U.S. Radio Hangs Up On Madonna


July 21, 2006, 3:35 PM ET

Michael Paoletta, N.Y.
Madonna is in the midst of a sold-out North American trek that may end up being the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist. But this on-the-road success is not carrying over to American radio airwaves. In the United States, the three singles from Madonna's latest Warner Bros. album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," have not been embraced by mainstream top 40 radio.

"Hung Up" got middling airplay, "Sorry" was barely played, and "Get Together" has been all but ignored by pop stations. Naturally, this state of affairs has left executives at her Warner Bros. label -- and more than a few fans -- wondering, what gives?

More than 3,300 fans have signed an appeal at petitiononline.com. The "End the Madonna on U.S. Radio Boycott" petition is addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays. Message boards at Entertainment Weekly and VH1, among others, are rife with everything from support for Madonna to conspiracy theories about why she can't crack the radio dial.

Warner Bros. was aware that the songs on "Confessions" could present challenges at mainstream top 40 radio, acknowledges Tom Biery, senior VP of promotions at Warner Bros. "Top 40 radio is so hip-hop-driven," he says. "We were coming in with a global pop star who made a dance record."

Guy Zapoleon, president of radio consulting firm Zapoleon Media Strategies, calls it an "interesting dilemma for the woman who certainly held the 'Queen of Pop' title for almost 15 years." Madonna's ability to redefine herself is well-documented, and Zapoleon says that this has helped her keep a "leading edge" to the new group of pop music fans that comes along every three to five years.


But this time, Madonna may have turned left while the pop climate was turning right. Other pop chameleons such as Nelly Furtado and Mariah Carey reinvented themselves with recent rhythmic/hip-hop-leaning singles. Madonna opted instead to return to her dance-pop roots.

According to Dom Theodore, regional VP of programming for Clear Channel and PD of top 40 WKQI Detroit, today's programmers consider each Madonna song on a case-by-case basis to determine if it fits mainstream top 40, adult top 40 or both. Or neither.

For Theodore, the sound of "Confessions on a Dance Floor" skews more retro-adult top 40 than mainstream top 40, while recent club tracks like Rihanna's "SOS" have "more hip-hop credibility." The Rihanna track may reference an early-'80s dance hit (Soft Cell's "Tainted Love") but Theodore believes it does not have the same "retro '70s feel" as the Madonna tracks.

Madonna has had no such airplay problems internationally. Since its release last November, "Confessions on a Dance Floor" has topped the charts in 29 countries and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, according to Warner Bros. For the week ending July 15, the album's third single, "Get Together," had a radio audience of fewer than 1 million listeners in the United States (aggregate, based on market size and station share). Conversely, in the United Kingdom, where all three singles have been A-listed by BBC Radio 1, the single had 38.4 million listeners.

Except for dance radio outlets like KNGY San Francisco, KNRJ Phoenix and KNHC Seattle, Madonna is missing from the terrestrial radio landscape in the United States. John Peake, PD at KNGY, believes that mainstream top 40 radio programmers have completely missed the boat on this project. "When 'Hung Up' didn't get instant callout, the stations gave up on it," he says. "If they had given it more time, the callout would've come home."

"Confessions" has been healthy at retail: It has moved 1.5 million copies, already double that of its predecessor, 2003's "American Life," which has sold 666,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. File-sharing stats from BigChampagne and support from MTV's "TRL" are also solid. But, Biery says, "Radio still looks at callout research."

As Warner Bros. gears up for the release of the album's fourth single, "Jump," Biery remains optimistic, especially since the song was heard in TV and radio spots for the film "The Devil Wears Prada." The label will take a different strategy with this single, Biery says. "We'll begin with AC and hot AC formats," he notes. "Our goal is to have a true hit record with callout and then bring it back to the mainstream top 40 world."

More than 3,300 fans have signed an appeal at petitiononline.com. The "End the Madonna on U.S. Radio Boycott" petition is addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays. <<<<<


direct link:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mmad3306/

Hung Up, Get Together, Sorry are/should be major hits, though sorry radio edit is not as good.
[Edited 7/22/06 20:09pm]

Well this is really nothing new, basically u have to be a certain age in the USA to get your record played, the same goes for video. Though Madonna has had good Video play on VH1, lets be real these Video stations play about 4-5 hours of Videos a day and 20 of Game shows, and Reality shows, so it amazes me that people waste money on a Video anymore. As for the Radio play, well most formats are geared towards 14-18 year olds, so they are not going to listen to a 48 year old women when they have Ciara and Cassie jammed down their throats. The road is the only place older artists can show their stuff, because this current generation, aint no on going to see in concert. There was some RB tour here last year in NYC and it had like 8 acts on it, all million plus sellers, and they couldnt sell out a venue that held 10,000 people in NYC!!!

newpower99 said:

Its not really a boycott of just Madonna, i mean i can list 100's of artists with stuff out that are established some longer than madonna that will not get played, its more about demagraphics of the listener than quality of music.

Energy 91.7 in San Francisco - I swear every time I turned on that station they were playing Sorry. They were playing it every couple of hours. Her other songs too, new, old, classics. My gosh they love Madonna.

if i were Madonna i'd almost be proud not to have my music played next to the shit that blares from american radio.

basically they're just saying since Madonna hasn't jumped on the rent-a-rapper bandwagon, we're not going to play her. and that idiot said she held the title of Queen of Pop. ummm who else is up for that spot???

