You haven’t heard of Australia’s Triple J, have you? They’re alternative, but they’ve long mixed it with hip hop and dance. It’s worked for them for decades.
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KITS 105.3 Stunting... Return of Live 105?
- Thread starter AceBiscuits
- Start date
I think they would among an "upscale" crowd. Several people I know who have attended Ivy League colleges listen to things like Animal Collective and Bon Iver. Perhaps alternative could skew towards being an upscale destination as advertisers coukd know their listeners likely are wealthier and could perhaps include picks from Pitchfork and other publications outside alt specifically
I used to think like you. Grew up with classic rock and country everywhere, whining about ‘why don’t I have a modern rock station near me? This is dinosaur and twang music!’ ‘I want music to move forward!’ ‘Stations NEED to do this!’ I understand the passion you have - I’ve long had it as well and still do. That’s how I became interested in this industry.
But then I connected with DJs and even PDs and GMs from across the country and even the world, asked them about this or that and learned about what goes into radio. I actively studied the business. Then I actually got a job at a station; over time, it made me open my eyes to how music testing and the business as a whole works. Work one day in radio, commercial or non-comm, and you might see it too.
I like modern alt, but I respect the classics (not to mention grew up with them as well), those who have poured the foundations for the modern acts. I want both, but that may not be a sustainable, long term option. By and large, outside of just a few operators, commercial stations have to pick a side - they’ve had to for awhile, and we’re now beginning to see those two listener ‘camps’ form.
I’m not saying you have to like it; I know there are some things the business does that I personally don’t care for and would like to see change. But I understand how and why.
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No, they don't. There is a very small number of individual songs by a small number of artists that have crossed over onto rock stations in Latin America, but that is is. Remember, most rock stations there play a mix of English language rock and Spanish language material of all kinds. And there are only a few very large cities that can support a rock station today, such as Mexico City, Monterrey, Lima, Santiago and Bogotá where there are over 6 million people and even a tiny rock constituency can get competitive ratings since those big markets have over 30 full power FMs each.
How do I know? I created Latin America's most listened to rock station and continued to consult it until the economy collapsed. It played absolutely no Alt rock. None, nada.
Remember, an alternative artist or group can go to a city of 20,000,000 like Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Rio or Sao Paulo and fill a 10,000 seat venue easily because there are as many people in those cities as the whole state of Florida!
That station is by far the lowest billing FM in the market with revenue of less than $20,000 a month (compared to the #1 station which bills more in a month than they do in a year).
Except for a couple of accounts, "upscale" is not a target demographic for advertisers who buy based on ratings. And the problem with alternative rock is that in many markets it has an image of being the station where pawn shops and bail bondsmen advertise. Check how the format does in Miami or Philadelphia, for example: somewhat decent ratings, but near last in revenue.
Local direct "upscale" advertisers don't generally select alternative rock as a format of choice... they actually avoid it quite vehemently.
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The fact that their tweet referenced 'new music' on some graveyard sunday night show indicates that it may be a 100% classic alt format. Hopefully with some creativity (as much as can be at least for music that's on average 30 years old - let's face it this is like launching an Elvis oldies station in 1993) and passion and not just a jukebox, but it's 2023, we're talking about over the air radio here, and I won't get my "hopes" up lol.
Not as much as Royals, Yellow Flicker Beat or Team, but still, it got some decent airplay a couple years later.
I did, it makes me jelly.
Of course I've heard of Triple J, australia is good.
Then how come a lot of latin americans love bands like Placebo or the Arctic Monkeys then? I'm not making shit up lol. Sites like Twitter and Youtube have a ton of stans, of course dying FM radio is gonna have a different story.
This is sort of like asking how many Americans like cajun music or bluegrass...
There are about 700 million people in Latin America. That is twice the population of the United States.
But few know even conversational English. And they are generally the ones who went to expensive private schools and have traveled.
According to the English Proficiency Index, “Latin America is the region [with] the lowest levels of English” as of 2020. Low English proficiency rates stem from a “low quality of language teaching programs in public education and the difficulties in accessing alternative training” as a result of the scarcity of language training institutions and the expensive costs of such programs.
According to the index, some of the Latin American countries with the lowest rates of English proficiency are Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico. In Mexico, less than 10% of schools have English as part of the education curriculum. Furthermore, in 2015, Latin America lagged 2.5 years behind Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations in schooling development.
While music can cross language borders, you have to look at the fact that listening to a kind of music that is not "culturally native" to your country in a language that is not your primary tongue is a severe limitation.
It only takes a tiny percentage of people out of those 700,000,000 to post some stuff online and to stream some of the songs you refer to. Those are generally people belonging to the highest socioeconomic class who have learned one or more additional languages in private schools (my High School in Quito did classes in both English and Spanish and offered French and German as additional electives).
So, yeah, there are a few alternative rock fans in the big cities of Latin America. They are generally from families with very high incomes, have gone to bilingual schools and, in many cases, did some or all of college in the US or Europe. And there are enough to fill a 5,000 to 10,000 person venue for a big artist in the narrow Alternative genre. Artists like going there as they generally get much better hotels, nicer limos and service and true celebrity treatment because that is how artists are received in Latin America.
But saying that alternative rock is "popular" or widely liked is more than an exaggeration... it is just not true.
You mean 2013 which is when Lorde started her career.
I don't understand which "failed stations" you are referring to... they aren't mine. Pick someone else to insult.
Oh i misread the station you did that crashed in an economy.
My bad, I got owned right there. I'm half asleep.
No, I am pointing out the fact that your belief that alternative rock is very popular in Latin America is simply wrong.
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