What Killed Beautiful Music?

[TomásEstefan]

AC began in the early 70's, while Beautiful Music lasted well into the 80's. But AC, first known as "chicken rock", was pretty much the more adult songs from Top 40 and initially was a 25-44 target. As time went on, the Beautiful Music 35-54 listeners became 50+, and AC became 18-49 and the sales demos for instrumental fans aged out.

But, more than that, the sources of music dried up. Record labels could not sell anything except a bit of Pourcel and Muriat, and many of the orchestra leaders and arrangers died. And the current hits of the later 80's did not make for good covers... an instrumental of "YMCA" was not very appealing.

Way back in the day when I was in an elevator and I heard the "Muzak" play a Beatles cover, I always thought to myself, this is nice but I would rather actually listen to the Beatles.

Occasionally, I would hear an older adult (my parents age) humming along with a familiar Beatles or other contemporay artist's tune and I would ask them if they new who wrote it it. They would be amazed at the answer because they would say that they didn't like the Beatles or other such group.

 

[KilowattKat]

I wonder if an all instrumental music format will ever make a comeback on the FM dial. Music has a way of coming back full circle over time.

Radio still considers the playing of any instrumental (no matter the format) an audience and ratings killer.

 

[CTListener]

I wonder if an all instrumental music format will ever make a comeback on the FM dial. Music has a way of coming back full circle over time.

Radio still considers the playing of any instrumental (no matter the format) an audience and ratings killer.

People are aging differently when it comes to the music they like. Listeners whose preference-establishing years (teens and twenties) were the '80s and '90s have no desire to hear their favorite songs from those decades turned into instrumental wallpaper. And with instrumental hits having disappeared from radio during those decades, they have no memories of instrumental music they actually liked in their younger days now that they're in their 40s and 50s. Anything can happen, I suppose, but instrumental music on FM -- other than classical and jazz on noncomms and smooth jazz and EDM on who-cares HD subchannels -- appears a lost cause for the foreseeable future.

 

[TomásEstefan]

I wonder if an all instrumental music format will ever make a comeback on the FM dial. Music has a way of coming back full circle over time.

Radio still considers the playing of any instrumental (no matter the format) an audience and ratings killer.

This is why Jazz is now almost exclusively on non-commercial radio. Jazz was commercially successful in the 1950s and part of the 60s because it was considered very trendy (new and exciting!) For years LA's KBCA was very successful.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I wonder if an all instrumental music format will ever make a comeback on the FM dial. Music has a way of coming back full circle over time.

Radio still considers the playing of any instrumental (no matter the format) an audience and ratings killer.

Not necessarily. Classic Hits stations still occasionally play the Miami Vice Theme by Jan Hammer ...

 

[Nick Seneca]

For further reading on this format, I recommend "Radio...My Love, My Passion" by Marlin Taylor. Marlin is one of the legendary beautiful music programmers, having started in the 1960s on WDVR in Phila. He was blessed to work in the format he loved until he was 80, programming "Escape" on Sirius XM. The book is full of great radio stories and the challenges Marlin faced when launching the format in a new market.

(Sorry if this has been brought up already; I didn't scroll thru all 10 pages!)

 

[oldradiotapes]

Was he still programming WDVR in mid-1972?

 

[Hoxie]

This is why Jazz is now almost exclusively on non-commercial radio. Jazz was commercially successful in the 1950s and part of the 60s because it was considered very trendy (new and exciting!) For years LA's KBCA was very successful.

I suppose it belongs in another thread, but I've often wondered why jazz went into a long death spiral after being widely embraced in the Big Band era. I'm guessing that the free-form bebop stuff, so beloved now by intellectuals and public-radio types, irritated and bored the mainstream just as rock'n'roll and R&B were taking off... but I dunno.

 

[davideduardo]

For further reading on this format, I recommend "Radio...My Love, My Passion" by Marlin Taylor. Marlin is one of the legendary beautiful music programmers, having started in the 1960s on WDVR in Phila. He was blessed to work in the format he loved until he was 80, programming "Escape" on Sirius XM. The book is full of great radio stories and the challenges Marlin faced when launching the format in a new market.

A visit to Marlin's web page is also recommended: Home | Marlin Taylor

 

[oldradiotapes]

Was Marlin still programming WDVR in mid-1972?

 

[Alex33M]

I think there was a somewhat recent (post-1995) Environmental cover of "Don't Fear the Reaper" but I'd have to check my library. Probably by Manasus Music, one of the Disk Eyes imprints or Harley. It certainly didn't appear on any of the LPs.

They definitely did "John Barleycorn Must Die"....



Yes. Back then they were proper work trucks, plain and simple. Effectively power tools built for a specific purpose (doing your job), not the jack-of-all-master-of-none, overbuilt family sedans they are today.

Howdy, you seem to have some information regarding Environmental songs/instrumental covers of pop songs.. I was curious if you might have any information regarding any of these songs: Until You Come Back To Me, Soul Food To Go, Sukiyaki, Pure Imagination, The Christmas Song or Someone That I Used To Love. I made a forum post that dives more into depth into what I'm trying to get out of these songs so if you're interested, you could take a quick peek there.

 

[Kelly A]

Not necessarily. Classic Hits stations still occasionally play the Miami Vice Theme by Jan Hammer ...

Ugh, talk about instant tune-out.

 

[gr8oldies]

I was working at a restaurant while I was in high school and the Muzak system played the elevator version of Born to Be Wild.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Ugh, talk about instant tune-out.

Not really, if only played once in a great while as an "oh wow" title. I wouldn't keep it in regular rotation anymore, though.

 

[TomásEstefan]

I suppose it belongs in another thread, but I've often wondered why jazz went into a long death spiral after being widely embraced in the Big Band era. I'm guessing that the free-form bebop stuff, so beloved now by intellectuals and public-radio types, irritated and bored the mainstream just as rock'n'roll and R&B were taking off... but I dunno.

Jazz, Classical, Folk/Americana...these three formats appeal only to certain demographics, I can't really explain who they are, even though I happen to be one of them!

 

[johndavis]

Jazz, Classical, Folk/Americana...these three formats appeal only to certain demographics, I can't really explain who they are, even though I happen to be one of them!

For that matter, I can't explain why NAC (aka "smooth jazz") worked for a time, either. I know we had a real audience at the station that I worked for that came out for events and drove traffic to direct business, and for a time it was a way for a 40-something to feel upscale and affluent even if they didn't drive the luxury autos that our advertisers sold.

Then those 40-somethings became 50-somethings, and the artists, who were always following a formula to begin with, really started phoning it in. How many Motown covers could you play in an hour without the format feeling old and stale?

When a format becomes more like a parody of itself than a musical genre, it's over.

 

[DrAkbar]

Still digging "90 Degrees In The Shade" by Heavyshift. Must be a Buckeye thing to wish for that kind of heat!

 

[semoochie]

For that matter, I can't explain why NAC (aka "smooth jazz") worked for a time, either. I know we had a real audience at the station that I worked for that came out for events and drove traffic to direct business, and for a time it was a way for a 40-something to feel upscale and affluent even if they didn't drive the luxury autos that our advertisers sold.

Then those 40-somethings became 50-somethings, and the artists, who were always following a formula to begin with, really started phoning it in. How many Motown covers could you play in an hour without the format feeling old and stale?

When a format becomes more like a parody of itself than a musical genre, it's over.

It isn't even an HD channel where I live anymore!