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Why are there so many country stations and only so few rhythmic ACs?

I

icycool7227

They should convert half those country stations into rhythmic ACs. Country is just such a boring format compared to rhythmic AC. I've tried to like it but I just can't. Why is country so popular?

Another format that stinks are the urban ACs. They aren't even like the Quiet Storm shows late at night on regular hip-hop stations. I mean, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" on an urban AC. Yeah, real bright programming there, not.
 
icycool7227 said:
They should convert half those country stations into rhythmic ACs.
Click to expand...

The only reason for any station to stick with any given format is because they're making money with it.

I'm guessing rhythmic AC (sorry, I don't quite know what that is) is either difficult to sell or appeals to a demo
that doesn't have a lot of money to spend.

I created my Internet station back in 2001. Back then, it had a pop/contemporary Christian format that "kinda did okay."
A format switch to country back in 2003 began a slow climb to a much bigger audience, and today it is a Top 10 station in the country genre on our network and has been picked up by iTunes. We now have several hundred listener streams per day.
 
I've tried to like rhythmic AC, but I just can't. Rhythmic AC is just such a boring format compared to country.

;-)
 
icycool7227 said:
Why is country so popular?
Click to expand...

My guess is that you have not lived in "country" country. Through the years my personal musical tastes have evolved so I am not as likely to punch up a country station these days.... but I still enjoy coming across a station that plays the genre of country that I think of as "classic". (As I tune around it becomes obvious that different programmers, depending of their age and their geography, have their own personal idea of what is classic.)

If you grew up in Dawson County Georgia or Mingo County West Virginia or maybe Yell County Arkansas, you might not have country music as your favorite choice, but you would not be puzzled why so many stations program it.
 
icycool7227 said:
Another format that stinks are the urban ACs. They aren't even like the Quiet Storm shows late at night on regular hip-hop stations. I mean, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" on an urban AC. Yeah, real bright programming there, not.
Click to expand...
That's true.

What ARE the urban ACs like if not the Quiet Storms?

Now I've heard uptempo classics and even old-school rap on urban ACs. That may have been a special program.

What I really don't like is how smooth jazz has to have so many vocals, and so many of the vocals sound like urban AC, not jazz. In fact, a bunch of the instrumentals aren't even jazz but instrumental urban AC.
 
Alan McCall said:
icycool7227 said:
They should convert half those country stations into rhythmic ACs.
Click to expand...

The only reason for any station to stick with any given format is because they're making money with it.

I'm guessing rhythmic AC (sorry, I don't quite know what that is) is either difficult to sell or appeals to a demo
that doesn't have a lot of money to spend.
Click to expand...
I don't think that's it. I think its target audience is women of a certain age who do have money. And they're not mostly black, but they don't like rock.
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
icycool7227 said:
Why is country so popular?
Click to expand...

My guess is that you have not lived in "country" country. Through the years my personal musical tastes have evolved so I am not as likely to punch up a country station these days.... but I still enjoy coming across a station that plays the genre of country that I think of as "classic". (As I tune around it becomes obvious that different programmers, depending of their age and their geography, have their own personal idea of what is classic.)

If you grew up in Dawson County Georgia or Mingo County West Virginia or maybe Yell County Arkansas, you might not have country music as your favorite choice, but you would not be puzzled why so many stations program it.
Click to expand...
What is puzzling is why so many of the so-called country stations don't really sound country. If there are that many, we need some that sound country.
 
Chimp said, "What is puzzling is why so many of the so-called country stations don't really sound country."

With respect, this may be the reason.......

Could it be that "sounding country" is NOT a positive, today as it may have been when the salesman got stuck in (the peaceful setting of) Mayberry for a few days, and Aunt Bea fixed him a few meals and Gomer had to fix his car?

These days, there is a "Sleep Cheap" with cable and HBO, and even a "Waffle House" near Mayberry. He could het his radiator fixed at the local "Pennzoil" or "Midas" place.

Maybe it's because Minnie Pearl and Grandpa Jones and Ferlin Husky are "grandma and grandpa's" country. "Ol Ern" is no longer with us, with a gaping hole where a tooth ought to be (see I Love Lucy).

