Rethinking the hits: Why top 40/chr is no longer the dominant radio music format |
| |
| Abstract: | After providing glimpses of the external competition problems besetting the Top 40 radio format and later clones, the author focuses on hit music radio's internal problems. They include narrow formatting and audience fragmentation, the continuing inordinate influence of teens on pop music, the self‐referential nature of the symbiosis between record companies and radio music programmers, music testing results that are used to produce a “least objectionable playlist,” and flaws in the original theories underpinning the Top 40 format. An in‐depth reanalysis of the genesis of the limited playlist concept then follows. A song's reliability in producing a desired pleasurable reaction in the listener (because of factors intrinsic to the music) is advanced as a useful factor in choosing music for radio airplay. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
