SO MANY UNORIGINAL CHR HITS

[atlantaboy]

So I heard the new Chris Brown song yesterday, and listened to him sing along with the melody line to Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" for half the song - which reminded me of the new Jason DeRulo song, where the entire hook is him singing along to the melody line of "Day-O", and the latest Lupe Fiasco hit, where the entire hook is him singing along to the melody line of "Float On" by Modest Mouse.

I understand that labels may be desperate to come up with new hooks for pop artists, but this pattern is starting to bug me, cause to me it makes CHR look like a talentless format - remaking songs is one thing, but using melody lines of other songs because you can't come up with an original hook yourself, and then passing it off to a young teen audience as an original song they've never heard before IMO just makes the current pop music industry look bad

Add to this Take It Off by Kesha (which takes its hook from a kid's nursery rhyme), The Time by the Black Eyed Peas...

Sampling is one thing, but this isn't sampling - it's taking a melody line (with permission) from another song and putting your own words to it, so that most of the young CHR audience has no clue it isn't an original hook

 

[anthonydt06]

This is what happens when CHR refuses to spin anyone except a few artists ad nauseum without taking into account the quality of the song.

 

[sdh483]

Sounds like they're getting back in to the late 90s early 00s era where everyone was sampling songs a la then Puff Daddy. I even recall a Brittney Spears or some female pop singer using a sample from Jack and Diane. Yuck!

BTW that Chirs Brown is actually sampling a song from the 90s by SWV called Love Will Be Right Here which samples Michael Jackson's Human Nature. A sample of a sample? Really? Then again, I refuse to listen to an artist who beats women.

 

[CHRles]

A great example of sampling right now is Coldplay's "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall"

The opening melody is taken directly, note for note from "Ritmo De La Noche" by Mystic, which came out around 1990.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV87-38W5R0

Here's the Coldplay record for comparison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kf_6BWcOOg&feature=related

 

[acesup]

I even recall a Brittney Spears or some female pop singer using a sample from Jack and Diane. Yuck!

Jessica Simpson - I Think I'm in Love with You (2000)

 

[wdb2003]

That was actually a decent song compared to Brittney's annoying voice

 

[justpassingthough]

CHR is arguably the format for the lowest common denominator. Your casual music fan, and your younger audience. So, most of the audience probably doesn't know Michael Jackson's "Human Nature", much less SWV's sample- so it is new to them.

Those of us who know music to the point of arguing about it on a message board are more than just casual fans- so there's that.

 

[Starbucks]

Nearly died when I heard that Chris Brown song. It least SWV harmonized well the sample. Janet Jackson gidn't even know that "Ventura Highway" intro was a sample by America when she recorded her sample hit. Looks like were heading back to the 90's to early millenium with what's starting to come out again. Your right....LCD= OPP.

 

[CatCall]

which reminded me of the new Jason DeRulo song, where the entire hook is him singing along to the melody line of "Day-O",

Derulo also borrows from the old hit "Show Me Love" by Robin S. The new song is a rip-off but works, I guess.

 

[atlantaboy]

which reminded me of the new Jason DeRulo song, where the entire hook is him singing along to the melody line of "Day-O",

Derulo also borrows from the old hit "Show Me Love" by Robin S. The new song is a rip-off but works, I guess.

I mean, it works for the current audience - I just think people are gonna look back on 2009-2011 as "joke" years in CHR, just like they did with 1989-1991 (Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, etc.) - Teen/novelty stuff like this gives the format a boost for a couple years, and then leaves the format in disaster a couple years after that when there's a huge backlash against all this stuff, and there are literally almost no recurrents to play

 

[Starbucks]

The last quarter of 2009 through most 2010 seemed to be the peak era of the millenium of better material for CHR for awhile. Party in the USA, Tik Tok, What you Want From Me through the Lady Antebellum, and Usher to the Neon Trees "Animal", Rihanna /Eminem hit last summer era as it looked like Top 40 was coming back to stay. While most of the playlist was listenable or enjoyable. It's starting to wane. Their just burning out these artist, even though some of the stuff is still good, your not gonna make it to the 21 plus on samples just to come up with a tune. That Chris Brown one is a joke. And there's some more crap coming out again, like the Lil Wayne, and Nikki Minaj song. And Adam Levine leading and semi leading on 3 current singles. There okay but ENOUGH!

 

[CHRles]

I really don't think it's nearly as bad as you guys paint it out to be.
First of all CHR radio is all over Adele and Bruno Mars. What backlash are you seeing there???
So far one of the biggest summer hits is LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem". I definitely see it being played in the coming years, especially in sports games, and really at a lot of mainstream events.
I also don't think there's any backlash going on right now against Pitbull's "Give Me Everything".
Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night"? Pretty original, and simply pure Pop of the type that harkens back to the mid 80s.
You've got a nice record from One Republic sitting just outside the Top 10, and the Band Perry are continuing on with the Country crossover tradition as they're now Top 20 on CHR/Pop.

