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poptimists2007-10-15 01:04 pm
freakytigger.livejournal.com) wrote in poptimists2007-10-15 01:04 pm
TV vs Radio
I was going to post this as a comment on the Aly and AJ thread but I thought I'd give it its own post. I have to admit this is founded not at all in any kind of fact! Anyway here is my theory:
If yr a radio playlister or researcher your main desire is to stop people switching over: a lot of people stick to a single radio station and don't channel hop much so if someone switches over or off you might not get them back for a while. Video channels are far more accepting of switching, because TV users channel hop more.
So imagine songs being scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "awful, would switch off/over", 5 meaning "terrific, would stop channel-hopping if I found it", and 2-4 being various degrees of like/dislike which cause no immediate behavioural reaction. Obviously you want the songs on your playlist to have as high an average score among your listeners as possible. But on radio you want to minimise the 1-scorers, and on video channels you want to maximise the 5 scorers. If a song like Aly and AJ has 2/3 "5" and 1/3 "1" reactions, it will have a higher average score than a song with all "3"s but will be a much bigger risk for a radio station.
And I think Aly & AJ IS that kind of song - the way it starts so breathlessly, it's in-yr-face with its poppiness and if you dislike teenpop in general I'd guess you'll find that less palatable than "Gimme More" or "About You Now". So even beyond the demographics there's a reason why it might hit on video and not radio.
Speaking of demographics, I guess Radio 1 and other stations must have a very firm idea about what age people start listening to radio regularly, and I would imagine that average age is getting nearer and nearer to the age they start driving. I get the impression that Radio 1 has basically given up on yr actual kids, which makes them much less likely to take a chance on something with kid appeal.
If yr a radio playlister or researcher your main desire is to stop people switching over: a lot of people stick to a single radio station and don't channel hop much so if someone switches over or off you might not get them back for a while. Video channels are far more accepting of switching, because TV users channel hop more.
So imagine songs being scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "awful, would switch off/over", 5 meaning "terrific, would stop channel-hopping if I found it", and 2-4 being various degrees of like/dislike which cause no immediate behavioural reaction. Obviously you want the songs on your playlist to have as high an average score among your listeners as possible. But on radio you want to minimise the 1-scorers, and on video channels you want to maximise the 5 scorers. If a song like Aly and AJ has 2/3 "5" and 1/3 "1" reactions, it will have a higher average score than a song with all "3"s but will be a much bigger risk for a radio station.
And I think Aly & AJ IS that kind of song - the way it starts so breathlessly, it's in-yr-face with its poppiness and if you dislike teenpop in general I'd guess you'll find that less palatable than "Gimme More" or "About You Now". So even beyond the demographics there's a reason why it might hit on video and not radio.
Speaking of demographics, I guess Radio 1 and other stations must have a very firm idea about what age people start listening to radio regularly, and I would imagine that average age is getting nearer and nearer to the age they start driving. I get the impression that Radio 1 has basically given up on yr actual kids, which makes them much less likely to take a chance on something with kid appeal.
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I think Radio 1 bases its decisions on different premises from commercial radio, where Tom's argument is certainly the logical one. Having spoken to commercial radio playlisters (admittedly a number of years ago) my impression is that there principle is 'don't frighten the horses' and they definitely programme for the middle ground. Radio 1's baseline seems to be something like 'nothing too naff', which would make sense as their edge over commercial stations would come from being 'cool', or at least being what they think 'cool' will mean to their target audience (and which may be losing ground in relation to how their audience actually thinks). 'Naff' would mean 'too much like what my parents like' or 'too much like what my younger brother / sister likes'. HOWEVER my perception is that the generational divide is actually closing up i.e. it is now easier than ever for parents and kids to like the same music, or certainly this is the case with those who listen to Radio 1.
I'm not really surprised that A&AJ haven't broken big though, as the UK/US markets just seem to have totally diverged in relation to 'pop'. I don't see this as some sort of death of pop though, just that pop means something different here.
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it is not annie nightingale request show = IT WILL FAIL.
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(I am glad stimulating conversations on Poptimists tend to happen just before Pitchfork deadline day)
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