Is there a place for new music in an oldies format?

[johnbasalla]

As a listener I would enjoy hearing new songs by core oldies artists. Selection should be carefully screened so that you only play good ones. Quite frankly, Paul McCartney has one or two really hot songs on all of his 21st century releases. "Freedom", which came out in the wake of the 9-11 Islamic terrorist attacks was a great feel-good song that could have raised the roof, imo. The live version is the best version, with more energy then the studio original. Maybe a Sunday specialty show might do the trick.

 

[gr8oldies]

At the time we did play OTR&R but not Kokomo

 

[landtuna]

In answer to the title question I'd like to suggest the answer is yes, there is a place for new music in an Oldies format - with a huge condition.

That condition would be that the "new" music fit the Oldies genre (not necessarily the chronological time period). For instance, "Kokomo" would fit beautifully into the early 60's Beach Boy's catalog. (And yes, I know "Kokomo" is over 20-years old by now so it isn't really *new* music any longer.)

You don't hear Standards fans griping about Buble's covers of the old faves. And I'm sure someone out there is still playing Big Band as well. I don't see anything that makes Oldies any different. As I've said several times before, I think Oldies is a genre and not a time capsule.

 

[firepoint525]

In addition to "Kokomo" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," there were a few other "head-scratchers" that the former oldies station here in Nashville used to play:

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (yet they never played her other major hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" ??? )
and
"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang

Both interesting choices, since they (at the time) did not play anything else that charted during the same time frame as these.

 

[radioman148]

In addition to "Kokomo" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," there were a few other "head-scratchers" that the former oldies station here in Nashville used to play:

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (yet they never played her other major hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" ??? )
and
"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang

Both interesting choices, since they (at the time) did not play anything else that charted during the same time frame as these.

"Celebration" by Kool & the Gang was kind of the standard party song for years used at all occasions.
You still hear it sometimes today.

 

[landtuna]

In addition to "Kokomo" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," there were a few other "head-scratchers" that the former oldies station here in Nashville used to play:

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (yet they never played her other major hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" ??? )
and
"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang

Both interesting choices, since they (at the time) did not play anything else that charted during the same time frame as these.

I'd classify neither of those as Oldies genre. To me they are Disco all the way.

 

[Tom Wells]

In addition to "Kokomo" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," there were a few other "head-scratchers" that the former oldies station here in Nashville used to play:

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (yet they never played her other major hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" ??? )
and
"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang

Both interesting choices, since they (at the time) did not play anything else that charted during the same time frame as these.

I'd classify neither of those as Oldies genre. To me they are Disco all the way.

I wouldn't classify them as Disco, though they were played in Disco formats.
The were top 40 pop songs with highly polarizing tendencies and a "leaning" toward dico.
You either liked 'em, or you hated 'em.
I hated them when they were new, and still can't bear them.
There are some disco songs I like, but I find no redeeming qualities in either of those two.
Here I would insert an "officer Ugh" smileyface if there were one available.

 

[One Who Knows]

In addition to "Kokomo" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," there were a few other "head-scratchers" that the former oldies station here in Nashville used to play:

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (yet they never played her other major hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" ??? )
and
"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang

Both interesting choices, since they (at the time) did not play anything else that charted during the same time frame as these.

Both of those songs are now 30 years old, or pretty close to it. For God's sake, how old does a song have to be to be considered an "oldie"?

While I will grant you that "oldie" is in the ear of the beholder, I would submit that both of those songs are oldies to someone in their 30's and, perhaps early 40's.

Back in the heyday of AM top 40 rock (which you are so fond of talking about on posts), an "oldie" was a song 3 years old or older. I know...I worked at those stations, too.

This is a discussion which should have been settled by now. But, I fear it will go on and on and on until most of us stop breathing...

I'd classify neither of those as Oldies genre. To me they are Disco all the way.

 

[firepoint525]

In addition to "Kokomo" and "Old Time Rock & Roll," there were a few other "head-scratchers" that the former oldies station here in Nashville used to play:

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (yet they never played her other major hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" ??? )
and
"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang

Both interesting choices, since they (at the time) did not play anything else that charted during the same time frame as these.

Both of those songs are now 30 years old, or pretty close to it. For God's sake, how old does a song have to be to be considered an "oldie"?

While I will grant you that "oldie" is in the ear of the beholder, I would submit that both of those songs are oldies to someone in their 30's and, perhaps early 40's.

Back in the heyday of AM top 40 rock (which you are so fond of talking about on posts), an "oldie" was a song 3 years old or older. I know...I worked at those stations, too.

This is a discussion which should have been settled by now. But, I fear it will go on and on and on until most of us stop breathing...

I'd classify neither of those as Oldies genre. To me they are Disco all the way.

Not sure who you were replying to, but I'll bite. The "oldies" station that I was referring to here in Nashville was playing those songs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So you can determine how old those songs were at that time.

Right before they switched formats (2005), the oldies station here was carrying Tom Kent's program, in which he, of course, played quite a bit of disco. He called it "an hour of '70s" or something like that.

The station in the town where I grew up (top 40 format at the time) had what they called their "Solid Gold Weekend" in which basically anything that was no longer on the charts, no matter how recent it was, was called "gold." I remember them playing Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From" just a few months after it had been a hit, and referring to it as "not too old gold." Seemed to work for me! ;D (That station is oldies now, and plays the '60s through the '80s.)

 

[1069_KIFR]

No.

 

[cspotrun]

No.

DITTO! and what a ridiculous question! if you play NEW music on an oldies station...ITS NO LONGER AN OLDIES STATION!
come up with a different formmat for this kind of radio suicide

 

[Silkie]

If I want oldies, I want oldies, not remakes of oldies.

And not a bunch of new crap stuck in there because it's the only way to feed it to more people.

The age old question comes up again: Should you leave a restaurant if the chef asks, "How do you spell bubonic?".

 

[johnsummers]

To answer the question posed at the beginning of the post....'no'....