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Whatever happened to modern ac?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
I suppose when Modern Rock was more female-friendly, it made sense to have a Hot AC station specialize in Modern Rock hits that appealed to young women. When Modern Rock was more about Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Tears for Fears, Wham, Culture Club, Human League, etc., it wasn't hard to program a Modern AC.
When Alternative Rock became more guitar-driven and hard-edged, I guess that became more difficult to do.
Do we still have some Hot ACs that lean modern? Especially in cities where there are two Hot ACs? I'm thinking KLLC San Francisco, KALC Denver and KTCZ Minneapolis. They compete with another Hot AC. They had been Modern ACs. Do they still lean that way?
When Alternative Rock became more guitar-driven and hard-edged, I guess that became more difficult to do.
Do we still have some Hot ACs that lean modern? Especially in cities where there are two Hot ACs? I'm thinking KLLC San Francisco, KALC Denver and KTCZ Minneapolis. They compete with another Hot AC. They had been Modern ACs. Do they still lean that way?
Audacy alt stations actually seem to lean modern ac with more pop-friendly music at the helm.
I think one can argue that triple-As like KINK and KBCO have some "Modern AC" tendencies.
93.9 in Windsor/Detroit, once a pure Triple A, was leaning in that direction before flipping to Virgin Radio. They played the likes of Pink, Shawn Mendes and Bruno Mars alongside the AAA currents, and Classic Alternative during the noon hour on weekdays and on Saturday nights. Reminded me a lot of Detroit's old Planet 96.3 in the late 1990s. In 1997, Planet reported as an Alternative station to R&R but played Savage Garden and Donna Lewis.
KPLN Planet 106.7 in Billings, MT is one of only true Modern AC's left, along with Cities 97 in the Twin Cities. The Planet mixes new music from the likes of the Interrupters, Killers, Vance Joy and Deathcab for Cutie, along with standard Hot AC artists like Pink. The station even plays a lot of 90's Gold, including Nirvana, Live (Not just Lightning Crashes), Better than Ezra (Strangely enough, Desperately Wanting, as opposed to the more well known Good), Mazzy Star, the Bosstones, and Republica. The Planet is the last of a dying breed, that's for sure. Then again, it appears to be owned by Connoisseur Media, which like Saga, gears their stations towards small-markets with a hyper-local mindset.
Could we say that the above songs from the early days of MTV were teen and young-adult friendly and that Modern Rock evolved into its female-friendly phase later? I love those early songs, which really did sound modern to a kid used to hearing The Eagles, Bob Seger and Lynard Skynard, which were standard fare on the traditional rock stations of that era. (BTW, all these artists are great. I was just pointing out that the MTV stuff definitely sounded different.)
Modern Rock has it 3, maybe even 4 phases, that have been friendly to female audiences.
The first one was 1981 - 1986, which was not long after Rick Carroll invented the "Rock of the 80's" format at KROQ, which eventually spread to several stations Carroll consulted, including 91x San Diego, The Quake in San Francisco, as well as several others. Denis McNamara had a similar impact on the East Coast with 92.7 WLIR Long Island, and WXXP Pittsburgh. Much of the MTV music of the moment, such as Duran Duran, were championed by these early Modern Rock stations.
The second was 1987 - 1993, which was when artists like Depeche Mode, R.E.M, Sinead O'Connor, Siouxie and Banshees and 10000 Maniacs dominated the format. Modern Rock, while still a small format, started expanding into new markets. Music by female artists, as well as melodic synth-pop, such as Erasure did really well on Modern Rock at this time. Many artists that went in to become core artists on Hot AC radio, such as Natalie Merchant, were initially only played on Modern Rock radio.
Third was 1994 - 1996, while some stations during this era started pulling entirely towards a male audience, others still tried to pull a 50-50 gender balance. Stations like Live 105 San Francisco, and 99x Atlanta, had their greatest successes during this time, while targeting a demo that leaned female.
On the other hand, some stations during this era, such as KDGE 94.5 Dallas, leaned exclusively female. KDGE in a lot of ways could be considered a proto Modern AC of sorts. For starters, the playlist was much tighter than your typical Modern Rock station of the time. Looking at old R&R playlists, the playlists of Top 40 Stations like KRBE Houston, Z100 in New York and KDGE were very similar. KDGE even played their top hits just as much as those stations, at 60 spins a week. KDGE heavily played music from the likes of Ace of Base, Real McCoy, and other pop artists of the day, while avoiding much of the harder rock music, such as Alice in Chains. The audio was also processed loud, as female listeners supposedly liked a sound that had a lot of bass.
The mid-90's was a time when a lot of melodic guitar pop started getting airplay on Alternative, then crossing over to pop formats. Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Barenaked Ladies and Goo Goo Dolls are examples of mainstream guitar pop from that era.
2011 - 2017 was another female-friendly era of Modern Rock. This was the heart of the indie-pop/ synthpop revival movement. M83, Lumineers, Florence and The Machine, Chrvches, Lorde and the 1975 are examples of melodic, female-friendly alt pop from that time-frame.
The first one was 1981 - 1986, which was not long after Rick Carroll invented the "Rock of the 80's" format at KROQ, which eventually spread to several stations Carroll consulted, including 91x San Diego, The Quake in San Francisco, as well as several others. Denis McNamara had a similar impact on the East Coast with 92.7 WLIR Long Island, and WXXP Pittsburgh. Much of the MTV music of the moment, such as Duran Duran, were championed by these early Modern Rock stations.
The second was 1987 - 1993, which was when artists like Depeche Mode, R.E.M, Sinead O'Connor, Siouxie and Banshees and 10000 Maniacs dominated the format. Modern Rock, while still a small format, started expanding into new markets. Music by female artists, as well as melodic synth-pop, such as Erasure did really well on Modern Rock at this time. Many artists that went in to become core artists on Hot AC radio, such as Natalie Merchant, were initially only played on Modern Rock radio.
Third was 1994 - 1996, while some stations during this era started pulling entirely towards a male audience, others still tried to pull a 50-50 gender balance. Stations like Live 105 San Francisco, and 99x Atlanta, had their greatest successes during this time, while targeting a demo that leaned female.
On the other hand, some stations during this era, such as KDGE 94.5 Dallas, leaned exclusively female. KDGE in a lot of ways could be considered a proto Modern AC of sorts. For starters, the playlist was much tighter than your typical Modern Rock station of the time. Looking at old R&R playlists, the playlists of Top 40 Stations like KRBE Houston, Z100 in New York and KDGE were very similar. KDGE even played their top hits just as much as those stations, at 60 spins a week. KDGE heavily played music from the likes of Ace of Base, Real McCoy, and other pop artists of the day, while avoiding much of the harder rock music, such as Alice in Chains. The audio was also processed loud, as female listeners supposedly liked a sound that had a lot of bass.
The mid-90's was a time when a lot of melodic guitar pop started getting airplay on Alternative, then crossing over to pop formats. Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Barenaked Ladies and Goo Goo Dolls are examples of mainstream guitar pop from that era.
2011 - 2017 was another female-friendly era of Modern Rock. This was the heart of the indie-pop/ synthpop revival movement. M83, Lumineers, Florence and The Machine, Chrvches, Lorde and the 1975 are examples of melodic, female-friendly alt pop from that time-frame.
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