Posted by Ari Indik on August 02, 2007 at 11:05:16:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Polarizing Music posted by Allan Sniffen on August 02, 2007 at 09:06:22:
>>But not *all* 80's songs. Or, to put it a different way, there are for more 80's songs that won't fit a CBS-FM type format than there are 60's and 70's songs.<<
There are some 70s songs that CBS-FM won't and shouldn't play, either. They don't play Led Zeppelin or Cream or Black Sabbath or acts like that. They don't play Parliament either. Though, I'll admit not knowing how many Top 40 hits any of those acts had.
But if a station can play the Doors and Kool and the Gang, I don't see why it, or an updated version of it, can't play Bon Jovi and Run-DMC.
There are rock songs that are only rock hits when current but that transition past the rock audience years after they were hits, and become mainstream favorites. Examples of the biggest are Sweet Home Alabama, You Shook Me All Night Long and Sweet Child O' Mine. At the time, only rock fans liked them. But now, they're part of the culture and everyone remembers them fondly. Even people who would never have bought Back in Black when it came out.
Livin' on a Prayer is now almost a sing-along staple at weddings, for crying out loud. Everyone who grew up in the 80s knows that song and I don't think it would sound out of place on an oldies station, 10 years down the line, catering to the demographic that is now in its 30s.