"Starting over with a younger audience" is almost a trope at this point though and tv and radio have tried it multiple times to little success. Nbc tried it with conan on the tonight show in 09 (we remember how that turned out) and Kevin reilly tried it on tbs and tnt in the late 10s with new programming(he's now out of a job and almost all of the programs have been cancelled.)
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Entercom's alternative experiment not a success?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
Except when it leads to success, as it did with Jimmy Fallon. It's a generational thing, and works just fine with CHR radio. They keep changing the music all the time and the audience stays in the same box. That's what should have happened with alternative, but the music stopped growing.
What should they have done with it?
It's a struggle. Using KROQ as an example, they could see the ratings were going down, they could see the average age was rising, so it was obvious they needed some kind of change. Too bad it happened in a pandemic. None of the options are good, and any of them would have brought the same result. But apparently the conclusion was something had to change. It would have been nice if the music industry would co-operate.
I wonder if the Trump presidency had anything to do with alternative music s downfall? Maybe people gravitated towards different genres?
Presidents rarely if ever affect musical trends to THAT much of an extent. Republican presidents generally cause protest songs to become more popular but in terms of genres not that much most of the time?
IMHO there's just more money to be made in other genres. The investment money comes from the labels, and they seemed to have given up on alternative.
But why did people stop listening to alternative?
I'm not sure they "stopped listening." People like what they like, regardless of the category.
If they can't find it in one place, they go to another.
Seems like ratings have taken a hit over the past years though....
From the early 90's to 2011, Alternative had a clearly defined sound of "rock plus extra stuff". This was a format that had Metallica, M.I.A., and Jack Johnson on the chart in 2008, with Metallica being the highest peaking of those three odd ducklings for Alt. It changed virtually overnight in 2012, enthusiastically so, and listeners... don't seem to have adjusted to it. I've asked people my age and they generally express frustration over what Alternative radio has become and many have stopped listening or switched over to WXRT (which plays several Alt currents along with AAA standard fare). Many kids have turned to online for alt-rock because the local Alt (WKQX) won't play many modern alt-rock songs, instead playing pop.
I think it got even worse in 2018 because Billie Eilish broke out and brought sound-alikes with her. As popular as she is, Billie is an immensely polarizing figure on Alternative with many arguments over whether she qualifies still breaking out on the Internet or real life. "Therefore I Am", despite it peaking at #1 earlier this year, suffered catastrophically bad RateTheMusic scores and callouts which has led to its swift removal from many radio stations' playlists post-peak. And none of her sound-alikes like Ashe have been able to replicate Billie's success due to suffering similar backlash.
(to be fair, "Therefore I Am" has been well-received by pop radio and it also hit #1 on pop radio airplay recently, so this is specifically an Alt radio issue with her)
Interesting, Mom+Pop is sending Beach Bunny's viral pop-punk hit "Cloud 9" to pop radio later this month, right on the heels of it going to Alternative. "Cloud 9" sounds like nothing else on the pop radio format right now - it will be worth watching to see what happens to it on pop as well as Alternative.
I think the problem is they're pushing eilish and the rest on the wrong crowd. I don't think an indie coffee audience is the one that enjoys mgk and billie eilish. They need to recommit to giving them what they want.
Bingo. I remember people asking why KROQ was playing Billie, and I didn't get it either. I figured it was because she was local. I completely misjudged her appeal and her impact. And it's the one-two punch of Billie and her brother Finneas in the larger effect on the music world. Those two have completely changed modern music. They filled the void, and had something people wanted to hear. And I completely missed it when it happened in 2018.
It's really the grizzly bear and animal collective audience that grew the alternative format though, the "coffee shop audience." While the pop audience might like her, it alienates swaths of alternative listeners.
Indie coffee stuff has largely moved to AAA - That ship has sailed for better or worse.
The weird thing with MGK is that he re-invented himself for the Alt crowd. His first Alt single (I THINK I'm Okay, which was under his old image) got mixed reactions. "Bloody Valentine" and "my ex's best friend" were received way better and they were at the forefront of the pop-punk revival trend. "My ex's best friend" is actually #1 on Alt Airplay (again) and top 10 on pop airplay. MGK's re-invention looks genius in hindsight - he has Gen Z eating out of his hand.
Indie coffee is done. Pop-punk is back. That may being guitars back - and in turn disaffected listeners of the past and get Zoomers tuning in. If this works out Alt will be fine after a growing pains year or two.
Is it though? AAA mixes in older stuff though. Alternative should let chr have pop punk and go back to the indie coffee sound with maybe stuff from tegan and sara and find some new bands with that sound to win back the grizzly bear crowd going forward. MGK has kind of a nickelback-type image in the music community.
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Tegan and Sara haven't been relevant for over a decade - they're not coming back.
AAA does mix in older stuff and it makes sense - AAA is frequently for older listeners. The indie coffeeshop Millennials are aging into AAA's target demographics. AAA will change to reflect them. This is not to say that Alternative doesn't have older listeners - the format definitely does - but the format also tends to appeal to the younger crowd more than AAA or Active.
Indie won't go away completely - indie rock has stuck with Alternative in various shapes and forms since the 1980's. Indie fans who don't mind electric guitars will still get what they want. I suspect "hard indie" (think bands like The Blue Stones, Black Pistol Fire, The Glorious Sons, Des Rocs, etc.) will start seeing more success soon as well, the fact that the bands from that scene have been charting the last few years in the wake of Billie and the pop invasion is rather shocking honestly. The Black Keys, the OG "hard indie" duo, is supposedly dropping a lead single next week and I think that will reinforce indie rock's standing... unless Audacy blocks them too.
Earlier in this thread, we talked about radio researching TikTok for new music. There are opinions pro & con about it. But here's an article about KLOS in LA discovering a teenage rock artist on TikTok:
www.insideradio.com
Certainly a lot of this is unique to LA. It may not work in Boise. But it's being done.
KLOS Discovered A Teenage Rocker On TikTok. Now Its ‘Jasmine Jams’ Is A Runaway Hit.
A chance encounter on TikTok has led to a new online feature for Meruelo Media’s KLOS Los Angeles. During the early days of the pandemic, PD Keith Cunningham came across
Certainly a lot of this is unique to LA. It may not work in Boise. But it's being done.
The thing is I'm guessing alternative listeners of any age roll their eyes at tiktok. I don't know if pop punk is what they're after either. Alternative listeners seem very liberal and after the capitol riots, it doesn't feel like they're after music that's too corporate-sounding. I feel like indie rock/pop, hip/hop (like run the jewels) or maybe emo revival might be the best bet for this format.Earlier in this thread, we talked about radio researching TikTok for new music. There are opinions pro & con about it. But here's an article about KLOS in LA discovering a teenage rock artist on TikTok:
KLOS Discovered A Teenage Rocker On TikTok. Now Its ‘Jasmine Jams’ Is A Runaway Hit.
A chance encounter on TikTok has led to a new online feature for Meruelo Media’s KLOS Los Angeles. During the early days of the pandemic, PD Keith Cunningham came across
Certainly a lot of this is unique to LA. It may not work in Boise. But it's being done.
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