Oh boy, so you're basing your findings on a very sucessful Rhythmic leaning CHR/Pop (WSNX) and a very successful adult friendly CHR/Pop (Z-104). All that's happened is that the pendulum has swung more towards SNX's corner. Makes sense too - more female adults today that listen to CHR enjoy the Rhythmic leaning hits, and that's on top of the younger age females of course who prefer Rhythmic music.
Jeremy, you seem to forget that CHRs play whatever their core wishes to hear. Since CHRs target first and foremost females 18-34, and since now both the younger and older ends who LISTEN to CHR radio (which is different from saying all females 18-34) prefer Rhythmic music the most, then that's what you're gonna get.
A few years back it was the god awful super watered down, dumb as bricks Teen Pop that was hitting the spot, and now it's Rhythmic hits. Back in the mid 90s the upper end of the 18-34 CHR demo was vastly different in its musical preference from the younger end. But ever since both the younger and older female demos graduated from Teen Pop.
I'd like to see a little less lean on Rhythmic music on CHR radio myself, but I'm not a female now am I? And neither are you.
In the mid 80s it was Rock/Pop that was loved most by a lot of target CHR demo, and that's why in the late 80s/early 90s the older demos preferred Phil Collins, Bot Meets Girl, or Michael Bolton on their CHR. The younger demos were already much more into Rhythmic, Hard Rock, and Dance, then later in the early 90s were very big on crossover yet edgy Modern Rock music (ie Beck, Nirvana, Gin Blossoms, and so on).
The early 90s were some of the best years ever for creative music. A lot of CHRs failed not b/c the music wasn't there, but rather b/c you had to be more creative in how you programmed a CHR. You could no longer just simply rely on the Top 40 in Bollboard's Hot 100, but rather had to find your own hits. Some stations went too far into playing Hip Hop and Dance while keeping Roxette and Amy Grant on their playlists, while others became too afraid to play the biggest crossover Rhythmic and Hip Hop hits.
Advertisers in many medium and small sized markets were also giving CHR radio trouble at the time, especially those leaned on too much of the big Rap hits. Stations that were number one in their markets, like Power 103 Terre Haute (I think that was their name) went dark b/c the advertisers didnt get the station.
Audience's tastes were also changing, and that meant that adults that couldnt grasp the new sounds of Hip Hop and Modern Rock, but didnt want to hear a traditional A/C station, turned to Country music as well.
It was the mid 90s, not 1999, when CHR got its groove back on. Once 103.5 KTU debuted in NYC with a Dance station suddenly lead to a very strong resurgence in CHR/Pop radio in general.
You had big Dance crossover hits, you had pure Pop from Merryl Bainbridge with "Mouth", or Savage Garden with "I Want You", or "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis, you had Teen Pop like Hanson and the Backstreet Boys, the new girlpower movement from the Spice Girls, you still had the big female singer songwriters lilke Sarah Mclachlan and Jewel, you still had adult artists like Celeine Dion, and you had some amazing Rhythmic records. Blackstreet's "No Diggity", Keith Sweat, Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" from 1995, you had Will Smith exploding in 97, the Fugees, etc.
1999? It was't a bad year at all, but definitely not the best. It was just a pain to listen to stations like 102.7 KIIS-FM when every other song you'd hear was a from girl/boyband. I think KIIS-FM sounds much better today, even though they lean much harder on Rhythmic hits. I prefer it to their 1999 Radio Disney sound.