The latest from Britney Spears and Nicole Scherzinger, Bad Meets Evil, and other records are supplying CHR radio with exactly the kind of records it needs, and that work.

 

[atlantaboy]

So far one of the biggest summer hits is LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem". I definitely see it being played in the coming years, especially in sports games, and really at a lot of mainstream events.

Idk, to me that one's pretty disposable - the chorus is catchy, but all the messing around with bending notes on keyboards, etc. during the verses reminds me of "The Time (The Dirty Bit)", which some people loved but a lot of others thought was a piece of trash

Agree that it could be used at sporting events, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good investment for radio (in terms of recurrent/gold play) - i. e. Who Let The Dogs Out, Jock Jam, etc.

I definitely think it's original, though, so this post is pretty much a tangent

 

[justpassingthough]

which reminded me of the new Jason DeRulo song, where the entire hook is him singing along to the melody line of "Day-O",

Derulo also borrows from the old hit "Show Me Love" by Robin S. The new song is a rip-off but works, I guess.

I mean, it works for the current audience - I just think people are gonna look back on 2009-2011 as "joke" years in CHR, just like they did with 1989-1991 (Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, etc.) - Teen/novelty stuff like this gives the format a boost for a couple years, and then leaves the format in disaster a couple years after that when there's a huge backlash against all this stuff, and there are literally almost no recurrents to play

I disagree, and think the proof is in that many stations are switching from other formats to CHR. Radio has never been more researched, or in the hands of fewer owners, so for these large corporations to make an investment in CHR, they must believe that we are in a golden age of current hit radio.

In the past, when CHR was in the doldrums, stations were flipping from CHR formats in droves and formats like Modern AC popped up. Stations are clamoring to be CHR stations now, including as you've pointed out in the past, "disguising" themselves as mainstream CHR when they could probably be classified as rhythmic.

Yes, there is bad music now. There is always bad music. People tend to forget the bad music as time goes on and remember the better parts of an era.

 

[atlantaboy]

which reminded me of the new Jason DeRulo song, where the entire hook is him singing along to the melody line of "Day-O",

Derulo also borrows from the old hit "Show Me Love" by Robin S. The new song is a rip-off but works, I guess.

I mean, it works for the current audience - I just think people are gonna look back on 2009-2011 as "joke" years in CHR, just like they did with 1989-1991 (Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, etc.) - Teen/novelty stuff like this gives the format a boost for a couple years, and then leaves the format in disaster a couple years after that when there's a huge backlash against all this stuff, and there are literally almost no recurrents to play

I disagree, and think the proof is in that many stations are switching from other formats to CHR. Radio has never been more researched, or in the hands of fewer owners, so for these large corporations to make an investment in CHR, they must believe that we are in a golden age of current hit radio.

In the past, when CHR was in the doldrums, stations were flipping from CHR formats in droves and formats like Modern AC popped up. Stations are clamoring to be CHR stations now, including as you've pointed out in the past, "disguising" themselves as mainstream CHR when they could probably be classified as rhythmic.

Yes, there is bad music now. There is always bad music. People tend to forget the bad music as time goes on and remember the better parts of an era.

No doubt that CHR is in a "boom" phase right now - it was from 1989-1991 also - the question IMO is what's going to happen three years from now when the format has few recurrents to play (that still test well), similarly to what happened to CHR around 1994, when stations were stuck with almost no recurrent/gold material from the late 80s/early 90s that still tested well

CHRs in every market loved playing Milli Vanilli, NKOTB, Paula Abdul, Debbie Gibson, etc. in 1989, 1990, 1991 - TONS of CHRs were doing extremely well across the country, and the number of stations flipping to CHR was enormous - the problem occurred in 1993 and 1994 when there was a huge backlash against all this stuff, and PDs realized that none of this "fluff" was substantial enough to give continued airplay to - and that's when record numbers of CHRs bailed on the format

 

[justpassingthough]

I think the difference between now and the early-mid 90s doldrums at CHR is the present state of music. Yes, its hard to predict three years out, but in the early 90s as grunge started to take hold and hip hop started to build, music was headed in a number of directions and CHR was afraid to follow suit. The truly popular artists of those days- Nirvana, Pearl Jam, 2Pac, Notorious BIG, even country acts like Garth Brooks etc- received almost no CHR airplay.

Today, CHR is so heavily researched and music companies are so overly invested in their product, that I don't think we will experience that problem again. If market forces dictate a change in direction at CHR, I think the format will be much quicker to respond. I think we have seen that in the past 2 years, as electro has started to replace hip hop at CHR as the rhythmic music of choice, and even core hip hop artists that receive CHR airplay have shifted their music to spotlight this trend.

