Ke$ha performs on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Ke$ha’s ‘Die Young’ loses radio play after Newtown school massacre

By Tony Hicks

| Contra Costa (Calif.) Times

First Published Dec 18 2012 12:49 pm • Last Updated Dec 19 2012 10:39 am

Ke$ha couldn’t have released a single called "Die Young" at a worse time.

Radio stations around the country pulled the song from their rotations after news hit Friday of the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., according to TMZ.

"Die Young" was No. 3 on radio playlists on Friday (the day of the shootings), reaching 167 million listeners nationwide, according to Mediabase, a company that tracks radio airplay.

By Saturday, airplay dropped by 3 million listeners. By Monday, "Die Young" took a big hit on the radio, dropping down to 148 million listeners, a 19 million drop from what was a pretty steady rotation before the shootings.

TMZ reported its "music expert" said a drop of this magnitude is extremely rare. The last time a song plummeted this quickly is when the Dixie Chicks were banned from many country music stations after insulting President Bush.

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