And yet they continue to try to claim that's exactly what they are.Seltzer said:
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Please Explain The Logic to "No Soft Music on AC Anymore"
- Thread starter Gregg
- Start date
Not everyone has it, or if they do it's not fast enough or they don't have sound.cd637299 said:
And what about cars?
The beautiful music stations of the 80s that evolved to soft A/C kept the "soft, relaxing" part, but that never meant that ALL A/C's were soft, or defined by being soft and relaxing. A/C didnt play the extremes of rock, hip hop or whatever but still could be quite uptempo.
That was true but with the few exceptions of WLYF, WFEZ and WDUV and maybe others, they're not soft.borderblaster said:
I
imhomerjay
Guest
vchimpanzee said:
Perhaps because what is relaxing and stress free to the actual target audience includes peppy tunes.
vchimpanzee said:
Plug an iPod into the car's system. It isn't the stations' obligation to cater to whatever minuscule fraction of the audience lives in 1998.
semoochie said:
Guys, what current songs on the CHR or Hot AC chart do you consider "soft" enough for AC to play? If you're looking for ballads, there are extremely few on the charts, and it's been this way since the 90s.
You're trying to feed a format with songs that just aren't there.
AC needs to be "Contemporary", and the well of soft, contemporary hits is basically empty (with maybe just a couple of exceptions). You can't feed the AC format with soft classics from the 70s, because then the format wouldn't be Adult Contemporary.
I
imhomerjay
Guest
When did Diamond and Striesand suddenly become not contemporary? 
Seriously, though, that's precisely the point. The audience has spoken about what it wants, and stations are generally responding. Yet a handful of people cling to some antiquated notion of what AC is supposed to be because it was that way once upon a time. Country changes. Rock changes. Pop changes. Yet AC is supposed to remain living in the last millenium?
Seriously, though, that's precisely the point. The audience has spoken about what it wants, and stations are generally responding. Yet a handful of people cling to some antiquated notion of what AC is supposed to be because it was that way once upon a time. Country changes. Rock changes. Pop changes. Yet AC is supposed to remain living in the last millenium?
The AC here used to claim to be "family friendly" (maybe they still occasionally do), but I notice that they have moved away from that (slowly) in recent years.vchimpanzee said:
Yeah, the "easy listening, beautiful music" stations slowly began to fall out of favor in the early '90s. What is amusing to me is that that music was sometimes called "elevator music." If I ever programmed a station with what I heard on elevators, it would be all dead air all the time because that was all that I ever heard on elevators! ;Dborderblaster said:
I think it's notable, as I've said over and over, that AC DOES play "soft" music. I mentioned on another thread about how most of the 90s music on AC's is sleepy. There are still plenty of "soft" songs from the 80s that are found frequently- "Human Nature", "True", "Open Arms", "Father Figure", "Against All Odds", etc - it's just that the slower songs have been supplemented with more upbeat/aggressive ones to provide better variety and make the station more lively.
carolinaradio said:
Not sure about other stations, but that definitely isn't true about B98.5 - i. e. Counting Crows, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Hootie & The Blowfish, Alanis Morissette etc.
atlantaboy said:
In some cases. mid tempo is the new soft. The artists you mention above have many songs that would be mid tempo and soft in today's world. These artists were all core to Hot AC in the 90s and it only makes sense as that audience gets older. that mainstream AC's would embrace that music. Do women in their 40s like this music? The answer is a resounding yes.
As I stressed in the thread I started a couple of weeks ago (http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=204937.0), I've been drilling the question as to why more AC's don't embrace more mid-tempo 90s songs in addition to the sleepy ones, like B98.5 and WLIT are. Especially since the then-Hot AC audience has and/or is aging in to the AC demographic. Seems like it'd make sense for more AC's to start giving that material some attention. Cox AC's are the best when it comes to 90s.Seltzer said:
B-98.5 is an awesome AC. They used to be pretty crummy, but have really improved in the past year.
Seltzer said:
Maybe, but CarolinaRadio said that most 90s music on AC was "sleepy" - there is nothing "sleepy" about the Dave Matthews Band/Ants Marching or Alanis Morissette/Ironic
On MOST AC's. Some, like the Cox AC's and WLIT, have stepped outside of the Paula Cole/Edwin McCain/Celine Dion/Donna Lewis/Shania Twain/tired Hootie and the Blowfish box and added some more 90s titles that were typically heard on Hot AC's in years past (that I've mentioned on this board) but getting too old for that format. "Crash Into Me" by DMB seems like it'd be a perfect song for AC, but few play it.
C
cd637299
Guest
carolinaradio said:
I don't know the song, but I have heard *about* it. Some troll on Sep 11 or 12, 2001 on some board said he called a station and really wanted to hear it, and apparently was upset that it would not be played. Tasteless and unfunny.
cd
carolinaradio said:
I guess I'm a little confused as to why AC stations which play Katy Perry and GaGa would mix these artists with only soft music from the 90s - "Upbeat hits from today, soft music from yesterday"? ???
And to make things interesting, my AC now plays "Without You" from David Guetta & Usher. I guess it's really no harder than "What Is Love" by Haddaway. Back in the day, I thought that song was way too aggressive for AC, but it got decent airplay. But I'm still surprised to hear David on AC.
That's exactly what I've been saying on here for the past couple of weeks - aggressive with 80s, aggressive with anything since the early 00s, but the 90s material AC plays is pretty much crap. I know 90s music apparently doesn't 'test' well on AC, but there's way better than this stuff that's become staples from that decade by artists like I mentioned. The acts that aren't sleepy (the same Goo Goo Dolls song, same 2 Matchbox 20 songs, 2 Melissa Etheridge songs, same 3-4 Hootie and the Blowfish songs are good examples I guess) are played to death. I don't understand how songs that have worked on Hot AC for years must not work for AC. The 90s need to be taken up a few notches on AC, IMO...there's nothing about Dave Matthews, Counting Crows, Alanis Morrisette, Collective Soul, Gin Blossoms, etc. that are any more out of place than Whitesnake, Gaga, Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, The Outfield, aggressive Journey, Nickelback, etc., which are acceptable...atlantaboy said:
I guess I still don't understand how decent 90s pop/rock material doesn't hold up as well as sappy, slow, burned out 'soft' AC songs from that era - with AC's now playing stuff from the 80s that once were Hot AC staples, it seems like they would pick up Hot AC 90s tracks as that format moves away from those (B98.5 is a perfect example of what it seems like more AC's should be doing)....
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