Is Alternative on the Verge of a Comeback?

[the golden boy]

I agree with justpassingthrough though that MTV had a huge impact on Modern Rock crossing over to the mainstream in the early 90s, just like it helped Hip Hop cross over, and just like in the mid to late 80s it helped a lot of crossover Hard Rock songs become huge anthems.
While those songs and genres were already impacting CHR radio and the Pop charts, it was undoubtedly MTV that helped take things to the next level.

That's quite an interesting point and you just made me think about something. Do you think MTV becoming a glorified reality TV channel has hurt alternative? While alternative started to decline before MTV went down this route, it is rather coincidental. Without that exposure, people who may not listen to alternative or rock music in general on at least a semi-regular basis could be missing out on some good alternative music and making it more accessible to CHR.

 

[atlantaboy]

All I was trying to relate is that in terms of alternative songs getting airplay at CHR, I wish there were more songs from these new, popular artists like Mumford & Sons getting their fair shake at CHR.

I completely agree - I was just confused because it seemed like you were blaming the Alternative PDs, when IMO it's clearly an issue of CHR PDs and even corporations being resistant to Alternative crossovers - Closer To The Edge by 30STM and Sing/My Chemical Romance were promoted constantly for months, but most stations that played these tracks were Entercom/Citadel/independent/etc., and most (not all) Clear Channel stations were extremely resistant to them - I also think that in many cases, artists themselves and labels have been resistent to promoting material at pop, probably because they didn't want to throw money into the air like Thirty Seconds To Mars basically did

I'd love to see tons of Alternative crossovers at CHR - I just don't think there's anything Alternative PDs can do about it, and I'm also not convinced that it's in their best interest (since if CHR starts playing tons of Alternative, the Alt. stations will lose listeners to CHR)

 

[justpassingthough]

All I was trying to relate is that in terms of alternative songs getting airplay at CHR, I wish there were more songs from these new, popular artists like Mumford & Sons getting their fair shake at CHR.

I completely agree - I was just confused because it seemed like you were blaming the Alternative PDs, when IMO it's clearly an issue of CHR PDs and even corporations being resistant to Alternative crossovers - Closer To The Edge by 30STM and Sing/My Chemical Romance were promoted constantly for months, but most stations that played these tracks were Entercom/Citadel/independent/etc., and most (not all) Clear Channel stations were extremely resistant to them - I also think that in many cases, artists themselves and labels have been resistent to promoting material at pop, probably because they didn't want to throw money into the air like Thirty Seconds To Mars basically did

I'd love to see tons of Alternative crossovers at CHR - I just don't think there's anything Alternative PDs can do about it, and I'm also not convinced that it's in their best interest (since if CHR starts playing tons of Alternative, the Alt. stations will lose listeners to CHR)

I think its a good thing, to a certain extent, if CHR were to play more alternative. As you've pointed out, alt and CHR stations share a rather small portion of their audience- while they're both 18 to 34 targeted, one obviously skews female and one skews male. The examples you gave, like 30 Seconds to Mars and My Chemical Romance not crossing over and chartintg well, when these songs were rather obvious pop crossovers, speaks volumes about the state of alternative music. Ten years or 15 years ago, these songs would have probably received heavy video airplay and they would have done much better at CHR. Now they're relegated to alternative and Hot AC- an entire generation has somewhat missed out on alternative music because MTV, which was such a large contributor to the format, is now exclusively reality shows and a lifestyle channel.

I don't think its such an issue now, as a the upper end of the 18 to 34 demo grew up when alternative was much more exposed on MTV, CHR, etc. but I think this portends an issue down the road, as fills the 18 to 34 target in ten years- mostly kids who have limited exposure to the genre.

 

[Jay F]

No I don't think it's making a comeback. There are usually at any given time a couple of alternative songs on CHR. For example not long ago there was "Use Somebody" and "Animal" . Alt is part of the mix and adds variety but the pop-dance genre still dominates.