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For anyone who doesn’t know the song, here it is, through the magic of You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdSRfdu_dLU I didn’t think they’d ever play this, at least not in my lifetime! I’ve heard several unfamiliar rhythmic tracks in the last week, that appear to be from the 90s.
Just another example of a format evolving to stay relevant to its demographic. Women in their 30s (I’m guessing the younger core of k103’s target) were high schoolers in the late 90s and early 2000s when hip-hop was already becoming the dominant sound.
I presume it could have mass appeal for 40 year olds but they might lose some 50-54 or even younger or maybe not. My first thought is that anyone who may have liked it, at the time, has outgrown it and anyone younger would find it “dated”. Whoops, I need to back up the turnip truck! This song is much newer than I thought. I was thinking it was early to mid 90s but it’s actually from 2006! That being the case, I’m surprised that 40 year olds would cling on to it and if they aren’t, it shouldn’t be played, because that’s the center of the target. Perhaps, this is the beginning of a mini-rhythmic evolution.
Ha ha, you guys are funny. For the umpteenth time, they aren’t really programming for an age based demographic. They are aiming at people with meters, a demo that doesn’t appear in the final report and is probably weighted for people in the age range that buys appliances and engagement rings.
Another way of saying this albeit less elegant is that the programming is total bullshit created by marketing people with sheets of statistics whom never listen to the actual music. And we all know that you can’t bullshit a bullshitter. Analyzing their folly is a fools errand.
But hey, have fun. Commercial radio is not in the least setting music trends. They haven’t done that in over twenty years. In fact, they don’t even follow music trends anymore. Corporate malfeasance at its best. Don’t you read the news, the biggest group owners are failing. Why would a couple of radio loving intelligent men such as yourselves even give a rat’s ass about the failing state of the commercial radio industry. It’s hanging on by threads.
They are programming for an age based demo of meter wearers. In this case, it’s still centered at around 40.
Of course they program radio for demographics. That’s how they ensure they are going to get the best audience to sell jewelry and appliances to.
Change is required in maintenance of an AC format. If you don’t change you become the oldies stations of the 90’s. AC probably peaked around 2011 with a contemporary adult sound and less of the softer ballads. Combine that with the Christmas programming and you had a winner.
Today, we see a slowdown with this format, and many are turning to even a more contemporary library, obviously without the extremes of top40 today.
Again, you have to change, or you are dead.
K103 and stations like it had a reputation for being inoffensive music that one could play in an office or in a car full of kids. About ten years ago, I worked with some guys from very conservative religious backgrounds who liked K103, presumably because of the lack of drug references and sexually suggestive content in the lyrics of songs heard there. This drift in the content of AC stations shows (at least to me), that they’re no longer programming for a certain type of listener; instead, they’re just programming to maximize ratings in the 25-54 demographic–at least for now.
Allow me to do a calendar check on the demographic scene in 2016:
54 year old -> born in 1962. This is generally considered the end of the Baby Boom Generation. The starting point for Generation X falls somewhere between the assassination of JFK and 1965, depending on which source you use.
Generation X – > Age is roughly between 32-36 and 51-53.
25 year old -> born in 1991. The young people whom we see proudly sporting body art and colored hair, and taking these styles into all sorts of professional and social settings fall into this demographic. These are increasingly the people who want to live in neighborhood communities (such as microhomes) where restaurants, cafes, and shopping are within walking distance. They live by a different set of rules.
They’ve always programed to maximize ratings in the 25-54 demographic. The difference is that programing what you suggest used to succeed in doing so and now it doesn’t because that’s no longer what 25-54 year olds want. For probably the first time since before rock n roll, 40 year old women actually like current music and that changes everything!
#1- “K103 and stations like it had a reputation for being inoffensive music” “lack of drug references and sexually suggestive content”
It’s more than that. It has a lot to do with the song structure instrumentally. Pop songs are generally derived from a formula – – and although you can argue about number of verses, choruses and the bridge, there is little to no “soloing” in most “hits.” The master craftsmen often got away with short snippets showcasing instrumental prowess but clearly in a limited fashion. Often, album versions were edited down and they almost always took out the long solos. For example, on the album it would follow verse verse chorus instrumental(verse) bridge verse chorus chorus but as a single it would be chopped down to verse verse chorus verse chorus chorus. No guitar lead, just guitar chords and buried in the mix. Same for horns or anything that is prominent. It’s bullshit but that’s what they will do if the artist lets them. Only the biggest names can dictate what the single edits will be like (McCartney, etc.)
#2 Although they throw the 25 – 54 demo thing around like a worn out baseball, there is little truth to the mere existence of that demo. Nothing separates adjacent generations more then the music they like. Resurgence in sounds just don’t happen in consecutive generations with respect to popular and contemporary music. I’ve said this before and also made the point that the only exception to this is within families of musicians because they more definitively understand the creative process and the fact that almost all music borrows heavily on what has preceded it. The Beatles started as a cover band. The Rolling Stones played lots of early rock and roll covers and Led Zeppelin reworked old blues songs. These bands were summarily rejected by the greatest generation (parents of the boomers) that created and consumed that body of work but were heavily embraced by the boomers in their teen years.
#3 The current labels of demographics are almost exactly the same as they have always been. Just another bullet in the heart of what is being discussed here. Ratings are folly and the demos being used are so out of touch with reality it’s not even worth a laugh.
#4 One of the reasons commercial radio has failed is the lack of quality of programming. Trying to parse the failure is not difficult but constantly ignoring the fact that it has failed (as is the norm in threads like these) serves no point.
“Cume” is not down, only “time spent listening”. The diary markets still look healthy. It’s only going to get worse for the older consumer with 18-49 slowly replacing 25-54 as the money demo.
I fully expect Twenty-One Pilots “Stressed Out” will get AC airplay within a year. This song was originally an alternative/rock offering with some light rap. However, it is very adult friendly. I could hear many AC’s on this one. Now that is change.
EDIT: This song is already top10 Hot AC!
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