Andy Grammer: From 3rd Street to the House of Blues

If you turned on the radio recently and suddenly found yourself feeling especially warm and fuzzy inside, chances are you just heard “Keep Your Head Up”, the debut single from up-and-coming singer/songwriter Andy Grammer. In an industry where most musicians seem to find inspiration in pain and bad break-ups, Grammer is turning the “brooding artist” stereotype on its ear and churning out music that celebrates the fun in life.

It’s not surprising either, considering his background. His father, Red Grammer, is a children’s singer who writes tunes that teach kids about values and being good little people. This positive outlook obviously rubbed off on his son, Andy. The 27-year-old didn’t exactly have it easy, having to work his way from the singing in the streets of Santa Monica before being discovered and signed to S-Curve Records. So, he likely knows exactly what he’s talking about when he advises the rest of us to “Keep Your Head Up”!

And it’s been nothing but up from there. The CSUN grad has gone on to earn some pretty prestigious gigs, such as performing at this year’s SXSW festival, and opening for such acts as Plain White T’s, Natasha Bedingfield, and Colbie Caillat. It won’t be long before he’s headlining his own tour and spreading his musical message of how great life can be!

Check out his MTV O Award-winning music video for “Keep Your Head Up” below, which features a great cameo by “The Office” star Rainn Wilson:

Happy Birthday, MTV!

It’s hard to believe, but it’s no less true – today, MTV turns 30!

We take it for granted now, but I remember when MTV debuted when I was just a kid and all the crazy excitement that surrounded it – music videos, 24 hours a day?? I can’t even imagine what the music scene would have been like in the ‘80s (and beyond) without MTV. Music was now a visual medium; some of the most brilliant filmmaking in the last three decades have come from some of the amazing music videos we all first saw on MTV.

But the cable channel was so much more than that. There’s a reason folks my age are referred to as the “MTV Generation”; because MTV was just for us. While the parents were watching the news on broadcast networks or our little brothers and sisters were glued to Saturday morning cartoons, we were locked into MTV, letting us know what was hot in all aspects of pop culture. (Sound familiar? Ahem!)

“Yo! MTV Raps”... “Headbanger’s Ball”... “Total Request Live”... “Remote Control”... “The Real World”... Yep, if revolutionizing television and the music industry wasn’t enough, MTV pretty much invented reality TV too!

And MTV has not lost that cool factor at all. In 2011, the channel is still at the forefront of what’s new and exciting in the entertainment world. The “M” in MTV might have been since retired, but it continues to dictate pop culture trends and inspire artists and entrepreneurs everywhere – including yours truly. Oh yeah, I’d be crazy if I didn’t give props to MTV for inspiring what we do at Young Hollywood, helping shape the flavor of the new generation!

In kind of a cool, ironic twist, when MTV first debuted at 12:01am on August 1st, 1981, the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” were spoken over footage of the first-ever Space Shuttle launch, which had happened earlier that year. Thirty years later, we’re celebrating this momentous anniversary for MTV after having just witnessed the retiring of the Shuttle program within the last month! Hopefully, though, MTV’s journey does not end here, and the revolutionary cable channel reaches for new heights. YH will be right there with them!