Artists that seem to "drop off."

[Deleted User]

When was the last time you heard " Call Me Maybe" on the radio.... there was a time 10 years ago when it was on continuous play

Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer... again spun every 45 seconds for a while.... rarely if ever heard today.

Til Tuesday, fronted my Amie Mann, " Voices Carry" was a strong single supported by MTV, a couple of follow up songs... they never get spins.

I love to look at the WRKO 680 top 30 lists from the late 60's into the mid 70's, some songs have aged well, some I look at and wonder how they got play at all ( PAYOLA !!!), Most of them get zero airplay these days even on a golden oldies format

 

[ScottBurns]

When was the last time you heard " Call Me Maybe" on the radio.... there was a time 10 years ago when it was on continuous play

Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer... again spun every 45 seconds for a while.... rarely if ever heard today.

Til Tuesday, fronted my Amie Mann, " Voices Carry" was a strong single supported by MTV, a couple of follow up songs... they never get spins.

I love to look at the WRKO 680 top 30 lists from the late 60's into the mid 70's, some songs have aged well, some I look at and wonder how they got play at all ( PAYOLA !!!), Most of them get zero airplay these days even on a golden oldies format

"Call Me Maybe" is still played on some Hot AC stations. I've heard it within the last month.

 

[TheBigA]

Celebrities like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and even Kelly Clarkson, all once pop machines, don't need to come out with new music. Their celebrity status gets them TV deals with talk shows, guest appearances, and (yuk) talent show judge gigs. The money being a TV celeb is much more consistent and predictable these days than trying to release a hit pop song.

Meghan Trainor apparently has a very successful podcast. That's what she's promoting at her social media.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Celebrities like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and even Kelly Clarkson, all once pop machines, don't need to come out with new music. Their celebrity status gets them TV deals with talk shows, guest appearances, and (yuk) talent show judge gigs. The money being a TV celeb is much more consistent and predictable these days than trying to release a hit pop song.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour Documentary Is Driving Home 2 Disney+

driving home 2 u, out March 25, features new live arrangements of the album.

www.vulture.com

And now this current Pop Artist Olivia Rodrigo has a movie deal with Disney plus as part of a ploy for her label and production crew promote her concerts and remain on Pop charts for now.

She is now added to the list of pop stars that expanded outside of music along with Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Jennifer Hudson.

 

[TheBigA]

Oh. Well, I know Alessia Cara had released new things as has Tove Lo and neither has any kind of airplay

Allessia is Canadian, so her latest records are only charting in Canada. She's never had a #1 in the US or Canada.

She may be famous, but if you don't have a #1, it's hard to get airplay. Getting airplay is competitive.

 

[kevtronics]

Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer... again spun every 45 seconds for a while.... rarely if ever heard today.

"Kiss Me" and their follow-up "There She Goes" are both now getting airplay on Classic Hits stations whose playlists have expanded to the '90s, like "Big 98-1" WOGL in Philly.

Sixpence None The Richer claimed to be a Christian rock band, and their debut album and "Kiss Me" single both won Dove awards (the Christian Grammys).

They later released a cover of "Don't Dream It's Over", but it tanked.

 

[tall_guy1]

Celebrities like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and even Kelly Clarkson, all once pop machines, don't need to come out with new music. Their celebrity status gets them TV deals with talk shows, guest appearances, and (yuk) talent show judge gigs. The money being a TV celeb is much more consistent and predictable these days than trying to release a hit pop song.

I'm saying whenever they release something for radio....they play it, even if it eventually flops (as has been the case for Katy for a while.)

 

[Kelly A]

I'm saying whenever they release something for radio....they play it, even if it eventually flops (as has been the case for Katy for a while.)

But as BigA said, artists aren't releasing new singles exclusively for CHR/Pop radio anymore. Most of the music is released via social media, prior to a potential touring schedule. Unlike several years ago; consumers don't go out to buy CD's, cassettes, vinyl, 8 tracks, what have you., so 'record sales' isn't a goal for an artist like the old days. Income is derived by touring, but that's a grueling proposition which slowed way down during the pandemic. Artists with name recognition, have other opportunities to make a living. That includes the TV gig's like I mentioned, or podcasts/merch/and or guest appearances with the potential of on-line influencer status.

 

[TheBigA]

In the meantime, I'm looking at this week's chart, and who's #1? Harry Styles. This guy knows how to make hit music, and get media attention. He played Coachella a few weeks ago and sang with Shania Twain. How cool is that? Look further down the chart and there's Justin Bieber. Say what you will about him, but he knows how to make hit music. Him and his buddy Poo Bear. There's a lot of great music in the chart right now, and nothing is a gift. It's all about fighting for chart position. Some people know how to do it, and some don't, I focus on the glass half full.

