AC's that play new music followed by 80's song

Is it weird that some AC stations would play a newer song from 2014 next to a song from the 80's. Like lets say playing "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry followed by "Heaven is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle.

Noticed that the two AC stations where I live would do just that. Play a Current or Recurrent from this decade followed by an 80's (in some cases 70's) song. Is it a train-wreck to Katy Perry next to Belinda Carlisle. (Or even worse the Bee-Gee's) Not that I mind but why is it some AC stations like to do this.

That is what a typical AC format is supposed to sound like. Stations like this are WLTW/NY, KOST/LA, KODA/Houston, KMGL/Oklahoma City. The AC format has been built to mix old and new and soft and upbeat music, or mix yesterday's AC hits/Top-40 hits along with today's AC hits/Top-40 hits, mainly to focus on 25-54 female listeners with a focus on the median with 40-year-old female listeners in general.

Most AC's do this these days. Even in the early 2000's, we normally would hear "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne followed by "These Dreams" by Heart which is something you would normally hear on a typical AC in most markets.

WILV in Chicago does this all the time. They've played for example, Happy by Pharrell, followed by Borderline by Madonna. I've even heard them go from a newer song, to a 70's song, as this station still plays a number of 70's songs that were in the top 40 in the day. Maybe for example, they might go from Blow Me One Last Kiss by Pink, then go to I will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. It might be a trainwreck, but that's nothing when Chicagoland had Nine FM (their slogan, We Play Anything, which rang true, unlike Jack FM), & they might have gone from Stupid Girls by Pink, then go to Twist & Shout by Mary-Chapin Carpenter.

The example in the launch post, "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry followed by "Heaven is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle. sounds like a segue that wouldn't work. But it isn't because of the years that the songs were released. It's because "Dark Horse" doesn't have the right sound to mix well with "Heaven is a Place on Earth". "Dark Horse" might mix well with "Walk Like an Egyptian". Or, Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" or "Hot N Cold" might work quite well with "Heaven is a Place on Earth.

The litmus test on songs working well adjacent to each other should be if someone who had no idea when the two songs were recorded heard them together liked them together, then they go together.

I can see that you wanted to point out that most AC's are out of style and need to morph into an AC more like our local AC KVIL here in Dallas with the presentation of a 1990-present playlist. WLIT/Chicago had also recently taken this approach as well.

I somehow still believe that most AC's still work well with it's current presentation of a 1980-present playlist like WLTW, KOST, KODA, and KMGL. The main goal of a general Mainstream AC is to balance old and new music from 1980-present for listeners 25-54, with a strong target on listeners 35-44.