A look at the last two days of airplay, monitored by Nielsen BDS, however, shows that
decline to be steadying somewhat.
A look at airplay for "Young" on Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 17 and 18) shows that it's actually trending back up nationally since the weekend. According to BDS, on the more than 1,200 stations monitored for the Billboard Hot 100, the song logged approximately 2,300 plays each day. That's up slightly from about 2,100 spins each on Dec. 15 and 16.
Notably, "Young" did begin to decline sharply from Dec. 13 through Dec. 15, which sandwiched the Dec. 14 tragedy. Over those three days, plays for the song fell from 3,000 to 2,700 to 2,100. Until then, the song was peaking at around 3,000 all-format plays per day.
Its decline appears to have hastened due to programmer concerns about potential insensitivity but it's important to note that the downturn is also part of the song's natural chart arc. Additionally, RCA Records had already announced the release of the song's follow-up single, "C'mon," which is receiving airplay on more than 50 pop stations early into its radio promotion.
On the Radio Songs chart this week,
"Young" dips 3-5, down 19% from last week's sum of 120 million to 97 million audience impressions. The fall marks the greatest plummet in airplay among titles in the chart's top five since Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us" fell to No. 5 after spending five weeks at No. 1 (descending from 128 million to 105 million) the week of Feb. 4, 2006.
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