Im just curious why there is very little Rock on the top 40 chart.
Are kids these days only listening to Hiphop??? Isn't Top 40 really the 40 biggest selling singles?? back in the 80's and early 90's, rock was a huge part of top 40. Even when Rap became more mainstream in the mid 90's, rock was still a huge part of the top 40 charts.

I suppose that leans on your definition of "Rock". In this week's top 40, songs I would classify as "Rock" are Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah", Maroon 5's "Make Me Wonder", Daughtry's "Home", Nickleback's "Rockstar", Linkin Park's "What I've Done", and Fall Out Boy's "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs".

Yes, "Hip-Hop" oriented music is definately dominating the charts these days, but if you realize that the charts are computed differently, with real-time record sales, online sales, ringtones, etc. etc. This isn't your father's Billboard Charts. And let's be frank: pop music is and always been dominated by 13-30, mostly female demographic. And the big thing right now is "safe hip-hop".

Whats safe hiphop???/ Kanye West, Fity Cent???

Nickelback "rockstar"- The only station I know playing that god-awful song is the Buzz.

Are kids these days only listening to Hiphop?
I'd go as far as saying that it's the vast majority of what they're listening to. Stuff like Fall Out Boy and Linkin Park are looked at as "sellouts." (oh, but rappers that make millions and sponsor cell phones, flavored water and other rip-offs somehow aren't?)
Add that to the fact that the stuff is specifically marketed and packaged to them, and most older people don't like it, and that just adds to its perceived appeal. I have bad news for them... sex is old and overrated... their parents did it, and their parents did it, and so on and so forth.

Beano - good call on Nickelback - IMO, they stopped being a rock band and went Top 40/Hot AC with "Photograph," and it's all downhill from there. Ugh... gotta put Def Leppard's "Photograph" on to get that awful thought of that (IMO!) awful, overplayed song out of my mind!

Totally, but I think it is changing somewhat.

From what I can see, hip hop is near peaking. It's got total mind share in that teen group by a wide margin. It's everywhere.

I don't know a teen that does not listen to hip hop. I used to find it hard to find one that listened to other things period, but that's no longer the case.

The last 3 years have seen some changes --at least within the group I see often. The most surprising rise is actually country! I hear it quite often among young females, now. I didn't hear it much at all a few years ago. IMHO, the "safe" theme resonates here, allowing some cross pollination.

Of those teens that I catch listening to other things, the top ones, besides country are:

90's Hot AC hits, with a sprinkling of tame alternative --like a lot of the stuff KINK is playing fairly regularly these days. (Maybe mid 90's Hot AC includes what I would characterize as tame alternative. You guys tell me!)

Classic rock from all over the place, with a healthy mix of new rock, and some metal. Nobody likes butt rock though, in this young group.

(This weekend I observed the Dance Team watching Pink Floyd videos on a team sleep over! WTF?!? just Bizzare.)

Nobody I know, under 21 is really listening to local stuff. Probably because they cannot attend the shows.

Of course, this is through completely non-scientific kid watching. --I'm a parent and I see a lot of kids through school events, interaction with my own and their friends, forgotten portable media players, etc...)

We've got the PPMs, along with other new measurements coming on line now. Does this hit home at all, or too early to see those trends?

I worry about a thread hijack (sorry, if it happens), but what's up and coming? I'm finally seeing some signs of a sea change. Been about 5 years too long!

NICKELBACK is by far the biggest POS band in the past 20 years.
Thankfully NRK and KUFO stoped playing them, the minute they started to suck ass. Oh wait, did they ever put out good music??
No!

As far as kids these days listening only to rap music is a bug huge Myth. Yes a lot of young women are listening to rap music, BUT thats not all they are listening to. A lot of teens are just now discovering the Beatles, led Zeppelin ect. Check out a young guys IPOD and you will most likely hear very little rap,(especially since most of the rap music is targeting young females. Bob Marley and Even Johnny Cash are becoming very trendy in High Schools.