 

[Bongwater]

Remember Roger Voudouris (1954-2003)? He had a Top 20 hit with "Get Used To It" in 1979.

He was up and coming. All the ladies and gay guys back then thought he was just soooo dreamy. And as Adult Contemporary/AOR was quickly swooping in to fill in the vacuum of The Disco Bust of Top 40 radio in 1979, Warner Bros. probably thought he had what it took (looked like a rocker, sang like Rupert Holmes.) Whatever. Good enough.

But Roger Voudouris had a bit of a mouth. In an interview, Voudouris was quoted as saying he was going to be bigger than Sinatra and Johnny Mathis and he would be a megastar in five years. Before he even had his first hit....

Whether Voudouris was running his mouth, drunk, or tripping, nothing was known about that. But Casey Kasem's view was. I heard this on the radio the Sunday night it aired on KJR that week. And Casey Kasem nuked him on American Top 40. (cue to 7:22)

Thing was, no matter how subtle Casey Kasem's words were, they had weight. To proudly affiliated program directors and listeners, he was the Gold Standard of pop countdowns. And the listeners could read between his lines; If Casey Kasem didn't like you, nobody liked you. I mean, this guy actually lipped off Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis in one fell swoop.

The next morning, word got around that Roger Voudouris Is a Stuck Up Jerk. Quickly. By the next week, "Get Used To It" vanished from the playlists of these stations. Then the jukeboxes.

And this was before social media. Voudouris' solo career tanked in the US. Countless mint, unplayed Roger Voudouris promo LPs and singles of later albums could be found at Goodwill as early as 1982. Nobody wanted anything to do with him.

And aside from a few times on some twilight-zone station in the middle of nowhere in the 1980s and Barry Scott's Lost 45s in the 1990s (or occasionally on some '70s digital whatever), I've rarely heard that song.

 

[CTListener]

"Call Me Maybe" is still played on some Hot AC stations. I've heard it within the last month.

WTIC-FM Hartford, definitely. That station wasn't a top 3 preset for me back in Connecticut, but I heard "Call Me Maybe" at least a half dozen times over the last 6 months I was living there.

Another example of an artist who was big and just faded away was Natasha Bedingfield: "These Words," "Unwritten" (monster hit), "Pocketful of Sunshine" .... and then a series of stiffs. I think she's still signed to some label and recording, but with no chart success.

 

[CTListener]

In the meantime, I'm looking at this week's chart, and who's #1? Harry Styles. This guy knows how to make hit music, and get media attention. He played Coachella a few weeks ago and sang with Shania Twain. How cool is that?

In what universe is Shania Twain still "cool"?

 

[michael hagerty]

This has been pretty much a constant for decades. You have one-hit wonders on one end of the spectrum, and on the other are the acts with a long string of hits, several years, a decade or more.

In the middle, the majority of pop acts, who have between two and five years of chart success, then fade away, sometimes to have a comeback down the road, most times not.

It’s easier to visualize if you tighten the window of “hit” (whether you agree or not) to top 10 or 15, then look at how long the act can consistently hit that target.

And today, you don’t even have to drop $80 for a Whitburn chart book, just Google the act’s singles discography.

 

[michael hagerty]

Remember Roger Voudouris (1954-2003)? He had a Top 20 hit with "Get Used To It" in 1979.

He was up and coming. All the ladies and gay guys back then thought he was just soooo dreamy. And as Adult Contemporary/AOR was quickly swooping in to fill in the vacuum of The Disco Bust of Top 40 radio in 1979, Warner Bros. probably thought he had what it took (looked like a rocker, sang like Rupert Holmes.) Whatever. Good enough.

But Roger Voudouris had a bit of a mouth. In an interview, Voudouris was quoted as saying he was going to be bigger than Sinatra and Johnny Mathis and he would be a megastar in five years. Before he even had his first hit....

Whether Voudouris was running his mouth, drunk, or tripping, nothing was known about that. But Casey Kasem's view was. I heard this on the radio the Sunday night it aired on KJR that week. And Casey Kasem nuked him on American Top 40. (cue to 7:22)

Thing was, no matter how subtle Casey Kasem's words were, they had weight. To proudly affiliated program directors and listeners, he was the Gold Standard of pop countdowns. And the listeners could read between his lines; If Casey Kasem didn't like you, nobody liked you. I mean, this guy actually lipped off Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis in one fell swoop.

