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On 8 Aug 2003 22:40:23 GMT, Art Clemons
wrote: I think you're ignoring the other part of the curve for a broadcaster and that's the issue of what a broadcaster can earn with a particular format. The likely reason that country doesn't work in NYC is that advertisers in NYC don't want to target country music listeners, or alternatively even though large in number, they're too spread out to support many small advertisers away from where they regularly travel. One, I think it's snobbery. Two, much of today's Country doesn't sound much different than AC. Three, media buyers are younger than most Boybands and the owners are chicken. They'd all rather the the 11th techno-alternative-trance-AC-Urban-Polka station in the market before taking the Country plunge. I would bet that if Roseland ( a local concert venue in Manhattan) had a country night every week we'd have to rope off the streets to control the crowds. Even better, the guns wouldn't be automatic weapons, they'd be six shooters like the good ol days. Rich |
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On 10 Aug 2003 16:09:38 GMT, Rich Wood
wrote: One, I think it's snobbery. Two, much of today's Country doesn't sound much different than AC. Three, media buyers are younger than most Boybands and the owners are chicken. Can't comment on point three, but your first two are bulls-eyes! Point two in particular is right on target. when talking about today's "mainstream" country. The currents, recurrents and even most of the oldies sound closer to the hits of the Top 40 Era than the music being played on CHR and some AC stations. In fact, some of the song and artists played as oldies on mainstream country stations *are* straight out of the Top 40 Era -- Johnny Cash, Statler Brothers, Oak Ridge Boys, Dolly Parton, quite a long list of country acts that are fondly remembered by Baby Boomers who grew up on Top 40. And let's not forget the number of country performers, especially female artists, who are actually getting a lot of play on AC radio and VH-1. Sometimes I turn on VH-1 while I'm at the computer just because I enjoy looking at Faith Hill, Shania Twain, Martina McBride, etc. Country has always been an important part of what started as Top 40 and has evolved into Adult Contemporary. I grew up listening to rockabilly, along with the blues, R&B, and Brill Building pop that also contributed to the big hits of the '50s, '60s and early '70s. At the time I didn't care for much "hardcore" country -- George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty (himself a Top 40 one-hit wonder with "Make Believe"), Porter Wagoner and the like -- probably because it was the "old folks" music my parents and grandparents listened to. But when Ray Charles did an entire album of country songs, I listened and liked what I heard. When Roger Miller and Ray Stevens turned out very clever novelty songs, I didn't care how they were categorized. When Patsy Cline sang "Crazy", it didn't matter one bit that both the song and the singer were considered country. And to be honest, I didn't consider Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire" country at all, since I JUST KNEW that country music never used mariachi trumpets! All these artists were able to co-exist on the Hot 100 with Chuck Berry, Brook Benton, the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, and all of the Memphis, Motown and British Invasion acts. If the music was good and spoke to the teenaged heart-and-soul, that's all that mattered to us back then. Today's music industry, including music radio formats, is actually hurting itself with its emphasis on format fragmentation. An artist, label or station that tries to reach only a specific audience is in trouble when the day comes that the audience stops listening and buying. OTOH, an artist, label or station with broad appeal can continue to sell to a maturing/aging audience even as a new generation discovers it -- even if that sort of appeal skips a generation now and then before being rediscovered, as happened with Dolly Parton and more recently with Tony Bennett. They'd all rather the the 11th techno-alternative-trance-AC-Urban-Polka station in the market before taking the Country plunge. And when the Flavor Of The Month changes, they'll change format in search of another short-term success. Their problem, not the listeners'. Now that I'm a fulltime listener, the music-station presets on my radios are filled with various flavors of oldies stations. If I'm listening to a Classic Rock station and a song comes on that I don't especially care for, I punch over to a Classic Hits station ... or an AC with an extensive oldies library. If all else fails, I grab a CD from the Time-Life or Rhino catalogs. Rap, trance, boy-bands and the other genres that appeal to today's youth may or may not be popular a few years from now; the music I listen to has been around for fifty years, more or less, and it still appeals to the largest and most affluent generation in history. Maybe today's youth-oriented stations are actually the modern equivalent of the pioneering Top 40 stations, and they'll be successful for decades to come. But that's not the way I'd bet. I just don't see a modern-day Alan Freed, Bruce Morrow or Art Roberts among the current crop of jocks. Nor do I see very many record industry execs these days who working to find and develop artists with even moderately broad-based appeal. Tommy Mottola has had considerable success, but he's still a long way from becoming the next Clive Davis; as far as I can tell no one is even trying to become the next Berry Gordy, Sam Phillips or Phil Spector. I would bet that if Roseland ( a local concert venue in Manhattan) had a country night every week we'd have to rope off the streets to control the crowds. Even better, the guns wouldn't be automatic weapons, they'd be six shooters like the good ol days. I dunno. These days even rural deputy sheriffs and Texas Rangers (the closest modern kin of the Old West lawmen) carry semi-autos. People just don't respect tradition anymore.g ___ Walter Luffman Medina, TN USA Amateur curmudgeon, equal-opportunity annoyer |
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