What would be the 8-second hook of "Stairway to Heaven"? Or "Bohemian Rhapsody"? On "Year of the Cat" would it be Phil Kenzie's sax solo, rather than Al Stewart's vocals?
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CBSFM- Songs that should be added or re added to the rotation?
- Thread starter coreynj2461
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Smash mouth would have to be included now that one of their members has left. On one hand Smash Mouth is likely to be included for 90's/early 2000's hits for a classic hits station but we didn't expect it to happen the way it did.
Smash Mouth was played this morning on KRTH in LA.
Research hooks are not chosen by the label. While the label may provide a suggested hook, most stations use Cornerstone's Hook Exchange:
( Hook Exchange is a service that offers high quality song hooks and one-of-a-kind sophisticated software to aid in the creation, management and distribution of hook lists.") Cornerstone Research - Quality software solutions for radio.
There are a couple of other providers, but everyone I know used Cornerstone's product.
The last thing I would do in research is take a record company's suggested anything as being valid. That is like asking a tobacco company for cancer research data.
It would likely be, always, the vocal "hook" and not an instrumental. They only time you'd use an instrumental would be if the whole song was instrumental. It was really hard to test Smooth Jazz at the offset when they were still playing a dozen or so Yanni cuts that, to most of us, all sounded the same; it's sorta' like testing a wind chime with different breeze speeds.
New format: The Breeze... all windchimes, all the time.
Now that you mention it, they're listed by the label as "suggested hooks."
Interesting! I wonder if anyone uses them. Today, both "call out" (done online now) and AMTs (also done online) are done by one of several third-party test and research providers and they all use Cornerstone's Hook Exchange or Hooks Unlimited
Our Philosophy | Hooks Unlimited
Hooks Unlimited is joined with all the key telecast examination firms and radio stations over the globe. We focus on time, Hook accuracy and consistency.
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Banned
Yes it did, WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies” played it last week on “Sunny” Joe’s show which was the final week to listened to. WBPM played it on Bob Miller’s morning show occasionally. It was Neil Diamond’s signature song.
Not complaining but wonder why sweet caroline was added back into the rotation? Also heard Aaliyahs "Are you that somebody" today. Thats a first
It seems like hip hop is slowly getting into the format though WCBS plays more hip hop than most of these stations possibly due to their audience in NYC. Hey Ya is increasing on Classic Hits stations for example.
That's not surprising. I remember that "Hey Ya!" was played by radio stations of several different formats during the height of its popularity in 2003-2004.
Essentially classic hits was 60s-80s back then. Now it is a small amount of late 60s music, some 70s hits, lots of 80s hits and some 90s and early 2K songs. Hey Ya likely played on Rhythmic CHR and CHR stations back then primarily and even likely played on Rhyhtmic AC stations at that time as well.
Most have no 60's songs at all.
Most people would probably use the very last line with Robert Plant singing "..and she's buying a stairway to heaven." That's enough to remind people of the song, especially a song that has had that much exposure for more than 50 years.
I've always considered the hook of a song to be what someone would reply with if you asked them, "Hey, how does that song go?" And yes, some songs have multiple sections that can be hooks, some have hooks that are too long to be useful, so you go with the best option you can.
I would also take two different hooks of a multi-structured song like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and use the average of those... but there wasn't all that much of a difference. In a research test of 500-800 songs, you don't sweat small variations, you want to see what the absolute biggest testers are, what the absolute duds are, and everything in the middle really comes down to nuance and how categories are structured.
Yes, the purpose of a hook is to get the respondent to react based on an instantaneous gut feel.
The way you express it is the same as "can you sing a little bit" and that sort of question creates an emotional response.
In tests that did split sections, maybe 50 people in each, I'd flip the order of the hook tapes. The position of a song can change the score. So at the end of a test, people are tired and react differently. Now, with online tests, you can scramble the test for every single respondent so that all the songs appear in the 1st quintile just as many times as in the 5 quintile.
When you see average scores change depending on the weather or the temperature of the A/C in the test room, you realize that no score is exact. We are looking for rank to determine rotation.
The ones with a low rank don't get to go to a bowl game, either.
Those are all very familiar songs that received tons of airplay when they were currents. In my opinion, ANY clip from any part of those songs should be familiar to anyone in the target audience of WCBS-FM. The question is not whether or not they recognize those songs, because they're all recognizable. The question is whether or not they have a favorable reaction to those songs.
Pedantic nitpick: "Stairway to Heaven" was never a "current" because it was never commercially released as a single. Its popularity came from album sales and FM album rock station airplay.
I'll nitpick back at you: Calling something a current doesn't mean it was an official single. It received constant airplay when it was released, and has become ensconced in everyone's memory. My main point though is there's a difference between researching a song for familiarity and for likability. The assumption is that people in the target know this song, but the question is do they want to hear it.
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