Nelly Furtado and Mariah Carey have re-invented themselves???? LMFAO. i'm a fan of both, but don't try and pull that bullshit. re-invented uh? geee wonder who he bit that term off of. no Madonna didn't invent the word. but since her tour of the same name, it seems to be thrown around a lot more lately. i haven't heard a song by Prince after his symbol album on the radio at all. american radio since the early 90's have no clue what dance music is. nasty hip hop, cRap, and wanna-be alternative bands are the only thing radio wants people to hear. they really don't play any artist over the age of 25, maybe even 30. ok..well maybe the adult contemporary and old school stations do. agism is alive and well in every facet of american media. and the call in from fans is complete and utter bullshit. they do not take requests. they don't go by what fans want. it's the stupid djs who think they're cool by playing the flavour of the month artists. and their radio consist of the same 10-15 songs every hour. when people like Ashley Simpleton and Uglysher are scoring #1 albums and singles because of air play, then i wouldn't pay to much attention to radio executives.


U.S Radio

oh i'm not done..

her SOLD OUT tour should be the 1st hint.


and now a few words from our sponsor.....

Please, Madonna is doing just fine. At least she's getting some airplay and her album has sold 8 million copies worldwide. What other artist or group, that has been around as long as she has, is getting the amount of exposure that she is getting?

It's nice to know that they are trying....

PurpleCharm said:

Exactly, Madonna definately has a market out there and has succeeded with this latest outing. It's sad how people feel it's not a true hit because of lack of success in the US as compared to internationally.

jayaredee said:

It still sold 1.6 million copies in the US - this is not a flop, either!

VoicesCarry said:

Comparing it to 3121!

how is today's music hip hop driven? i can listen to 25 new acts
every single day and not hear a single hip hop tune.

if radio is dominated by hip hop it's because that's all they do
play.

newpower99 said:

What complete bullshit. The pop climate wasn't turning anywhere. It's been the same climate for at least the last 5 years. Madonna decided not to work with Timbaland and get 50 Cent rapping on her album so she's considered out of the loop.
If she had done so, she'd be the laughing stock of the industry and still wouldn't be played.

So true. Radio will not jump on anything that is "out of norm", basically it wants simple music and its all geared towards 14-18 year olds like i have said before. This is why i tell people to not even bother to email or petition to get something played because Radio time is Bought and Sold more than ever, i know payola has always existed but now its the law of the land, there are actual people hired by labels that work at radio to make sure there song is played and the time its played. So the fact that Madonna has gotten any play is encouraging but dont expect it, an artist of her stature is going to sell to her "core" audience and i think the artists themselves know that. The thing that we here in the USA forget is that the market overseas for artists is much more lucrative than here than ever before.

i dn't think it's what the market wants... it's what clear channel thinks we want.

that's the problem with one company owning the entire system.

they think young people don't want to hear it, which is obvisiously not true if she held the top spot no Itunes and TRL.

This speaks more about the state of Top 40 radio than it does about Madonna not getting played on the radio.

Now Madonna fans know what Prince fans have gone through for how many years.

It's a shame that someone like Madonna or anyone else who is older than 40 who is still making hot music can't get a airplay from the demon known as Clear Channel. It makes no sense. If the music fits the format why can't someone who is well known get a fair shake? If this shit was happening 20 years ago, we would never know how phenomenal Tina Turner was and still is. It's all forms of wrong and it needs to be stopped ASAP.

With this said, all Madonna fans have to do is come here to NYC and listen to her on WKTU. They play her new stuff regularly. Different everywhere else but definetly on KTU.

Jackeblu said:

I agree. I believe radio DJ are given a specific playlist and cannot, nobody what the requests are, deter from that playlist. Isn't that correct?

wonder505 said:

If that's the case then that's extremely sad. That's supposed to be part of the fun in listening to the radio, hearing what YOU want to hear but Clear Channel has taken the fun out of the radio.

wonder505 said:

That's exactly how it is. If it's not on the playlist, tough luck. Only songs on the playlist can be requested. Which is stupid, why request a song that's played every hour anyways?

jayaredee said:

Well those requesting 50 Cent, Rihanna or Pussycat Dolls are probably not the brightest bulbs in the bunch

jayaredee said:

You know, with all that, they might as well turn every radio station into a JACK-FM type station. They're going to keep on playing the same songs over and over so what's the point in have a DJ?

VoicesCarry said:

I disagree on THAT part.

I thought PCD-fans were the same kind of people that would embrace Madonna, The Spice Girls, and Janet.

Their sexiness is in-you-face kind of marketing.

TonyVanDam said:

It wasn't meant to insult any fans of a particular artist, but those are the type of artists that get major play on ClearChannel and appeal to 13-year-olds.

VoicesCarry said:

Thanks for clearing that up!

TonyVanDam said:

I never actually liked that album, i know many did. There was good songs on it but i think they may have been better suited for other artists.

But yeah, that was Madonna's "please play me on the radio" album.
[Edited 7/23/06 10:21am]

I LOVE me some Bedtime Stories.

From the minute I heard COADF leak I knew it would get little or no radio play in the U.S. It's in the vein of Kylie/Cher/Dannii/Anastacia, moreso than anything she's ever done before (even though they've all really been rip offs of her) and that shit NEVER took off on our continent. NEVER. True Dance pop is only big in Europe and Japan. I think it was kind of a "fuck you" to the U.S. market, honestly, after "American Life." "Reinvention Tour" was damage control, "COADF" was "Im still gonna chart and sell all over the world and fuck America if they don't catch on." Are we forgetting that she did next to NO promo for the album over here? Her first and only big push was the Grammys, and that wasn't until the record had been out for months, and she didn't even sing her single ("sorry.") So wtf does everyone expect? PLUS she's 47 and a mother of two and has alienated a lot of the maistream with Kabballah and living on the English Manor?

Queens...please. I love that bitch but starting with "Die Another Day" it was clear she was not going to rule radio in the 00s the way she did in the 80s and 90s.