Most of them.. I've been getting shocked lately hearing Mr Sun Mr Moon , Goody Goody Gumdrops, and even some songs like Hedge Hopper , and that's alittle too deep. Even the 70's are getting oh wowed. Gunhill Road, Mott the Hoople, I guess I'll stick around a bit longer. The weak link is the 80's...it is a bit MTV centric.
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The Decade channels are Back!!!!
- Thread starter Starbucks
- Start date
80s on 8 is "MTV-centric" by design. Honestly, it should be spun off under a "Big 80s" brand in the Pop section, except that its replacement would tend to go right back to that format. There were simply too many completely incompatible formats in radio during the 1980s to be played back-to-back for an all-inclusive-format to last.
Kenny Rogers, Guns 'n Roses, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails ("Down In It" broke in 1989), Herbie Hancock, the Clash, Lisa Lisa, Metallica, Lipps, Inc., the Beastie Boys, Alabama, Genesis, Human League, the Ramones.
How you gonna keep listeners through a set like that?
Kenny Rogers, Guns 'n Roses, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails ("Down In It" broke in 1989), Herbie Hancock, the Clash, Lisa Lisa, Metallica, Lipps, Inc., the Beastie Boys, Alabama, Genesis, Human League, the Ramones.
How you gonna keep listeners through a set like that?
ykw said:
It seemed to work for Top 40 radio in the 80's...where the typical chart on any given week might include New Wave, Hip-Hop, Hair Metal, R&B, and Country crossovers....and it worked very well for the pre-merger 80's on 8, which captured the flavor of the decade far better than it's current incarnation. There was R&B on the 80's pop charts....who knew???
Also if the 80's Billboard singles charts are used as a guide, neither Metallica or NIN would make the cut as neither reached the Top 40 singles chart until the 90's, nor would The Ramones (who never cracked the Hot 100 in the 80's).
The 70's on 7 has similar challenges (Led Zeppelin, The Carpenters, Aerosmith, Tony Orlando And Dawn, Chic, Parliament, John Denver, Kiss, Glen Campbell, Steve Miller....)
It's not just about the content, but capturing the essence of an era. MTV was only one part of the 80's musical landscape, and by no means representative.
I do like the "Big 80's" spin-off idea, though. Perhaps it could take some of the burnt out, overplayed "hit" material away from 1st Wave as well (another channel that really needs help..especially in the playlist-widening department).
radiodog2 said:
No, MTV was a HUGE part of the '80s musical landscape; in fact, it defined it. Play me some Mr. Mister or Cyndi Lauper or Men At Work and I immediately think "Eighties." Play me something by Alabama or Kenny Rogers and I don't. I wish '80s on 8's playlist was deeper, but sorry, I have no problem with its focus. The soft AC and country crossovers of the early part of the decade and the rap of its last two years just don't fit a channel whose core artists are Duran Duran and Prince. And yes, I know how Top 40 stations sounded back then; what sounded good then doesn't necessarily work in a service committed to narrow niche programming.
Most of the music I remember and liked from the 80s was stuff I heard on MTV! Back then, it was "cool" to watch music videos, and if you made it onto MTV, you were the "coolest of the cool" and just about everybody loved you! I remember during my youth seeing a new video, then going to school the next day and talking about it with my classmates whom had also seen the video. So I can say 80s on 8 does fully represent my overall tastes in 80s pop music (and those of most others who grew up during the 80s as well).
C
ceaser
Guest
I grew up in the 80's and i promise you there was way more to the 80's than mtv.Way more, like paul mccartney,kenny rogers,the stars on 45,kim carnes and christopher cross,among many others.That mtv on 8 station on is a very false look at the 80's.
E
evalmaster
Guest
I enjoy the first wave channel. It is heavy 80's with a little bit of late 70's. Very reminicent of WLIR-FM in its heyday (even some of LIR's dj's). Since that works well a MTV based spin off of the decades channel might make for a good listen too.
radiodog2 said:
Because Viacom would sue the pants off Sirius XM, perhaps?
ceaser said:
Obviously, Sirius did its focus group testing and determined that a channel that replicated the MTV sound would appeal to a greater percentage of people taken off the street (or from blood banks or methadone clinics or wherever else in New York City that Karmazin and his No. 1-market-based stooges look for focus group participants who really need the money for their next hit or bottle) than would an '80s potpourri channel that would be playing Grandmaster Flash and A-ha and Kenny Rogers in the same hour. Hey, sometimes even crackheads get it right!
I guess I (without previously knowing it)..........I am one of the Sirius Stooges (even though I don't drink or use illegal drugs; but I was w/i 350 miles of the Big Apple 10 years ago!).
I oppossed this merger from the get go, but somehow I was on the Sirius XM mailing list and in survey they inquired which of the music channels I listened to and on the decade channels, I listed that I listened frequently to channels 5 through and including 8, but not as frequently as I used to due to the shorter playlists.
Then about this time last year I received an invitation to complete a survey online, they did warn that the survery would take over 2 hours and that it did not have to be completed at one time, but within a few days; I went ahead and completed it in one session and it took about 2 hours, 45 minutes.
