• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Artists that seem to "drop off."

I heard it once on a supermarket chain's background music, stopped my in my tracks. This would have been about five years ago. Could this song still be OK on Muzak-type playlists?
For some reason I thought of your comment earlier this evening. I was in a large wine shop - bigger than some grocery stores when "Let's Get Physical" by Olivia Neuter-John started playing over the PA. It caused me to twitch as I thought of the 80s, short shorts, tights and leg warmers...For both the guys and the women.
 

Attachments

  • 5ec1f7514c530c0766d1ead8.jpg
    5ec1f7514c530c0766d1ead8.jpg
    129.8 KB · Views: 0
"Call Me Maybe" is still played on some Hot AC stations. I've heard it within the last month.
Funny you mention it. Heard it on my local Hot AC (WQAL/Cleveland) on my way to the park today.

Moral of the story: Not everyone will be the next Madonna, Maroon 5, or Bruno. Some artists will just have a couple years of radio relevance. Some only become one-hit wonders. That’s how it’s always been.

I like boombox’s first paragraph about the limited lifespan of artists on CHR. A decade ago, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry could belch into a microphone and it would hit #1. Both artists have had trouble getting anything to “stick” on radio lately (not that either of them need radio hits anymore).
 
Funny you mention it. Heard it on my local Hot AC (WQAL/Cleveland) on my way to the park today.

Moral of the story: Not everyone will be the next Madonna, Maroon 5, or Bruno. Some artists will just have a couple years of radio relevance. Some only become one-hit wonders. That’s how it’s always been.

I like boombox’s first paragraph about the limited lifespan of artists on CHR. A decade ago, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry could belch into a microphone and it would hit #1. Both artists have had trouble getting anything to “stick” on radio lately (not that either of them need radio hits anymore).
I wonder why radio stations still try out Katy Perry songs? I don't know the last time she's had a bonafide hit, and has had a long string of misfires. She might be becoming the next Madonna at this point. Christina Aguilera had a similar problem at the tail end of her career.
 
An extreme example of this would be Debby Boone (Pat Boone's daughter). In 1977, she released a pop single ("You Light Up My Life") that went to number one and stayed there for 10 weeks.
My mother loved YLUML, which she had the organist play at her wedding to my stepfather. YLUML isn't bad, but looking back 42 years later, I would have preferred something upbeat: "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". :) Continue to RIP, stepdad.
 
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.

However in order to qualify as a chart reporter (and thus receive any label promotional goodies) a station must have someone identified as a person who takes music calls from labels. Of course that doesn't matter at classic hits or classic rock stations. But if you play currents, and do regular contesting around current artists, every reporting station must have someone doing local music.

On top of that, with digital streaming taking over everything, the business model's changed.

Plus keep in mind that artists and labels receive royalties from digital streaming, and not from broadcast airplay. So an established artist may at some point stop promoting new music to broadcast, while still releasing it digitally. Broadcast radio stations monitor streaming charts in case something major happens.
 
Millennials who are fans of Harry Styles also love 90s music, and Shania was huge in the 90s.

They wouldn't care about anything she does new, but having Harry sing with her is cool.
That reminds me of when Gloria Estefan had the song "Music of My Heart." I remember being surprised to hear Gloria Estefan on a CHR station at that point, but when I realized she had teamed up with *NSYNC, I understood how that was possible. These collaborations definitely allow seasoned artists to reach younger audiences.
 
That reminds me of when Gloria Estefan had the song "Music of My Heart." I remember being surprised to hear Gloria Estefan on a CHR station at that point, but when I realized she had teamed up with *NSYNC, I understood how that was possible. These collaborations definitely allow seasoned artists to reach younger audiences.
Yes this reminds me of Santana back in 1999-2002 they had albums where they teamed up with the then Younger Rising artists like Rob Thomas and Michelle Branch to attract the Millenial/GenY fans at the time. This is a rare case where a band became big 30 years after their initial hit like Oye Como Va.
 
These collaborations definitely allow seasoned artists to reach younger audiences.

Exactly. But then you have to wonder when someone does them early in their career, as Meghan Trainor did with John Legend or Tove Lo did with Nick Jonas. What's really bad is when they do those collabs early in their career, and they don't make the Top 10. That may be an indication that the career is over.
 
Exactly. But then you have to wonder when someone does them early in their career, as Meghan Trainor did with John Legend or Tove Lo did with Nick Jonas. What's really bad is when they do those collabs early in their career, and they don't make the Top 10. That may be an indication that the career is over.
Country musicians do collabs frequently and many of them become chart toppers. I have a feeling the labels look to pair their stars so both can have a presence on radio even if one or the other doesn't have a single on the slow-moving chart at the time of release.
 
Country musicians do collabs frequently and many of them become chart toppers. I have a feeling the labels look to pair their stars so both can have a presence on radio even if one or the other doesn't have a single on the slow-moving chart at the time of release.

On the other hand, you recently had Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, and Luke Combs each having two songs apiece in the chart: One being their solo single, and the other being their duet.
 
That's actually called an 'Autotune'. T-Pain uses Autotune the most these days.
I assume it was used on Cher's hit because her natural voice can no longer handle the demands of the song. With T-Pain, who knows? Maybe he can't really sing at all but has the phrasing necessary for Auto-Tune to make him a star.
 
On the other hand, you recently had Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, and Luke Combs each having two songs apiece in the chart: One being their solo single, and the other being their duet.
Not to push this thread too far off the tracks, but Chesney's collab with Kelsea Ballerini was, for all intents and purposes, a Ballerini record. Two of the four country stations up this way play an apparent alternate cut of "Half of My Hometown," with no Chesney at all except on the last chorus, and even then, he's not heard singing "my hometown" solo after both sing "Knoxville, Tennessee." Kelsea's phrasing is different in the verses, which leads me to believe that two versions were recorded, rather than Kenny's vocals being minimized in -- or added to -- one of them.

One collab that really puzzled me was pairing Lainey Wilson, who had just had a huge debut hit with "Things a Man Oughta Know," a song with a very Americana/traditional sound, with Cole Swindell immediately afterward on the ordinary power ballad "Never Say Never." But both songs were hits, so I suppose Wilson's solo career won't be hampered by the gap between solo singles.
 
Last edited:
I assume it was used on Cher's hit because her natural voice can no longer handle the demands of the song. With T-Pain, who knows? Maybe he can't really sing at all but has the phrasing necessary for Auto-Tune to make him a star.
It was a choice of the Producer: "The 1998 Cher song "Believe" popularized the technique of using Auto-Tune to distort vocals, which became known as the "Cher effect":
 
and that old guy, Paul something or other, he played with some band in the 60's.... then Kanye found him and gave him a big break by letting Paul do a song with him. I think Rihanna was on it too.

I think his name was McCartney or something
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom