Is It Me or has the music and CHR got better.

[Starbucks]

Ever since the last quarter of 2009, I notice alot better material has come out. Especially CHR.
Papparazi, Fireflies, Party in the USA, era on too today. The songs have gotten more contemporary with catchy hooks, chorus, and even more melodic. Even the songs that inter-twine with Rap as the chorus there has been better hit music out then say ....the year 2002 or 2006.
When "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter at one time was the only song you can even relate listening (it's okay in my opinion) or Feels Good - Gorillaz....while the rest of the currents were god awful from 50 Cents, lame song follow ups like Justin Timberlake 's Senorita, and mostly early garbage from the Black Eye Peas, along with tunes like Laffy Taffy and the Whistle song, depressing rockers from Staind, Simple Pleasures "Addicted", and the bratty rock sound of Yellow Card, no wonder the industry is broke.....and I mean pure Garrrbage. I don't know what's worst, the economy or the music industry.
It didn't matter if it's Rock, R&B, or Pop....mostly the playlist sounded dismal doom and gloom, depressing or nonsense. Nothing to lift you up. You look at a playlist from 2006 , 2002, 2004, etc. you just want a puke up at the trash that you wouldn't download for free.
But!...... Lately there has been hope. Since Lady Gaga came out with her first single...things are turning around. Good songs like Jason Derulo, Iyaz, Mike Posner, Taio Cruz, Never Shout Never, Plain White T's, Neon Trees,and even Good Charlotte's latest single has been there best which to me it's okay. The latest album from the Black Eyed Peas, 4 out of their last 5 singles have been impressive. There is a noticable difference in the material everybody's been putting out. Even Eminem's lastest single's are tolerable to listen too, and he even sings. Everyone's there to put a hit single out instead of something that just gets mixed and played at an aerobics class at 24 Hours.
What's going on?...I fine myself tuning into 20 on 20 and the Pulse, or Goom , as much as the 60's on 6 or 70's on 7. It's eithier the music's getting better or I'm getting younger.
What going on? The question here....Do most of you feel the same way I Do? or do you think the music has gotten worse? Have you noticed the difference in the past year? can we actually start spending our money instead of downloading illegally? What do you think?

 

[Wildstyle K]

Once again, this is old news. I think this topic is out of style due to the fact that I've almost over preached it.

 

[XCountry285]

It's gotten Horrible. TOO MUCH RAP and Crap. Justin Bieber? He's NOT even talented! Are you kidding me? He's a joke. There's wayy too much rhythmic on the Top 40 Charts. We NEED rock to balance this out. That's how CHR is supposed to be look at stations like Z-100 in New York they play rock.

 

[Starbucks]

Once again, this is old news. I think this topic is out of style due to the fact that I've almost over preached it.

You show me where you preached this. I don't recall anything or a topic referring or relating what I posted. Maybe a similiar sentence within a past post, but show what I missed. And If I fell like refreshing my thoughts, I will do that. I didn't realize your topics are copyrighted. Who made you chairman of RIAA.

 

[Starbucks]

It's gotten Horrible. TOO MUCH RAP and Crap. Justin Bieber? He's NOT even talented! Are you kidding me? He's a joke. There's wayy too much rhythmic on the Top 40 Charts. We NEED rock to balance this out. That's how CHR is supposed to be look at stations like Z-100 in New York they play rock.

I agree...not enough rock hits...but it's been that way since the late 80's. CHR started getting into a mode where a rock single was there just to break up the rhythmic and pop lean sound of a radio station. They are out there...but they seem to exile them to Hot AC. Nickleback, Lifehouse, Sheryl Crow, which once would always pop on the CHR chart first, now just make it to the top of the Hot AC and barely or score lowly on the CHR . What I'm saying is the rhythmic and pop side improved.

 

[XCountry285]

I do feel that Sheryl Crow should remain on the Hot A/C charts where she belongs. She's a little too folky and adult for CHR.

 

[wxman76]

Not sure if I would say if the music is necessarily better...but looking at a long-term big picture, I see several signs that this is the healthiest CHR has been in about 20 years:

1. The billboard singles sales chart now closely resembles the CHR/Pop Airplay chart. If a song hits top 10 on iTunes, it will likely soon hit top 10 in CHR airplay. There were a lot of singles in the 90s/early 2000s that did great on single sales, but not CHR and vice versa.

2. CHR is now in almost every market in the US.

3. That includes now more than 1 CHR outlet in major markets. The last time we saw CHR wars in markets like New York and L.A. was in the late 80s/early 90s.

4. Hot AC is sounding more like CHR. AC is sounding more like Hot AC. Rhythmic CHR is sounding more like CHR/Pop.

 

[Starbucks]

I agree. In my market...our rhythmic or chubans are becoming more mainstream leaning top 40. Without the Kelly Clarkson, and Kings of Leon. It's a sign that the top 40 the way it was is coming back. There's still fragmentation, but stations are getting into the groove of breaking hits then just following or being corporate controlled which it has been about the last 20years. And it sure sounded like it back in 2002. The first 8 and half years of the 2000's were horrible.

 

[Jay F]

CHR sounds the best it has in years to me. Not playing too much rock has been a genius move whether it was by design or just because of lack of good rock product. By playing minimum rock, CHR/Pop has really hurt CHR/Rhythmic in a lot of markets and stole away much of the audience.

Rhythmic has been getting more mainstream. So the two formats share a lot of the same songs. The difference is the pure pop songs CHR plays sound fresh and fun while a lot of the hip hop rhythmic plays (the songs that don't crossover to pop) sound as stale as can be.

 

[musicman3355]

Once again, this is old news. I think this topic is out of style due to the fact that I've almost over preached it.

You show me where you preached this. I don't recall anything or a topic referring or relating what I posted. Maybe a similiar sentence within a past post, but show what I missed. And If I fell like refreshing my thoughts, I will do that. I didn't realize your topics are copyrighted. Who made you chairman of RIAA.

Do you really have to argue with people who don't agree with you?

 

[Wildstyle K]

Once again, this is old news. I think this topic is out of style due to the fact that I've almost over preached it.

You show me where you preached this. I don't recall anything or a topic referring or relating what I posted. Maybe a similiar sentence within a past post, but show what I missed. And If I fell like refreshing my thoughts, I will do that. I didn't realize your topics are copyrighted. Who made you chairman of RIAA.

Do you really have to argue with people who don't agree with you?

What do you mean? I did agree with Starbucks. If I didn't, we would've never had this preaching conversation to begin with! ;D

By the way, I'm not the chairman, I'm just the vice co-host of industrial cross cultural conclusions!

 

[Wildstyle K]

I do have to mention though, normally I do post links to things I've said in the past if people start talking about it later (similar to like my dance music come back theory), but it will take forever for me to find the links to all the things I've said in regards to more quality, positivity, and creativity making a return to rhythmic and rhythmic top 40 today, because I mostly did this within other posts rather than creating a new topic. Therefore, I'd have to remember each post title dating back to last year that I've commented on in addition to each section of the boards I've mentioned it in. My dance music theory, of course, where I was talking about dance music making a comeback, I can easily find because those I did start as original new topic posts mostly, plus I have links to all the stuff I wrote in 2006 outside of this forum where people were calling me crazy for saying dance music will come back...etc. For those of you who are aware of what I'm talking about, don't worry, I wont get into it. Within the dance section, you'll also see my posts where I said just wait until 2010 when people start realizing all the things I've been saying in 2009, 2008, & 2007 (regarding the dance music aspect) and it will seem like an echo. However, it really doesn't matter who says it first, as long as it's happening and it's something that we want to happen.

Besides, I'm 100% sure the people who've seen my past postings don't want me to get into either of those topics again after the mass incredible amount I've written. I've learned from many past experiences that people on these boards hate novels!  ;D

People may say I have a biased opinion, so of course I'd think CHR has gotten better with all the electro dance influenced hits in it, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about when I say CHR is getting better, or rather "quality music is once again making a comeback to modern mainstream hit radio". I'm talking more in general than just personal taste. I wont get into the history and the comparisons to the true melodic and lyrical quality sound of what hit music used to sound like in the 80's and most of the 90's, but I'll just say in brief summary that lyrics, production, in addition to  many other things have improved in today's hit music and the future is looking brighter for hit music in general. This may be a shocker to some folks, but... I'm even beginning to get used to KE$HA!!!! Lastly, I do still miss the Timbaland style beats from the late 90's and early 00's, and I'm not sure when I will get over it or stop mentioning that!

 

[bchristi]

I don't consider Justin Bieber and Katy Perry to be quality music. In my opinion this is the worst year for CHR in my memory. CHR is sounding more and more like Radio Disney, CHR/Rhythmic stations are either flipping or going mainstream, and Urban is having to rely more on R&B due to the lack of quality radio hip-hop out there, especially in markets where a 24/7 gangsta/thug sound won't sell.

 

[Jay F]

No offense to anyone but I have noticed for many years that CHR get's the best ratings in eras when people complain on message boards about the lack of quality and good taste. I see those messages now and the format is booming in the ratings.

Years ago when I worked CHR "chart geeks", interestingy always male, would call me on the request line and make predictions for the next weeks chart. One guy would actually send me his chart predictions in the mail. They over predicted rock songs and songs with the perception of having good taste and quaility. They underestimated urban crossovers and anything fun and cheesey.
The chart geeks would actually get angry over this. I noticed the more angry they got the higher the ratings for CHR. So my theory is that if the format is not getting at least some men angry and complaining about lack of quality, the format is not doing it's job.

 

[AM FM listener]

So my theory is that if the format is not getting at least some men angry and complaining about lack of quality, the format is not doing it's job.

I agree. CHR is suppose to be fun. It is not targeted to the thinking man who may not be inclined to dance or move around in his seat to the beat of a song anyway. CHR is targeted to women, who tend to be less self conscience about having fun. Of the thousands of hit songs CHR has played over the last 5 years, maybe 50 will be on regular rotation at a Classic Hits station 20 years from now and most of them will be rock-oriented songs, which will attract those angry men. I think that is how it usually works anyway. The dance (rhythmic) hits are the key to CHR's success and the more there are, the better CHR does.

 

[atlantaboy]

3. That includes now more than 1 CHR outlet in major markets. The last time we saw CHR wars in markets like New York and L.A. was in the late 80s/early 90s.

I really think this is a false boost to CHR - the new CHR stations competing with heritage CHRs are almost all essentially Rhythmics - I think they've jumped on the CHR bandwagon for advertising purposes, but literally their entire playlist is based on the Rhythmic chart

 

[XCountry285]

no it's gotten sh****** the top 40's saturated with Rhythmic hits which some I dont mind others are just plain rediculous: Whip My Hair back is a HORRIBLE SONG but I do like the person that sings it though it's not even catchy the new BEP song blows Taio Cruz's new song is stupid. Where's the rock? It belongs and deserves to have it's part back on Top 40!

 

[Wildstyle K]

I agree. CHR is suppose to be fun. It is not targeted to the thinking man who may not be inclined to dance or move around in his seat to the beat of a song anyway. CHR is targeted to women, who tend to be less self conscience about having fun. Of the thousands of hit songs CHR has played over the last 5 years, maybe 50 will be on regular rotation at a Classic Hits station 20 years from now and most of them will be rock-oriented songs, which will attract those angry men. I think that is how it usually works anyway. The dance (rhythmic) hits are the key to CHR's success and the more there are, the better CHR does.

