out to sea on a raft.

36% of music trendsetters would choose Madonna if aliens landed on Earth and wanted to meet the most influential person in music followed by David Geffen (22%), Russell Simmons (11%), Puff Daddy (9%), Kurt Loder (9%), Dick Clark (8%) and the Spice Girls (5%). In addition, the majority (26%) of those surveyed chose Hanson as the artists they would most like to non-violently eliminate followed by Backstreet Boys (21%), Spice Girls (19%), Hootie and the Blowfish (14%), Puff Daddy (14%), and Jewel (7%).

Madonna is also the female musician these trendsetters would most want to date and Beck is the male musician they would most like to date.

Finally individualism and customization is increasing in importance for young music lovers. Though they are still more likely to buy an entire album over purchasing singles, they want to be able to create their own compilations at home.

The majority of young people surveyed (45%) identified recordable CDs as the next piece of musical equipment they will buy followed by Sony mini disc (21%), something for the computer (14%), DAT Recorder (12%), and Mixing tables (8%). Still, the vast majority (83%) would rather buy an album than buy singles (17%).

Similarly, the one thing that the majority of music trendsetters would most like to do online is create custom compilations (19%), followed by chat with musicians/artists (17%), watch bands play (13%), compose music (10%), download music (9%), buy tickets (7%), buy music (6%), and showcase own music (6%).

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., owns and operates five cable television programming services -- MTV: Music Television, M2, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, and Nick at Nite's TV Land -- all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. Information about MTV and M2 is available on MTV Online, on America Online (Keyword: MTV) and the World Wide Web (http://mtv.com).