What happend to Top 40?

  The reason why I find more inspiration listening to indie most of the time.

 

Interesting.... I write a fair amount of country music. As we all know, who listen to country, what passes as country on the radio today would have been rock in the 70's and perhaps into the 80's.  Crunchy guitars, screaming solos, etc....  fiddles and steel are used sparingly in Nashville these days. 

I am a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association. They have song writers who have had hits and careers in music do evaluations for members in an effort to help guide new writers to be better writers in general and get headed in the right direction if that is the goal. 

On a recent song I sent in for a custom critique and evaluation, the commentary was made about the melody of the song among other aspects. The evaluation said the song had a melody that was actually singable compared to the monotonic songs that are country music today, and went on to cite a number of examples of great melodic songs of the past that were comparable.  I thought that was an interesting observation. The evaluator  went on to lament the fact that not to many singers in Nashville are recording that kind of melodic music these days but held out the hope that one day the tide would turn back to "real music" again. 

Top 40 radio is still there. Don't know if I'd call it alive and well though....However,  It dominates the radio waves.  If your song is not in the top 40 it simply doesn't get air time on the majors. But that is possibly a whole different topic for another day. 

Top 40 is a love/hate sorta thing. We all say we hate it because it's so...... (fill in the blank)_________________    BUT, we'd all love to have a song in the Billboard top 40 in our chosen genre. 

Wave


When I was growing up listening to the "Guitar Bands" of the 70s and 80s  the radio would not play the hard stuff unless it was midnight metal hour or something. 
 
The music on the radio today; composed with explicit content; has no problem being played (they just cut the 4 letter words from the tune). 
 
I have read somewhere that if you keep playing music over and over to a listener (even if its not that good) the listener will except  it as the norm (this is what big radio does).  This is why it takes a real shocker to change the course of Top 40 music.
 
Examples come to mind.
 
"Rock the Boat" by the Hues Corporation - 1974 -  kicked off Disco
"My Sharona" by the Knack - 1979 - kicked off Hard Rock
"Metal Health" by Quiet Riot - 1983 - kick off Metal 
"Walk this Way" by Run-D.M.C - 1986 - kicked off Rap
 
Nirvana/Grunge -  started around 1991 and it died for the most part with the death of Kurt Cobain in the late 1990s. 
 
Are we still on Rap that started in the mid 1990s??
Has music stopped evolving (no more new ideas left)?
 
I have many songs from the 60s until today in my library; listening to Top 40 (radio) whenever I'm in the car as part of my job to stay current. 
 
For the most part I feel that most music today has no real melody and the singers are unble to perform to the standards of yesterday. 
 
Oh; and by the way, I'm anything but square Daddy-O.
 
What is going on???? Opinions anyone?   

Don't listen to Top 40 radio then, it'll stop you listening to 'most music today'.  There are plenty of stations playing a galaxy of good, interesting, innovative stuff. Have a search around.

"My Sharona" by the Knack - 1979 - kicked off Hard Rock

Got to be plenty of hard rock going on in the Billboard top 40 before that (which is 'power pop' really)..Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Heart, Thin Lizzy etc..

 
"Walk this Way" by Run-D.M.C - 1986 - kicked off Rap

The Sugarhill Gang might just argue with that - Rappers Delight was released in 1979

Wave


 
Nirvana/Grunge -  started around 1991 and it died for the most part with the death of Kurt Cobain in the late 1990s.  
  
   

Niel Young was there first. - But not in the top 40, so I will concede.

spacey


You got me curious...what's your job?

My "job" is the music production of my own work (pop).  A lifelong dream.  Been in the learning phase a long time now (since 2004).    I'm what I guess some would call a starving artist of some sort.
I have no clients (don't want any) and work only on my music.

Guitarhacker

You forgot about the audience..... pre-pubescent girls aged 8 to 14.... which means every few years a whole new batch of consumers. 


That means you can repeat this formula over, and over, and over, and over.   A new flash in the pan singer every year, until they start to grow facial hair....  then on to the new heart throb with no facial hair..... and repeat the formula all the way to the bank. 