I disagree! I'm a thinking man, I even watch FOX News, and I am loving the dance & rhythmic sound of CHR today! ;D
I almost lost hope, but as of 2008, things actually started getting better. Now I'm amazed at how far we've come since 2008 and the amount of songs that actually have meaningful, heartfelt lyrics that talk about something!

 

[new_friends_gr]

I am so into CHR music these days. CHR has never sounded this good, but then again I'm biased. I love the rhythmic/dance-oriented pop music like Usher, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Pink's latest song, Katy Perry, Drake, Taio Cruz, Ke$ha, Rihanna, etc. With me, I REALLY started listening more to CHR probably toward the end of 2008. 2009 and 2010 have been EXCELLENT years for this format.

For those who are annoyed by the mindless music by people like Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Willow Smith, and others... all I have to say is that the music is supposed to be catchy and fun... not thought-provoking or anything. And it fits the bill.

The past two years have been really good for some of the rock hits on CHR too: All American Rejects, Shinedown, Kings of Leon, etc.

I have listened so much more to CHR music than I used to in the mid '00s, when I listened almost exclusively to mainstream AC.

 

[Wildstyle K]

Now is great, but I still deeply miss the late 90's. The futuristic r&b, pop, & hip hop ALONG WITH the electro-freestyle and booty bass that was played with house and latin house was great - especially in miami, new york, and california. Now, no one even calls music their proper names anymore. They just use words like "uptempo" or "pop" for everything. I wish Timbaland and Missy's late 90's futuristic style continued to evolve through today instead of everyone going back to the boring, easy to make beats productions everyone has fallen back on. Of course, if I loved the U.S. late 90's early 2000's futuristic sound, I also loved U.K. 2 Step... which never took off in the U.S. for some odd reason (unless you consider Daniel Beddingfield 'gotta get through this a huge success). For some reason, everything seemed to have fallen downhill ever since we passed the year 2000, but at least in 2008, that downhill fall began to turn around and music started getting better. It took me a while to fully get used to this new generation of dance, but now I enjoy it, almost as much as I did the entire late 90's sound. The 90's was the best time to have a rhythmic or top 40 party station, and have those mixshows- where you heard a bunch of stuff. I still remember Power 106 in L.A. doing the Labor Day Weekend mix, and the ALL DECEMBER MIX for Christmas and new years in 1996, and all the other stations in L.A. that were also mixing IN ADDITION TO Power 106, including the spanish station!

I'm not sure if I enjoy Ke$ha more than JJ Fad, but I do like her today more than I liked L'trimm from back in the day, and she did release much more records than both of them combined. I miss Usher and Pink's 1999-2000 futuristic style and sound, although Usher didn't really jump on the "futuristic trend" too much, like Aaliyah did.

CHR has definitely gotten better, but I'm not sure if it will ever outdo the past... even though some 80's and 90's elements have "come back" in today's music. We need to "bring back" that futuristic sound. Those of you who remember could imagine how much better slow songs like "dueces" by Chris Brown, "How low" by Ludacris, or "rude boy" could've been if the futuristic Timbaland and Missy style were still around today. The last hint of that whole 1996-2004 futuristic sound I've heard was Chris Brown's "Kiss Kiss" in 2007... and at least we have Pitbull, mostly by himself, still representing that latin house sound on rhythmic & top 40 radio today. The late 90's...that was the best time for pop, r&b, and dirty south hip hop, and even the latin pop phase, latin house/freestyle, multiple boy band/girl band pop groups, and the rock meets hip hop craze that proceeded "the official hip hop takeover".

Don't even get me started on the early 90's pop dance phase. Madonna, Pebbles, Janet Jackson, & Paula Abdul ruled, and we were slowly phasing into the unsuspecting hip hop sound to come... Someday, some kid in 3rd grade today will be logging in on whatever forum they have in 20 years, talking about the 10's pop dance phase.. Jason Derulo, Lady Gaga, KE$HA, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taio Cruz..etc. will be their Madonna, Pebbles, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Ace of B...well, you get the point.