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Growing Gap Between Urban AC and Urban Contemporary

Kelly A said:
Yeah, when every 'chorus' or hook contains an F-bomb and the listener already knows the actual lyrics, it's simply not worth the effort.
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They can try. I remember when Nine Inch Nails came out with the song "Closer To God", they did manage to get some airplay with an edited version of a song that would otherwise drop the F-bomb in every repetition of the chorus. More recently, there have been a couple of songs that just recorded alternate lyrics that replace the F-bomb with something more acceptable. CeeLo Green's "Forget You" (originally "F... You") comes to mind, as does "Tonight I'm Lovin' You" by Enrique Iglesias. Most recent would be "ABCDEFU" by Gayle.

The clean versions of several of these songs have done quite well.
 
TexasTom said:
They can try. I remember when Nine Inch Nails came out with the song "Closer To God", they did manage to get some airplay with an edited version of a song that would otherwise drop the F-bomb in every repetition of the chorus. More recently, there have been a couple of songs that just recorded alternate lyrics that replace the F-bomb with something more acceptable. CeeLo Green's "Forget You" (originally "F... You") comes to mind, as does "Tonight I'm Lovin' You" by Enrique Iglesias. Most recent would be "ABCDEFU" by Gayle.

The clean versions of several of these songs have done quite well.
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But if most consumers can get the entire unedited song another way, wouldn't the edited version sound wrong? All the songs you mentioned were from at least twenty years ago. A lot has changed in music, and how it's consumed over twenty plus years.
It used to be when there was just radio, a listener had to fill in the blanks of an edited version. 'Tee hee.. I know what they're saying there...' Now there's no need to guess at what's edited out, just download or stream the full version. Most of the modern Urban-Pop songs make 'Closer' by NIN sound like a Pat Boone song.
 
TexasTom said:
They can try. I remember when Nine Inch Nails came out with the song "Closer To God", they did manage to get some airplay with an edited version of a song that would otherwise drop the F-bomb in every repetition of the chorus. More recently, there have been a couple of songs that just recorded alternate lyrics that replace the F-bomb with something more acceptable. CeeLo Green's "Forget You" (originally "F... You") comes to mind, as does "Tonight I'm Lovin' You" by Enrique Iglesias. Most recent would be "ABCDEFU" by Gayle.

The clean versions of several of these songs have done quite well.
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P!nk did a song call "F Perfect".
 
Kelly A said:
But if most consumers can get the entire unedited song another way, wouldn't the edited version sound wrong? All the songs you mentioned were from at least twenty years ago. A lot has changed in music, and how it's consumed over twenty plus years.
It used to be when there was just radio, a listener had to fill in the blanks of an edited version. 'Tee hee.. I know what they're saying there...' Now there's no need to guess at what's edited out, just download or stream the full version. Most of the modern Urban-Pop songs make 'Closer' by NIN sound like a Pat Boone song.
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One of the songs that I mentioned (the Gayle song) is from this year. Two of the others were from 12 years ago, with the last one (Nine Inch Nails) going back to the nineties. Seems like it is an ongoing thing. Plenty of songs have been produced in "clean" radio versions and uncensored versions over the years, and it's still happening. As for what listeners prefer...well, I won't try to speak for anyone other than myself.
 
I have been addicted to listening to the new Urban Alternative format like Vocalo in Chicago or Hyfin in Milwaukee. Its like a AAA for the urban format.
 
I've been listening to Hyfin in Milwaukee for about 3 days now. It's EXACTLY what urban radio has been desperately missing for about 15 years. "Urban AAA" is a very accurate description
 
JRob1125 said:
I've been listening to Hyfin in Milwaukee for about 3 days now. It's EXACTLY what urban radio has been desperately missing for about 15 years. "Urban AAA" is a very accurate description
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I looked at the playlist and it means absolutely nothing to me. I recognized a few names, but none of the song titles.

But if it makes people happy, that's what's important. I'm even more out of touch with "urban" than I am any other kind of music.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I looked at the playlist and it means absolutely nothing to me. I recognized a few names, but none of the song titles.

But if it makes people happy, that's what's important. I'm even more out of touch with "urban" than I am any other kind of music.
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Yeah, if you're not of fan of the urban format, this won't do much to change that. But for the 18-44 black audience who doesn't fit the "urban" stereotype, this almost seems to good to be true.
 
JRob1125 said:
Yeah, if you're not of fan of the urban format, this won't do much to change that. But for the 18-44 black audience who doesn't fit the "urban" stereotype, this almost seems to good to be true.
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I guess it's too much to expect something like early Marvin Gaye or Earth, Wind and Fire or The Commodores.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I guess it's too much to expect something like early Marvin Gaye or Earth, Wind and Fire or The Commodores.
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1992/93 seems to be about the earliest they go, with a few rare exceptions. It's mostly current alternative hip hop and R&B with 90s, 00s, and 10s mixed in
 
vchimpanzee said:
I clicked on "playlist" for this and everyone seems to be Latino.
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Huh? I looked at the "Sweet 116 Heavy Rotation" and all appeared to be Black and Hip Hop artists, not Hispanic.
vchimpanzee said:
If it's at least traditional, I'm not familiar with the music but I am at least more open to it.
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It's not hard-core street Hip Hop. I listened a while and it's got a nice rhythmic-with-a-touch-of-r&b to it. Since I began in radio at a full R&B station, that is kind of nice... an updated version of what I was doing when I was 13!
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I don't know if current technology allows a radio station to seamlessly play the censored versions of songs on air while simultaneously playing the uncensored versions on the stream, but maybe someone should do that.
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There is no reason why that can't be done if the two versions time out identically.
 
The more I listen, this feels kind of like a continuation of old school urban contemporary before explicit Hip-Hop started really dominating the format in the early to mid 2000s.
 
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