The next morning, word got around that Roger Voudouris Is a Stuck Up Jerk. Quickly. By the next week, "Get Used To It" vanished from the playlists of these stations. Then the jukeboxes.

Which might be thought to be cause and effect, but “Get Used To It” peaked at #21 on June 16 and the aircheck you link to, where Casey takes his shot, is from three weeks later.

Three weeks past a disappointing chart peak is exactly when records vanish.

While everyone listened to Casey on AT40 sometime, nobody listened all the time. It was a weekend show with a limited audience and his word could neither make nor break a career.

I was programming at the time, and Vodouris’ attitude was pretty well-known. This was his second solo album, and there was Vodouris/Kahne before that.

 

[davideduardo]

But that's where the rubber meets the road, during those phone calls between the record label and the radio station. Hundreds of these calls happen each week. At the same time, the radio station is doing its own research, talking to their consultants about which songs are getting the best reaction, and which songs are hurting the station. To get maximum spins means at least once or twice in morning drive. That might not work for a mournful ballad. So it's a tradeoff and a lot of people get to weigh in.

Today, many stations don't have a music director. Even in the past, lots of large market stations did not have one. The main reason to give someone the title is for the PD to avoid talking to the record people, which can be annoying and time consuming. Stations may also have record calls restricted to one afternoon a week, too.

In larger markets, call-out (actually done online but still using the traditional name) is the main source of music data. Streams and plays in new media are lacking station, market and age group specifics.

Groups will share "similar market" data, but having good results at the Des Moines stations does not mean it will work in San Antonio or Raleigh. Each station will look at the other stations they find similar and which they respect in MediaBase or BDS, and usually we have station combos we build for custom reports that include groups of those stations.

A Rhythmic CHR may also look at the Urban stations that they know to often build crossover songs.

But once a song is added, it's all about the internal research.

For those that don't understand why one song by an artist gets played as gold but another does not, the answer usually lies in music testing that is confidential and specific to that station or specific to the similar stations in a company.

 

[davideduardo]

Which might be thought to be cause and effect, but “Get Used To It” peaked at #21 on June 16 and the aircheck you link to, where Casey takes his shot, is from three weeks later.

And most CHR stations have 15 to 20 true currents. One of the smart things that R&R did in renaming its chart "CHR" was to marginalized the term "Top 40" because by the late 70's we all knew that there were never really 40 current hits... ever.

 

[boombox4]

People grow away from hit artists. Everything has a lifetime, and hit artists' ability to stay on the top, especially in CHR, appears to be somewhat limited.

On top of that, with digital streaming taking over everything, the business model's changed. The 2010s was a different world, as there were still music sales (people bought MP3's as well as some CD sales) for much of that decade, particularly earlier on, where the consumer, by purchasing an artist's music or albums, had at least a little bit invested in the artist.

Now, for the most part, it's all streaming, where the consumer has nothing invested in the artist, making everything more temporary. Billboard's charts can now be over 10% just one artist (this week it's at least five artists who have 2-4 tracks on the list each). That didn't happen in previous decades, with few standout occasions.

In the past, when an artist had 10% of the chart, they were a remarkable talent, like Elvis, or the Beatles. Today that can happen and the artist could easily be flippin' burgers the next year.

 

[tall_guy1]

"Kiss Me" and their follow-up "There She Goes" are both now getting airplay on Classic Hits stations whose playlists have expanded to the '90s, like "Big 98-1" WOGL in Philly.

Sixpence None The Richer claimed to be a Christian rock band, and their debut album and "Kiss Me" single both won Dove awards (the Christian Grammys).

They later released a cover of "Don't Dream It's Over", but it tanked.

Kiss Me>>>>>>>>>>>Kiss Me Thru the Phone by Soulja Boy.

 

[tall_guy1]

Ava Max might be starting to slip into this category. While her new single will undoubtedly get added over time, a lot of pop stations still haven't added it. I think her last two hits have had middling callout scores, and most of her hits are big only in the UK.

 

[CTListener]

"Kiss Me" and their follow-up "There She Goes" are both now getting airplay on Classic Hits stations whose playlists have expanded to the '90s, like "Big 98-1" WOGL in Philly.

Sixpence None The Richer claimed to be a Christian rock band, and their debut album and "Kiss Me" single both won Dove awards (the Christian Grammys).

They later released a cover of "Don't Dream It's Over", but it tanked.

No, it didn't. It was a solid AC hit, just like the previous two. I've heard it on AC stations since.