Where did the "RUSH" single "Far Cry" land in the top forty when it was released?

OH...BTW...When some of these so called rock bands start putting forth material worth a damn then maybe they would hit the top 40. While I do not like what most young kids listen to these days apparantly they are not tone death and don't like that crap either!

Missing_kskd: What is "safe" alternative?

I read that Nickelback's latest cd has sold over 5 million copies, yet, everyone I know hates them. WHO is buying that cd?

I'm thinking the tame stuff. Having the alternative sound, but not to extremes. Subject matter maybe more mainstream, etc...

Once it reaches that point, it's not really Alternative anymore. Not a bad thing, see below. It just is.

Re: Nickleback

Nothing but cheeze! People say they hate that kind of music, but it's a lie. --well for a very high percentage of us anyway. The rest are just posers, trying to look more sophisticated than they really are.

It's pop music for a reason.

IMHO, Nickleback is well produced, hits all the right cheezy subject matter, etc.... hits on all the major time tested formula points, so it will sell nicely.

We've all got our pop music sensibilities. Again, if we didn't, the stuff wouldn't sell. I catch myself denying this all the time, posing like everyone else! I even realize it and still do it! To me that speaks well to the amount of thought that goes into this stuff.

It's like junk food. Everybody says they hate it, is bad for you, not of value, etc... Everybody indulges too. That's your Nickleback sales, same as we see Dorito's, Pepsi, Taco Bell, etc... selling.

Really we see this everywhere. Music is no different. Look at books and movies. What makes the big bucks? It's sure not the great films that explore the art, push boundaries, tell subtle stories, etc...

It's the cheeze! Blow stuff up, hammer the eye candy home, stick with shallow characters most of us can identify with, etc...

There are people who do a *lot* of research on this stuff. Clearly they have us down cold.

Nickleback = Hootie and the Blowfish. Everyone claims to hate them, their music is garbage, etc.... but they sell/sold millions of records, sell/sold out concert dates, and are/were at the top of the charts.

What people say and what people actually do are usually two different things.

Why is Rock gone from Top 40???

Who's Rock?

Missing_kskd said, "I'm thinking the tame stuff. Having the alternative sound, but not to extremes. Subject matter maybe more mainstream, etc... "

In the early-mid 80's we had something similar, "Corporate Rock." Sounds like rock, with guitars and white guys with long hair. But none of the controversy, in the lyrics or the lifestyle of the artist. REO Speedwagon, Journey, Toto, groups like that. Great music, no problems.

Re: Hip Hop
Of course Hip Hop has been declaired "about to die" since the 80's at least. As long as adults don't like it, it probably seems pretty cool to young people!

I think the way things are marketed has changed. Used to be "Mass Appeal" ment, the white audience. Today, you must have the Hispanic, Black and Asian audience to achieve "Mass Appeal." Who can afford to leave out 20% of your possible market? That's why Hip Hop or Rhythmic Top 40 can better cover all the different parts of the youth audience (12-34), than could a rock act. But it's not impossible, just doesn't happen as much.

"As long as adults don't like it, it probably seems pretty cool to young people!"

Yep. And that's the sea change right there. A fair number of adults like it now --parents like it even.

Hey I agree, could be!

Dance music was really good at reaching all the different parts of the pop or top 40 audience, but now we're down to about 1 dance hit per year. Quite different when Madonna, Human League, Soft Cell, Michael Jackson, New Order, Shannon, Dead Or Alive... I think it's surprising that dance cooled down so much. Of course clubs are not as big a draw as they once were and that was the home of dance music.

Hey Chrispdx, your theory doesn't hold water.
Just because Hootie and the blowfish sold millions of records means NOTHING Today! New Kids On The Block also sold millions of records, does that mean people want to hear them today? No way! Most people who owned a Hootie and the Blowfish album back in the day have either thrown their copy in the fireplace or have given it to Everyday music.

