Today's "Beautiful" Music

[amlover]

Sometime ago I had asked about the possibility of Full Service MOR having a place on the radio dial today, and the discussion became quite popular with many comments from many participants. I'd like to thank everyone who participated in that discussion with your comment, insights and general overall perspective on Full Service MOR radio.

Now I'm asking for comments and suggestions regarding a modern day beautiful music format that is really more in line with soft adult contemporary with select non-hit singles and select smooth jazz tunes in the mix. This is not the typical "elevator music" of yesteryear, but, rather, the softer lite contemporary hits of yesterday and today. It may be considered more appropriately labeled Contemporary Easy Listening rather than soft adult contemporary.

Here's an example short playlist of what I have in mind:

Chris Rea - Fool if You Thin It's Over
Deon Estus - Heaven Help Me
Pat Metheny - Here to Stay
Chicago - Wishing Your Were Here
Santana - Aqua Marine
Sheena Easton - You Could Have Been With Me
Steely Dan - Doctor Wu
Marilyn Mccoo and Billy Davis, Jr. - You Don't Have To Be a Star
Enya - Orinoco Flow
Seals and Crofts - Get Closer
Cher - We All Sleep Alone
Ray Parker, Jr. - That Old Song

The above is not all inclusive, but it is a short example of the type sound the format will have. Your comments, criticisms or suggestions are most welcome.

None of the above songs you listed I like. Very boring!

 

[Chuck]

No offense meant to anybody who posts here, but I think anyone who programs a radio station based on the opinions expressed here is doomed for failure. As far as I can tell most of the posts don't reflect mainstream tastes. You can take that as a compliment if you like.

 

[Groove1670]

No offense meant to anybody who posts here, but I think anyone who programs a radio station based on the opinions expressed here is doomed for failure. As far as I can tell most of the posts don't reflect mainstream tastes. You can take that as a compliment if you like.

Chuck, I agree. Two of my favorite songs listed are Chris Rea - Fool If you Think It's over, and Ray Parker Junior - That old song. However, very few listeners will care, or remember those songs. Only us "musicologists."

BTW: both of those songs did not chart well.

 

[vchimpanzee]

RE: Cher - We All Sleep Alone... IMHO that's not an "easy" tune. It's more like soft rock and Cher screams a lot.

Beautiful music formats in the past were primarily instrumental versions of pop songs, and I wonder if that type of music is still being produced today.

R

During its chimpanzee period, the pop standards station where I live played a Cher song with the lyrics "Go Down in flames just like Jesse James". Which it did. The good music was back a month later.

 

[michael hagerty]

Chuck, I agree. Two of my favorite songs listed are Chris Rea - Fool If you Think It's over, and Ray Parker Junior - That old song. However, very few listeners will care, or remember those songs. Only us "musicologists."

BTW: both of those songs did not chart well.

Well, the Chris Rea didn't do badly...peaking at #12 on the Hot 100 and it was #1 on the Easy Listening chart.

"That Old Song" only made #21, though.

 

[Carmine5]

Many considered Smooth Jazz to be the inheritor of the Beautiful Music legacy. The one problem that the format had, as Mike McVay said once at a convention, is that it is "music you've never heard by people you've never heard of". And that's why it was a low cume, high TSL format that occupied a niche that was not sustainable in the PPM.

There is, thus, no heritage base for a Beautiful Music modification to build on.

A number of former Smooth Jazz stations tried to morph into soft AC / smooth jazz hybrids, and none has worked. The last, KTWV in LA, is now rumored to be about to shift formats under a new PD.

The real issue is that for most people under 55, "smooth" anything is not appealing. Remember when WFEZ tried to do smooth AC in Miami? Dreadful 25-54 numbers, so they killed the older stuff and upped the tempo and are now doing extremely well.

Of course, there was the occasional Smooth Jazz crossover like Grover Washington Jr., Chuck Mangione and Sade but I don't think there was enough of it to encourage the average top 40 listener to migrate to the SJ format or, at least, program it on their radio. As for young people and instrumentals, we know they like Trance and Techno and similar genres. But since none of this is on terrestrial radio, they're listening to it on the internet and I don't think you can break them of that habit.

What I've found is that young-ish listeners like Latin "cool" from the 60's. Women in their 30's and 40's seem to really enjoy Bossa Nova. They may hate The Hollyridge Strings (a guilty pleasure of mine) but they'll love Jobim and similar artists of that genre. Young listeners also like the "detective" music of that era. For some reason, a lot of kids know and enjoy the "Peter Gunn" theme, for example.

So you can program beautiful music for a younger generation but you really need to be selective.