Today's country fans have been to the big city more than an "annual trip." They've been down the interstate to the mall - so "the jot 'em down store" (listen to Lum & Abner) in Puff Bluff isn't enough and the TV station in Pixley (see And Griffith) is now a Fox affiliate that shows per-inquiry "bad girls" infomercials with censored "bits" just before sign off.

Where I live (in the midwest) I know an adult guy (the only one with this habit) who wears western apparel and cowboy boots. Some mean people say he looks like "Roy Rogers" and they laugh at him behind his back

To me, it is very sad that when he leaves, people ridicule him just because of his choice of clothes. I am among his few friends.

For some people "sounding country" may denote a stereotype of "barefoot and poor," "hillbilly," "uneducated," "moon pies and Dr. Pepper," "aw shucks"- even poor use of English..while "contemporary hits" can denote, "modern," "with it," "more affluent" "upward mobile", "money to spend" - whether these impressions are true or not.

Thirty (!!) years ago, WMAQ, Chicago was a hugely successful "country" station that offered country (and crossover) music with a fast moving style, BIG contests, and a "top 40 sound" presentation.

VERY clever to not alienate the (more sophisticated) Chicago audience while still offering "country music." Chimp, as I have tried to explain before, the reason is MONEY- nothing more.

Maybe that is why. Maybe not.
 
I look up rhythmic AC on wikipidea,I like some of the artists listed on the list,except the rap crap,I know in my area we've got one,as for to many country stations, playing the new current music,yes I agree,there are to many,I would to see some to flip to Classic Country,but half of us old fans,including me are getting old and hard of hearing and dying off,so the classic country format will be useless in some areas.anyway todays country sounds more like pop rock for the young hip demos so they like the format and thats why today country music is so hot.
 
I've noticed a couple of things that may have led to country's popularity, both on the radio and with fans:

1) The artists are real people, not stars. They meet and chat with their fans. For the most part, there's no line between them and their fans, and the fans appreciate that. They don't get that treatment from a lot of other artists. Darius Rucker, who was lead singer of Hootie & The Blowfish, noticed it right away.

2) The music is very direct and appealing, with lyrics that speak about normal stuff. No long drawn out solos or words you don't understand. You know what they're talking about, and you may even relate to what they're saying.

3) The country community is very organized and friendly. The artists mostly all live in the same town, and tend to know each other, and listen to each other's music.

4) The country music industry knows how to market its music very well. They have built great relationships with radio, and that means a country radio station has more tools at its disposal than a station in another format.

5) As Alan Jackson once noticed in "Gone Country," the music isn't so different from Dylan or The Eagles. People who grew up liking harmmony-driven rock find a lot of familiarity there.

The point though is music isn't a competition, where the best music wins. It's just as Merle Haggard said, "Playing music for the folks." This isn't like politics, where there's an ideology that one has to follow, where if you don't tow the party line, you're a Communist. It's just music. You either like it or you don't.
 
What I am about to write borders on being a philosophical stretch so don't get hostile if you feel I am skating on thin ice.

I do church sound. I went to a seminar about a year ago and some long-time professionals in designing and operating sound equipment for concerts and recording had a panel discussion and I learned something new to me, but old hat to them.

When you walk into a new situation, you ask them if them if they want a "Rock" mix or a "Gospel" mix. After about 45 minutes of back and forth this is the picture I walked away with.

Gospel music and country music is about the song, the words, the vocal. When "the sanger is sangin" the instruments get in line, (or the sound mix guy PUTS THEM in line) underneath the vocal.

Rock music is all about "who is the biggest stud-bull in the corral." Every instrument player in the band is playing louder and bolder in a kid's game of "king of the hill". The vocalist(s) hang onto the tail of the stud-bull and gets drug through the corral. The sound guy makes sure the vocalist is never "king of the hill".

Country music is comparatively popular because a lot of listeners want to hear the words.

(Some Sunday "I/m a fixin" to play hookey from my place and go to one of those churches where they let the bulls run.)
 
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