Posted by Jerome J. Slote on July 19, 2007 at 13:37:31:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Suggestion and a Question posted by Steve Green on July 19, 2007 at 13:08:29:
>WCBS-FM now plays a smattering of 50's without claiming it in their positioner. So why not 90's? The new listeners are not going to have a stopwatch or a calendar. Hooks is hooks.
I do believe in a smattering of '90s on CBS-FM because there were songs that broke through into broader consciousness, and because a closed set is stultifying and makes listeners feel over the hill. Even play a new contemporary song by a "CBS-FM artist." If Tina Turner hits the charts again as a septuagenarian, giving her song a shot, if the sound fits, affirms CBS-FM listeners' lives and tastes. It's as if we've released another hit.
But the idea that "hooks is hooks" suggests that CBS-FM listeners are willing to be introduced to '90s music. They're not. Certain '90s songs such as Nick of Time can be played, but *familiarity to late boomers* is absolute coin of the realm for CBS-FM. Hooks are necessary but not sufficient.