 

[atlantaboy]

^Don't really understand the comparison - the current CHR boom IMO is comparable to the CHR boom of 1989-1991, when teen pop was the hottest thing out there (pre-Alternative, pre-hip hop)

NKOTB, Milli Vanili, Debbie Gibson, Taylor Dayne, etc. were all heavily researched, and helped CHRs achieve huge ratings during this time period - the problem was IMO that the lack of substance in 1989 led to a situation in 1994 where CHRs had almost no recurrents/golds around which to build a successful playlist

 

[CHRles]

WARNING: Long Post Alert!

CHR's biggest growth period in the 80s occurred between 1983-85.
CHR continued to perform very well up until the late 80s. Suddenly a growing number of well-programmed CHR/Dance and Adult CHRs started popping up in more and more markets. Therefore the format started to splinter not just in places like Miami and San Francisco, but also in places like Fresno and Orlando.
The music promoted heavily on MTV included a good amount of Hard Rock and some Teen Pop. Yet CHR radio was also able to play VH-1 hits by the likes of Bette Midler and the Beach Boys b/c they too were performing well on Billboard's Hot 100.
You had Dance hits from the likes of Information Society, Milly Vanilly, Rick Astley, and others chart well. You had Hard Rock hits from Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, Poison, and more that young
suburban females were suddenly discovering in droves. And Rap was slowly but surely creeping up more and more thanks to crossover records from the Fat Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Tone Loc, and others.

In 1991 things began to change fast. While black artists such as Prince, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, and Michal Jackson defined the crossover sound of the 80s, and were pure Pop, in the early 90s we saw the rise of crossover R&B by young groups such as Boyz II Men, Shai, TLC, and others.
Gangsta Rap was on the rise thanks to NWA (whose album hit number one), Ice T, Public Enemy, and more.
Grunge and Alternative Rock was making headway on MTV as Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" quickly became the official anthem for a whole new generation of high schoolers and college freshmen. Dance was getting clubbier with hits from the likes of Snap.
At the same time there were still some Adult Contemporary artists riding high on the charts such as Amy Grant and Michael Bolton.
In the end, many of the big hits from 1989-1992 became staples of radio stations all across the country on all the leading formats...except CHR!
A/C stations pounced on late 80s/early 90s ballads from Debbie Gibson, and were very supportive of Wilson Phillps, Richard Marx, etc.
Modern Rock stations built their entire cume on MTV's success with Nirvana, or Pearl Jam's "Jeremy".
Rock stations had no problem playing Guns N Roses massive hit "November Rain", alongside its 1988 smash "Sweet Child O Mine", or "Welcome To The Jungle".
R&B stations and Rhythmic crossovers loved playing all the Hip Hop doo-woo acts of the day, or some Bobbie Brown, or Kriss Kross, or Sir Mix A Lot.

And CHR radio? Many stations just didn't really know which Recurrents to play. They were used to playing a lot of pure Pop and Adult friendly middle of the road type songs in the mid 80s. Only a few slots on their playlists were usually devoted to youth-friendly reaction-records.
The truth is most of CHRs could have still been playing Mill Vanilli records if they ignored all the media hype and backlash surrounding the group's lip synching. 104 KRBE Houston realized its audience still liked hearing Mill Vanilli songs, and could still be heard playing Milli Vanilli titles in 1992.

Additionally, as I've stated here numerous times before, in the early 90s half of America's radio stations were in the red. There were problems with the economy, and many station owners panicked. Consequently, this forced many CHRs to dump the format for a more Adult appealing one.

Nowadays, the situation is different. Why? B/c companies like Clear Channel use CHR as part of their wall of women strategy, and b/c they like having 18-34 targeted stations on their portfolio. They're able to present their advertisers in any given market with several options (like a good Country, A/C, or Top 40 station) thereby optimizing their ad campaigns.

 

[Morpheux]

I read this board often although I hardly comment. It seems like most of the critique of chr radio is unwarranted and just based on personal taste. Granted that,not every chr in the country lives up to it's format perfectly. One of my favorite chr's that has a well balance playlist is WAKS 96.5 KISS FM Cleveland. They play all the top hits From the likes of Rihanna,Ke$ha Usher and so on but they also will play you Hot Chell Rae,The Band Perry as well as dance from Afro Jack and Martin Solverg. Add to that the latest from Lupe Fiasco,One Republic.They're also playing California King Bed for a while now. That's why they say they play "All The Hits".

 

[atlantaboy]

I kind of feel like this thread has gotten off on a tangent though - the purpose was supposed to be a discussion of the fact that so many current CHR hits are rehashes of older songs (passed off as new songs, since most of the teen audience is unfamiliar with them)

This includes Chris Brown/She Ain't You, Lupe Fiasco/The Show Goes On, Jason DeRulo/Don't Wanna Go Home, Coldplay/Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall (although that one doesn't sound as blatant to me), Kesha/Take It Off, Black Eyed Peas/The Time, etc.