IS HIP DYING, IF SO WHY?

[lalumia]

The song with the militaty call out on it is the amazing "Candy Man" by an on fire Christina Aguliera, a brilliant single which was already dropped by Z100 and WBLI;
if anything belonged on CHR this summer, that's it, but I guessit didn't 'test' well;
can you imagine how the early Elvis records would have tested,surrounded by all the Perry Como and Frank Sinatra hits of that era? elvis would have never gotten off the ground;
or how The Beatles would have tested against all the huly gully, twist, go go records of the early 60s?
Elvis and The Beatles would never have even gotten on the radio if testing existed back then(too, new, too different, not like the other records we like);
'testing' is why radio and the music industry is in the giant quicksand sump hole , self created by both industries...

 

[JbeJay]

Elvis and The Beatles would never have even gotten on the radio if testing existed back then(too, new, too different, not like the other records we like);

What utter nonsense!

It depends on who is in the sample. Testing of early Elvis or early Beatles among older people who weren't into top-forty hits would probably have shown miserable scores, yes. But why on earth would a top-forty station, if music testing were done back then, have tested out of their target audience?

If you really think that "new" and "different" music does not test well within the target listeners of its genre, you really don't understand hbow music testing works. "New" and "different" have always been critical factors for hit-driven radio stations, whether you call them top-forty or chr. Music testing, properly done, has consistently shown this to be true.

Let me ask you this: Have you ever worked for a research company which tests music, for an in-house research department of a radio station, or as a radio programmer who makes use of music testing? If not, that may explain why you don't understand music testing.

 

[Jeffrey]

Rap and hip-hop probably aren't dead, but the art form may have hit the same wall that "alternative" hit a few years ago. After a while, it became mainstream and was no longer "alternative." It became just as commercialized as classic rock, urban and CHR.

After a while, any new genre gets consumed by the music industry trying to make it the next big thing. As a result, what once was unique and cutting edge becomes mundane and "same old." I'm not a rap hip-hop afficiando, I grew up on Motown and Memphis soul, Stax and Atlantic stuff. But I pay attention to rap and hip-hop because it's an art form, and "being a white guy in the suburbs," it speaks about a culture and societal condition I probably should be more aware of.

In other words, I'm not on the cutting edge of urban culture. Not even close.

-9-

Not every person who listens to hip hop is black and in the inner city. Whites Puerto Ricans, Asians, even the French like it!And not every person who is black and in the inner city likes rap.

You are correct in your statement and it is exactly for that reason that hip, hop has begun to take a back seat. White kids in the suburbs are moving away from rap and the trends of america's "thug culture".