The survery had sound clips of several hundred (I'm thinking somewhere around 700 - 800 songs) and I was asked to rate how I liked the songs and whether I thought they were played too frequently or not enough; in other words on each song there were several questions to complete. Being that at the time I was really disgusted with the decade channels and had lost faith in Sirius XM I was skeptical about what good it would do to complete the survey; but since they have brought many songs back that had been abandoned, I would like to think that I had a very very small part in this.
drt
st. petersburg,fl
I oppossed this merger from the get go, but somehow I was on the Sirius XM mailing list and in survey they inquired which of the music channels I listened to and on the decade channels, I listed that I listened frequently to channels 5 through and including 8, but not as frequently as I used to due to the shorter playlists.
Then about this time last year I received an invitation to complete a survey online, they did warn that the survery would take over 2 hours and that it did not have to be completed at one time, but within a few days; I went ahead and completed it in one session and it took about 2 hours, 45 minutes.
The survery had sound clips of several hundred (I'm thinking somewhere around 700 - 800 songs) and I was asked to rate how I liked the songs and whether I thought they were played too frequently or not enough; in other words on each song there were several questions to complete. Being that at the time I was really disgusted with the decade channels and had lost faith in Sirius XM I was skeptical about what good it would do to complete the survey; but since they have brought many songs back that had been abandoned, I would like to think that I had a very very small part in this.
drt
st. petersburg,fl
C
ceaser
Guest
Just recall if you will xm(pre-merger) 80's on 8 with rick stacy.They did audience research and testing as well.It was world's apart from mtv on 8 from sirius.
ceaser said:
IIRC, the emphasis was still on big MTV-fave hits. There was more r&b and end-of-the-decade hip-hop and metal, but I don't recall hearing any Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt or Alabama. And the playlist was much tighter than '50s or '60s, though not as tight as '90s. Songs like "The Reflex" and "In a Big Country" were still getting at least one spin a day.
The old XM never based the entire sound of its channel on testing. Some of it was seat-of-the-pants stuff or Lee Abrams pushing his favorite bands. That was never Sirius' approach, and no amount of whining is going to get them to switch to a philosophy that, one must admit, could not sustain XM's once-huge subscriber lead no matter how greatly it pleased musicologists and chart geeks. Don't forget who won the war.
The real look of the 80's decade could not relate with the times today as far as lifestyle and actually programming to everyone's taste today unfortunately. There has never been a decade where so many artists from generations charted and competed with one another currently like the 80's. Stones, Gary US Bonds, Roy Orbison, Joe Cocker, all had chart success along with currents, Blondie, Springstein, Duran Duran, and Madonna. There were no cublicles and fragments, for most, and if Jim Morrison was still living during the 80's ...he would've had succesful chart success with the Doors.
The beginning of the decade saw the crash of the disco market which nearly wiped R&B off the pop chart the first half with exceptions ...MJ, Kool & the Gang, Stevie Wonder. Country and Pop Hits, and New wave took over. That's all there was left.
We all saw an actor trade his white sport coat, in for white cowboy hat at the box office, and when that happened...Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Mickey Gilley, and unheard of Don Williams were crossing over. 80's radio was just following the trend the way America was living. And it would've continued that way if corporate and mergers and a few other loose rules weren't in effect. But you always had rebel audience listeners back then that were in their own genres like Hairbands, Glam Rock, College Rock, etc,,,but that didn't really become an important issue until XM and the internet came out. They had a choice.
Now with all these choices, can a full 80's format with everything that charted above number 25 , become everyone's decade station today?
The beginning of the decade saw the crash of the disco market which nearly wiped R&B off the pop chart the first half with exceptions ...MJ, Kool & the Gang, Stevie Wonder. Country and Pop Hits, and New wave took over. That's all there was left.
We all saw an actor trade his white sport coat, in for white cowboy hat at the box office, and when that happened...Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Mickey Gilley, and unheard of Don Williams were crossing over. 80's radio was just following the trend the way America was living. And it would've continued that way if corporate and mergers and a few other loose rules weren't in effect. But you always had rebel audience listeners back then that were in their own genres like Hairbands, Glam Rock, College Rock, etc,,,but that didn't really become an important issue until XM and the internet came out. They had a choice.
Now with all these choices, can a full 80's format with everything that charted above number 25 , become everyone's decade station today?
While I'm a proponent of wider (within reason) playlists, I'm fine with the 80s Channel.
I guess by the 80s, I was looking to MTV for my musical interests. For me, until I read this thread, it didn't occur to me that the 80s Channel was missing a lot of 80s hits. I like the surviving MTV VJs being the hosts. (Sorry that J.J. Jackson is no longer with us.)
I like having Sirius for Howard Stern, the two NPR channels, Left... and for music, I like The Bridge, Love, Watercolors and then the 70s and 80s Channels. I got it for Stern originally and hope he renews his contract. But if he didn't I'm mostly satisfied with the music choices and having two NPR channels plus Left.
Gregg
[email protected]
I guess by the 80s, I was looking to MTV for my musical interests. For me, until I read this thread, it didn't occur to me that the 80s Channel was missing a lot of 80s hits. I like the surviving MTV VJs being the hosts. (Sorry that J.J. Jackson is no longer with us.)
I like having Sirius for Howard Stern, the two NPR channels, Left... and for music, I like The Bridge, Love, Watercolors and then the 70s and 80s Channels. I got it for Stern originally and hope he renews his contract. But if he didn't I'm mostly satisfied with the music choices and having two NPR channels plus Left.
Gregg
[email protected]
I'd love to do a survey, if they care.
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