The current musical lean of the format is not OK. If the numbers were okay, one might have argued that the listeners were leading the charge for mid-to-downtempo music. So who cared what guys-outside-the-demo (like the author) thought? But this is not an organic movement from the listeners. This is a cul-de-sac that is a result of product copy-catting and a failure of the format to take control of available product.
Top 40 is not its best self without tempo. It is certainly possible that the gains for older formats and the middling CHR numbers represents a bigger problem—less available listening from younger listeners. But the mother/daughter coalition ensured that there would be adults to turn on CHR radio, even if their kids didn’t do so on their own volition. Medium-weight tempo is what has always brought adults to the format.
Top 40 is not its best self without variety. And variety is not two kinds of records—EDM trap/pop ballads and loping mid-tempo tropical pop/dance. The variety that people talk about from CHR’s best periods—rock, rhythm, pop, country—doesn’t count if all four types of acts have made the same record.
Top 40 is not its best self without new music. The tendency in times like these, in any format, is to become more conservative and recurrent-driven. But playing mediocre records that people are lukewarm on more and for longer stretches is not the answer.
Watching the stream is one strategy, but won’t fix everything. It is a now familiar complaint that the hits gather thousands of streams on Spotify long before CHR finds them. Streaming creates its own issues—the hits it identifies have tended to be of a piece with what Top 40 has too much of. But fresher is still better.
When we last discussed CHR product, in the context of that music that was being sent to Hot AC and AC, there was some excitement about the just-released fall superstar product, and about the stylistic breakthrough that Portugal. The Man might represent at the format. Those are little jolts of energy, but they’re not yet a fix. Top 40 needs a steady injection of product all year around—not just May and September. And without it, it needs programmers ready to find the hits again.
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