Listen to Jack and WHTT and you'll hear plenty of songs from the 80s, but very few 90s hits. I've read that local and national programmers have found that, except for Hot AC, 90s music doesn't "test" well. A noted country programmer says just about the same for country songs from the 90s. So what is it about 90s music that leaves listeners and focus groups cold? Is it possible that the age group isn't interested in participating in focus groups, thereby making it more difficult for radio stations to get a read on what 90s songs work and don't work, or was the music from the 90s just plain lousy?
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- Thread starter Rusty Bridges
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I disagree. I'm finding that 90s country is resonating very strongly with today's country audience, and a lot of 90s artists, like Garth Brooks and Brooks & Dunn are seeing a huge resurgence in their touring careers. Their hits are finding a new audience with people who may have missed it for one reason or another the first time. Every day I get a press release about a 90s country artist who is about to release a new album or start a new tour, and the #1 country station in Nashville is one that includes a large percentage of 90s hits with their currents.
As far as other genres, part of the complication with 90s pop or rock is that those genres split into smaller sub-genres during that decade. The list of consensus songs from the decade is smaller than it was from previous decades. In contrast country in the 90s was a very organized format, and there are hundreds of consensus songs to draw on.
I think you nailed it there. The 90's was a great decade for country, but lousy for everything else. Pop and rock did become even more fragmented and a lot of listeners did move over to country back then, and many stayed permanently. Also 90's music that isn't country didn't age well. The early 90's were nothing but one hit wonders by artists no one remembered 6 months later. Rock was fragmented between the so called Alternative, and the more corporate sounding hair bands in the early 90's, and by the late 90's rock got too heavy for some. Our local Alternative station here does a "nothing but 90s" weekend every long weekend in the calender, and to be honest, I stay as far away from them as possible when they do. I'd rather they did an 80's alternative long weekend or go back to the time between 2000 and 2010. There was a lot of good music in that period.
I concur with your assessment. It was came as a surprise to read the particular country programmer's review. Could be he was positioning himself and his station against a local competitor that played a broader variety of country hits. Preening. Not sure. But your observation about 90s being a good decade for country rings true for the reasons cited, and at least one more: "bro country" didn't exist. That in itself may have made the 90s better.
Instead it was Hat Country.
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