I just happened to catch an interview with a hit songwriter a few weeks ago. One of the things he said was: "Never forget who your real audience is. Women buy 50% of the music and those same women get men to buy the other 50% for them..... you are writing and selling to women. Never forget that if you want to be successful as a songwriter." 
 
 
 
 

Your on the money here. 
 
But if you look back in history  (I'm mostly thinking bands of the 70s) it seems to me that it was not all about the Teeny Bobbers so much like it is today.  I know you had the Beatles and Elvis with the screaming girls but they were both pretty darn good in there time.  
 
Just look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvaY4AMd-js  
 
Take a close look at that crowd of people (no teeny boppers).  I believe it to be the norm in those days (Top 40).  Try to get a crowd like that today with any new group.
 
I just think that it is correct as mentioned; that nobody has any ideas how to get a new sound that has not been already been done. 
 
I don't believe that Top 40 music can repeat itself to any success.  They now say that guitar bands are no longer considered current.  Just like the big band era and jazz and so on.  I'm not putting down those styles by any means, I'm just talking about Top 40 here.
 
Is Rap the last new idea way back from the mid 1980s?
 
 

I'm just a dancin' fool......

I'm probably more in the middle when it comes to top 40 stuff. Some of I like while other recordings not so much..I just pick and choose as I go along.

Rain

Wave

Has music stopped evolving (no more new ideas left)?

We're talking about a certain type of music here - pop - though it encompasses multiple sub-genres, including the ones you mention. 


Of course, I'm talking in broad terms here, but there's only so much you can do with 4-5 minutes and a formula of verse/chorus/verse/chorus and still appeal to the masses - I still find it surprising how much we've managed to exploit that, from blues, to rock to metal to rap and all the rest.  Not to mention that most of pop music sticks to a 4/4 meter and oscillates between, I don't know, 60 and 120 bpm... I mean, just how much can we squeeze out of that formula?

It's faster or slower, louder or softer, simpler or more complex but all within the limits of a song.  I don't think it's about being inventive in the first place. 

Yes but were talking about Western Wold music we are forgetting the possibilities of other cultures. 
 
For example Rap has various cross rhythms.  Cross rhythm originated in Africa neons ago but its fairly new to us on the pop scene (since the mid 1980s).  Rap performs a conflict in your head with the rhythms (beating 2 against 3 and so on);  that's why it became popular its not your standard 4/4.

Wave

jamesyoyo 



Tell me: does Keisha's "Tik Tok" song move you or make you cringe?

 
 
There are many new songs being created that have a unique sound I agree.  But the style of Top 40 has not changed (with copy cat artists such as what happened to with Rap and Grunge). 
 
Pretty much the new sound has just stayed with that particular artist and not catched on (maybe because it not that much different then what's already been done).

You didn't answer my question.

You did. Thanks.

Let me guess Mr Wave.

You are somwhere between late 40's and late 50's in age?

The kids today don't know what they are missing?

This 'Golden Age' of music mysteriously happened around the time of your late teens?

There's been nothing to touch it since?

Join the club mate you've just turned into what made your parents 'square' when they were the same age you are now...

Fuddy duddy is the new Rock and Roll get with the program down a bottle of tonic wine and enjoy.  It's really not that bad.  I just recently had my first kiss..................wearing my new full dentures.  There are plenty of new firsts to be had every day...

Do you not realise you are just repeating what your parents were saying about the likes of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Pat Boone or whatever when they were still calling the 'Top 40' the Hit Parade?

if top 40 is so great why do they write songs - about mick jagger -- 

Moves like Jaggar - the maroon 5 -- why doesnt he sing -- get  the moves like me cuz i am all about being new and not copying the old mick jagger - 


ok -- explain that one hmmmmmmmmm?

Mooch4056


if top 40 is so great why do they write songs - about mick jagger -- 

Moves like Jaggar - the maroon 5 -- why doesnt he sing -- get  the moves like me cuz i am all about being new and not copying the old mick jagger - 


ok -- explain that one hmmmmmmmmm?

Easy.

Nobody could move like Mooch.

HTH

Is it all that bad? Not for me, I'm in love with my DAW?

I'm down with that sh**!!!...

(p.s. I've been told that means I'm in agreement with you.)