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What Will K-Earth's Playlist Look Like in 2040?

MassMusicMan said:
Could Bad Bunny expand his popularity with an English-language album, then?
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Nearly all of his stuff is in highly idiomatic Puerto Rican street Spanish and I doubt that his background and culture could produce anything comparable in English.

That said, I don't doubt that some English language material may be coming. But, today, the Spanish language music market is larger than the North American English language one.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Nearly all of his stuff is in highly idiomatic Puerto Rican street Spanish and I doubt that his background and culture could produce anything comparable in English.

That said, I don't doubt that some English language material may be coming. But, today, the Spanish language music market is larger than the North American English language one.
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On the other hand, Bad Bunny will be both the host and musical guest on NBC Saturday Night Live this weekend (10/21).
 
JackindaBox said:
It will probably be mostly a mix of Top 40 hits including rap, R&B, alternative, and pop from the 2000s through the 2020s but who knows. The 1980s could still be memorable by then but just not playing on Classic Hits stations anymore. Classic Hits will likely include more 90s/2k rap in the next few years.
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Or maybe they go the other way, like maybe "Fats Waller"

​

 
rparky54 said:
Any guesses on the expiration dates of Take On Me, Tainted Love, Don't You Want Me Baby, Never Gonna Give You Up, or Come On Eileen on K-EARTH? What will be the last song standing from the 80's?
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You just know the good ones whenever you start instantly hearing the music in your head before you finish reading the song title.
 
In 2040, radios as we know them will no longer be necessary. Wearables like pins, glasses, or smartphone-like interfaces like Neuralink will be implanted in your head: Neuralink
All the news and entertainment content will be available just by thinking about it.
 
The songs that migrate from KIIS to KOST and KBIG will eventually make it to KRTH. The most loved of these songs will probably be played in 2040.
 
radio128 said:
The songs that migrate from KIIS to KOST and KBIG will eventually make it to KRTH. The most loved of these songs will probably be played in 2040.
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And a good number of them will assuredly be by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Drake and many of the other current artists that many Boomers and Gen X'ers here regularly claim have no talent and will be forgotten long before 2040. Cue the expected reaction: "Oh, and why don't they play real musical instruments!?!?!? And don't get me started on Auto-Tune!!!!"
 
Drake's "music" does not cross over to AC so I doubt it will be played on Classic Hits in 2040. Maybe some of the more melodic songs by Bieber may be heard. Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift are superstars so in seventeen years they are very likely to receive airplay. I believe Gaga and Swift use real instruments. Another one to watch is Olivia Rodrigo who is talented and from listening to her album sounds like real drums and guitars.
 
radio128 said:
Drake's "music" does not cross over to AC so I doubt it will be played on Classic Hits in 2040. Maybe some of the more melodic songs by Bieber may be heard. Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift are superstars so in seventeen years they are very likely to receive airplay. I believe Gaga and Swift use real instruments. Another one to watch is Olivia Rodrigo who is talented and from listening to her album sounds like real drums and guitars.
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So you have a vision of classic hits veering toward a largely melodic, rap-free format. Kind of flies in the face of how CHR has been trending for the past decade.
 
radio128 said:
In the eighties and into the nineties KOST and KBIG were very soft, so the good, uptempo music came from KIIS or KROQ. These songs eventually made their way to KRTH.
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Yep. Read a weekly AC chart from 1998 (https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/1990s/1998/RR-1998-10-16.pdf). Some of those songs were worked to that format, and nowhere else. Jim Brickman and John Tesh songs now would peak around #12 at best, with spins coming from the oldest, most conservative stations on the panel.

I programmed an AC until three months ago. Only songs in the week's Top 10 that I played were "You're Still the One" and "Torn." The latter spent two months at number one at CHR. Number one on the AC chart was "I'll Never Break Your Heart" by the Backstreet Boys, and that's been left behind in AC libraries in favor of more medium and uptempo BSB titles.
 
MassMusicMan said:
For a classic hitter in 2040 to have a library the size of a classic hitter today, the era window will have to be wider
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You are exactly right. There are just too many songs put out in the last 20 years that are not suitable for classic hits play by then. Drake, no matter how many album bombs he has on the Hot 100 chart these last few years, and last week, little if any of it, is classic hits material. In fact, much of the recent rap and trap scene will likely be skipped over in favor of more audience friendly tunes and artists released since 2005. Plenty of them to choose from to make decent playlists come 2040, but yes, spread from over many other years in that 2005-2023 timeframe.
 
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oldies76 said:
You are exactly right. There are just too many songs put out in the last 20 years that are not suitable for classic hits play by then. Drake, no matter how many ridiculous album bombs he has on the Hot 100 chart these last few years, and last week, little if any of it, is classic hits material. In fact, much of the recent rap and trap scene will be skipped over in favor of more audience friendly tunes and artists released since 2005. Plenty of them to choose from to make decent playlists come 2040, but yes spread from over many other years.
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You assume that the rhythmic trend, already more than 30 years old, will completely reverse itself in the next 17 years and that all those listeners who've been enjoying rap and trap for so long will somehow erase those preferences from their minds and gravitate toward "audience-friendly" (Soft AC? Melodic pop? Rock in the style of decades long past?) music. I can see no logical way that happens.
 
Every discussion of KRTH turns into a hamster wheel. The same people who complain about KRTH embracing hip-hop to the extent that they already have then say that there's no way they'll do more.

I used to say this 10 or more years ago about Adult Contemporary---I guess I need to say it now about Classic Hits:

Classic Hits is not a type of music. It's whatever 37-year-olds---likely female and in Los Angeles, largely ethnic---want to hear.

And in 2040, that 37 year old will be someone who's only 20 now.
 
CTListener said:
You assume that the rhythmic trend, already more than 30 years old, will completely reverse itself in the next 17 years and that all those listeners who've been enjoying rap and trap for so long will somehow erase those preferences from their minds and gravitate toward "audience-friendly" (Soft AC? Melodic pop? Rock in the style of decades long past?) music. I can see no logical way that happens.
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Between August 27, 2022 and September 30, 2023, no rap/trap songs reached #1 on the multi-genre Hot 100, that's over a year's time. Only Drake's never-ending "album bomb" chart runs stopped that trend with "Slime You Out" and followed by "First Person Shooter" just a week ago. Those two songs, ugly lyrics included, along with his other cuts have all dropped positions or fell off the chart. The staying power for his music is absent, despite the week one or two popularity. Many songs of the genre have done the same over the years. In other words, they do well as impulse-hype, in the spur of the moment and fall of the cliff a week or two later. Zero staying power, unlike the "style of decades past", which btw, are still being played today on many small-medium market stations, including here in Florida.

Compare that with more audience-friendly music, such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd, Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, BTS...etc....etc... even the recent country-pop crossovers like Morgan Wallen, which tend to spend weeks on end on the chart. I think you can see which acts will be far-more remembered years from now when it comes to familiar "classic-hits" by 2040 and those are the ones that'll be played.

I'm not saying all rap or trap will be igonored, some will ultimately be played, but it'll likely not be the dominant genre in 2040 as classics, despite the hype today.

KRTH plays "Mo Money, Mo Problems". Good song! Nice take from the Diana Ross classic. It was huge in 1997 and has stood the test of time in that genre. But that didn't fall off the cliff like many trap / rap songs do today.
 
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