Format Changes; The Rise of Pop/Electro Top 40; The End of Hip Hop Generation
I've got to admit - this has been the most boring format flip I've seen on the boards thus far. Looks like almost nobody cares about it. They should've just given this station to Atlanta, which like Detroit is a "hip hop town", but at least the people in Atl. are begging for a real top 40.
Anyway.. Not sure why jazz stations are disappearing... I'm surprised the jazz station went before 97.9 or 102.7 since we all know that hip hop is in a state of decline and the hip hop generation (who are now the parents) are no longer dominating the charts. I'll bet that within the next three years, a bunch of urban formats across the US begin (or continue) to transform or disappear. Hip Hop cities like Atlanta, Detroit, and New York...etc. may not be affected in the hip hop formats for a while, but eventually, as trends change, it will become noticeable in ALL areas. L.A, if you've noticed, is already lacking a hip hop station. Here in Phoenix, we have no room for one with all the rhythmics and top 40 sounds we have that would eat away from the ratings of a current hip hop station. All you places with urban formats and rhythmics that lean urban, you'll notice a change or more variety of sounds to come soon. Hot 97 in New York was smart to switch back to "rhythmic" from "urban" because now they are also free to change their sound a bit once the time becomes necessary to do so... Remember, they didn't become hip hop until hip hop became big, so it's only obvious what will happen when the next sound takes over and becomes big. In Detroit, I see WJLB probably being the hip hop format to last the longest, but Amp will most likely beat it in ratings within months to a year.
We've gone through eras of Blues, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Disco, and now the hip hop generation is coming to a close... so... what's to come next? It's quite obvious where we're headed, but most people don't see it yet. Top 40 is always a smart choice to make during a transitional phase in music because regardless of which direction music is heading in, it's a given that whatever it is, it will become "hits".
I predict a lot of dance hits popping up on Amp within the next 2 years. Hopefully Channel 95.5 also recognizes the direction music is going and decides to add in some electro-pop / rhythmic dance hits, if they haven't already done so in their mixes. I'm not saying hip hop is dead, but.... just saying... any town with two hip hop stations will most likely lose at least one of them within the next two years. Today in 2009, jumping on top 40, rhythmic top 40, or CLASSIC hip hop before everyone else is probably a bright idea. Look how classic rock blew up after rock n roll stopped dominating the charts! This will be what hip hop will look like in the next 5 to 10 years. We already have a classic hip hop in Az - and that is the ONLY urban format existing here and rising in ratings at the moment.
Face it. Times change. We get older. The younger generation will decide what's next. As for me personally, I'm rather glad that the hip hop phase has pretty much passed and the variety of different styles and sounds are coming back to the U.S. once again. I'm not going to sit here and criticize the people who actually took time to put decent lyrics together, but there are many songs of this decade that really shouldn't have made it. 2001-2008 had to have been the worst time period for pop/top 40 music (in the U.S.), but it's ok - the next decade is looking a bit brighter, and Amp came around just at the PERFECT time.
Anyway, it's about time that a change took place. Time for American top 40's to get exciting again... and like they said on BBC Radio 1 (UK Top 40) in London, time for the American hit music quality and production to "step up" and get more creative. Well... I think I've said enough for now. Back to BBC I go on Sirius.
As far as HD Radio and Satellite Radio.... it's rather funny to me that all this exists here. With all the work that's being done to do all that, we could just put that same work into making terrestrial radio stations better so people wont have to seek other forms of radio to begin with!
