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What changed Hot AC in the mid to late 90s?

J

Jasonthegreat

Frequent Participant
Based on what I have seen on R&R's Hot AC chart throughout the 90s, Hot AC started very soft, then around 1996 or so started going more toward an alternative-style sound, with still a few softer AC titles, but AC by then was more uptempo than before. What exactly, in your opinion, caused the sudden change in the Hot AC format in the mid to late 90s? Any insight on this?
 
The same thing that drove Hot AC more rhythmic/CHR in the last part of the last decade: It's target audience (25-44 Women) was listening to it. In the mid-90s, Alternative was very popular, so acts like Sarah McLachlan and Third Eye Blind became Hot AC staples. In the early 00s, harder rock became popular, so ballads by bands like 3 Doors Down and Nickelback became staples. Now, that audience wants to hear rhythmic/pop, so acts like Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga have become successful at the format, though Alternative product (albeit, a much different product than its 90s incarnation) has made a return to the format.
 
^Agree, but another huge factor IMO is the supply of new artists/material - in 1996-1997, 80s artists like Phil Collins, Sting, and Rod Stewart had pretty much exhausted their sound, while there was a huge increase in pop/alternative artists like Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & The Blowfish, Alanis Morissette, Jewel, etc.

If Hot AC had stayed "soft", by 1997 they would've had very little new music to play - and the 25-34 audience at that time seemed much more interested in Alanis and Dave Matthews than in Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart

Formats shift IMO because of the supply of artists - same reason Alternative shifted two years ago, in that most new material was now being put out by Indie/Folk artists, and the supply of harder-edged Active Rock bands was dwindling
 
atlantaboy said:
^Agree, but another huge factor IMO is the supply of new artists/material - in 1996-1997, 80s artists like Phil Collins, Sting, and Rod Stewart had pretty much exhausted their sound, while there was a huge increase in pop/alternative artists like Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & The Blowfish, Alanis Morissette, Jewel, etc.

If Hot AC had stayed "soft", by 1997 they would've had very little new music to play - and the 25-34 audience at that time seemed much more interested in Alanis and Dave Matthews than in Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart

Formats shift IMO because of the supply of artists - same reason Alternative shifted two years ago, in that most new material was now being put out by Indie/Folk artists, and the supply of harder-edged Active Rock bands was dwindling
Click to expand...

If there's demand, there will be artists, established or emerging, to fill it. The softer artists/material dwindled because the audience's (25-44 women) taste had evolved in a different direction.
 
michael hagerty said:
atlantaboy said:
^Agree, but another huge factor IMO is the supply of new artists/material - in 1996-1997, 80s artists like Phil Collins, Sting, and Rod Stewart had pretty much exhausted their sound, while there was a huge increase in pop/alternative artists like Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & The Blowfish, Alanis Morissette, Jewel, etc.

If Hot AC had stayed "soft", by 1997 they would've had very little new music to play - and the 25-34 audience at that time seemed much more interested in Alanis and Dave Matthews than in Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart

Formats shift IMO because of the supply of artists - same reason Alternative shifted two years ago, in that most new material was now being put out by Indie/Folk artists, and the supply of harder-edged Active Rock bands was dwindling
Click to expand...

If there's demand, there will be artists, established or emerging, to fill it. The softer artists/material dwindled because the audience's (25-44 women) taste had evolved in a different direction.
Click to expand...

I've got to strongly disagree with that - IMO musical taste is formed in response to hearing new artists - without the emerging new artists to expose the audience to that sound, musical taste wouldn't randomly change towards or away from a particular style of music

People don't randomly decide "I like soft music," or "I like harder-edged music" without first being exposed to a significant number of artists producing that form of music

It's the artists writing the songs, especially in the Hot AC genre, and their ideas are coming from themselves, not from a desire to fill a certain musical taste - at least with the artists we're talking about in this thread
 
atlantaboy said:
michael hagerty said:
atlantaboy said:
^Agree, but another huge factor IMO is the supply of new artists/material - in 1996-1997, 80s artists like Phil Collins, Sting, and Rod Stewart had pretty much exhausted their sound, while there was a huge increase in pop/alternative artists like Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & The Blowfish, Alanis Morissette, Jewel, etc.

If Hot AC had stayed "soft", by 1997 they would've had very little new music to play - and the 25-34 audience at that time seemed much more interested in Alanis and Dave Matthews than in Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart

Formats shift IMO because of the supply of artists - same reason Alternative shifted two years ago, in that most new material was now being put out by Indie/Folk artists, and the supply of harder-edged Active Rock bands was dwindling
Click to expand...

If there's demand, there will be artists, established or emerging, to fill it. The softer artists/material dwindled because the audience's (25-44 women) taste had evolved in a different direction.
Click to expand...

I've got to strongly disagree with that - IMO musical taste is formed in response to hearing new artists - without the emerging new artists to expose the audience to that sound, musical taste wouldn't randomly change towards or away from a particular style of music

People don't randomly decide "I like soft music," or "I like harder-edged music" without first being exposed to a significant number of artists producing that form of music

It's the artists writing the songs, especially in the Hot AC genre, and their ideas are coming from themselves, not from a desire to fill a certain musical taste - at least with the artists we're talking about in this thread
Click to expand...

But people don't automatically like every new sound they hear, and genres don't evaporate if there's a viable audience.
 
michael hagerty said:
genres don't evaporate if there's a viable audience.
Click to expand...

I agree, but if there isn't a steady supply of breaking new artists in that genre, that genre becomes recurrent/gold-based, rather than current-based - for example, there were still plenty of people in 1996-1998 that still loved Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, and Phil Collins, but because of the lack of new material in that genre, they shifted to AC, while Hot AC picked up the new pop/alternative genre that was rich with current, breaking artists
 
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