Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' spread the gospel of American pop music and teenage style that transcended the regional boundaries of our country and united a youth culture that eventually spread its message throughout the entire world.

If anyone looks back to the '70s, '80s with nostalgic rosy colored glasses and goes, 'Well, everything was awesome.' No, everything was not awesome!

Back in the early '90s, I started going to Nashville to do a lot of co-writes. One of the first people I met there was Keith Follese. Keith and his wife Adrienne are both songwriters, and we wrote some songs together.

We've been together since we've been teenagers. I can go away and disappear for two years, and when we get back together, it's like nothing ever has changed.

The days when you needed amazing Silicon Graphics machines to run animation software are gone now.

The Internet is a tool, a technology, and we like to say that it has all of these properties, but really, it's just a place where our writing is.

That's something I learned from both my stepdad and my grandfather - that there is a thing called chivalry, and it doesn't have to die with the birth of the Internet. The way I see it, if you're asking a girl out on a date, it's only right to do it in a way that she can hear your voice.

The most potentially transformative impact of social media is its ability to encourage brands to marry profit and purpose. The reason brands participate is that such outreach earns those companies social currency enabling them to start or participate in conversations that connect them to consumers in meaningful ways.