Who the hell listens to Nickelback??
Everytime I'm in the car and a Nickelback song comes on, Its always "UGH turn it off." by other people in the car.

I think Nickelback is the Michael Bolton of this generation.-AWFUL!

Just like everyone hates McDonalds...but they sell more than anyone else in the world.

Beano, I think Hootie's "Cracked Rear View" is one of the top 50 albums ever made. Perfectly produced, flawlessly performed modern pop music at it's apex. The mid-90s, popular music's last hurrah, in my opinion.

You can disagree with me, and that's your right. But the music industry is a business, and for all your bluster and whining about Hootie and Nickelback and NKOTB and Michael Bolton and C&C Music Factory and whatever flavor of the month band that comes along, they are cashing checks and that's what it's all about. You don't like it? Don't buy their music. Others will.

"New Kids On The Block also sold millions of records, does that mean people want to hear them today?"

Sure they do. "Step by Step" anyone?

(Just kidding)

KSKD sez:
"We've all got our pop music sensibilities. Again, if we didn't, the stuff wouldn't sell. I catch myself denying this all the time, posing like everyone else! I even realize it and still do it!"

Ok, I like Smash Mouth. Cheezy puffs can be good mind food sometimes.

I really love Smash Mouth.

Good junk food for the ears!

That group is one that appeals to everyone in the family, meaning extra cheese please!

Fragmentation of pop music radio into female-oriented top 40 with a dance emphasis and male-oriented rock happened in the late 1970s. However my recollection of 1980s top 40 radio was that some of the variety had come back into it. Back then, there was rock, rap, R&B, dance, and--once in a blue moon--country and instrumentals on top 40 radio. I think that perhaps the factor that pushed some of this variety back into top 40 radio was MTV. As I understand it, MTV got out of the business of breaking hit songs years ago, so this factor is no longer in play.

By the way, there are very few musical groups that can be compared to the New Kids on the Block, and Hootie & The Blowfish is certainly NOT one of them. The imaging and marketing of NKOTB was specifically designed to appeal to early teen and "tweener" females. Although they did have huge sales of music and merchandise in the late 1980s, their fan base soon outgrew them. This is the danger of trying to target such a narrow demographic group.

My daughter saw them in concert, first in Seattle and then in Portland but I don't think she'd walk across the room to hear them now! Compare that to say, my feelings of the Beatles or Beach Boys!

When I was a kid enjoying, for example, Sergio Mendez and Brasil '66 and the Fifth Dimension, I used to wonder what pop music would be like someday in the 21st century.

Now I know. (Heavy sigh)

Corporate rock: I liked a lot of it!

Don't listen too much anymore though. Went back to the real rock from that period, and the 70's.

Much better. That stuff is gonna stand the test of time.

>>I used to wonder what pop music would be like someday in the 21st century.


Futuristic music, circa 1969.

And aren't Women wearing "that" this Fall?

I would contend that right now, the Top 40 chart is as balanced as it's been in awhile. In fact, there isn't a single hip-hop record in the top 10. There are a couple rock records (Hey There Delilah, Rockstar), three straight up pop records (Big Girls Don't Cry, Wait For You, Who Knew), a reggae-ish song (Beautiful Girls), three rhythmic pop records (The Way I Are, Umbrella, Lovestoned) and an R&B record that probably could be considered hip-hop (Buy U A Drank).

It's not all going to be around in a few years, but it's been awhile since I heard the Kylie Minogue cover of The Loco-Motion on the radio. All this stuff is relative.

Randy, Shouldn't the moaning woman on "whiplash" be on the "Orbit Fantasy" track?

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Try not to cry!

Mrs M., I knew there had to be another reason why I don't have children.

I wish they were available in adult sizes, you, of all people, need at least one or two! (shirts, not kids.)

Don't have kids, they are a bad investment. When mine was younger he was worth thousands, but as he got older, maintenence costs skyrocketed, and now, like an old computer, I couldn't get a nickel for him.

i think most of the kids listen to rap now