I have experienced many overplayed songs in my lifetime. But, only recently has it really started runing songs for me.

Take Happy for example... it was a fun little song last year before radio got ahold of it. I was excited for Pharrell when he got a number 1 hit with Happy! then i was just hearing the song everywhere. In bars, restaurants, peoples cars going down the street, friends cars, youtube pardody videos that people post ocnstantly etc.

This is not a ''omgah modern music sucks'' whiny thread at all just an observation i have made on overplayed songs. Whether it's the hot 100, rock top 40, hip-hop top 40 etc. I feel songs are staying in the top 20 a lot longer than usual... and that has many factors. First off there's youtube... now only does youtube views count in the hot 100.

But think of how many parodies there are of each song in the top 40. And how many covers! and there's usually that ''cool'' cover that becomes as famous as the song and goes for millions of views.

For me, i feel this tires me out on a song even more. When the song is played everywhere, there's dozens of covers and parodies on youtube, and then facebook, and even the news will report on some of these

Am i the only one who feels the same way?

Gunsnhalen said:

This is not a ''omgah modern music sucks'' whiny thread at all just an observation i have made on overplayed songs. Whether it's the hot 100, rock top 40, hip-hop top 40 etc. I feel songs are staying in the top 20 a lot longer than usual... and that has many factors. First off there's youtube... now only does youtube views count in the hot 100.

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Speaking of this, I think it's a curious thing that some hit songs nowadays stick around a lot longer in the charts.

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For example, here in Holland we have the Top 40. To determine where a single ranks in the grand scheme of end-of-year charts or decade charts, they assign points to each song based on its position on the Top 40 in any given week. Let's say a song is #4, it will get 37 points. If it's on #37, it will get 4 points. And so on, and so forth.

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Now based on this curious system, a few years back Gotye's 'Somebody I Used To Know' was crowned 'greatest Top 40 hit of all time' for racking up the most points that way. But I believe it was 'Happy' that recently dethroned it.

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Now you gotta step back and think for a minute: will people, 20 years from now, look back on the early 2010s and view either 'Somebody I Used To Know' or 'Happy' as songs that are as iconic as, I dunno, 'Thriller', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Purple Rain'? I kinda doubt it. I think there are other songs that people will associate this decade/year with.

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Yes, that is something i notice too. The top 10 doesn't change very frequently... they have the same songs in the top 5 for a few months at a time. And i think that the youtube covers, parodies, social media etc. Keep them up in that position for the longest times.

It happens with r&B, rock and other charts too.

I read a year ago that hit radio stations are now so terrified of losing listeners because the station is playing something they've never heard before, that they almost never introduce new songs. One station mentioned that Wiz Khalifa had a new album, and he liked it, and Wiz is a big star, and the label was paying for ads and sending Wiz in for interviews and promo stuff. But there was "no room" for them to add any new songs so it didnt get played. And that's for a big star. Another manager of a young hot group with a big hit was saying, there's no way to get play for a second song. As a result no one was buying the album or had enough investment in the group to see them live.

If they get scared enough it is conceivable that the top 20 songs of today will all still be the top 20 songs next year! Maybe we will have the same Pharrell and Katy Perry songs playing on hit radio until the end of time.

One of the oldies stations out here used to have the slogan "YOU KNOW EVERY SONG WE PLAY!" That same mindset is now being applied to hit radio - which is where you are supposed to hear new stuff so you can have some new hits.

God yes! Songs have been overplayed my entire life but it's starting to get to where the number one hit is the only song radio stations play. When you flip through stations and have 5 stations playing the same thing, there's a problem

ginusher said:

Gunsnhalen said:

This is not a ''omgah modern music sucks'' whiny thread at all just an observation i have made on overplayed songs. Whether it's the hot 100, rock top 40, hip-hop top 40 etc. I feel songs are staying in the top 20 a lot longer than usual... and that has many factors. First off there's youtube... now only does youtube views count in the hot 100.

.

Speaking of this, I think it's a curious thing that some hit songs nowadays stick around a lot longer in the charts.

.

For example, here in Holland we have the Top 40. To determine where a single ranks in the grand scheme of end-of-year charts or decade charts, they assign points to each song based on its position on the Top 40 in any given week. Let's say a song is #4, it will get 37 points. If it's on #37, it will get 4 points. And so on, and so forth.

.

Now based on this curious system, a few years back Gotye's 'Somebody I Used To Know' was crowned 'greatest Top 40 hit of all time' for racking up the most points that way. But I believe it was 'Happy' that recently dethroned it.

.

Now you gotta step back and think for a minute: will people, 20 years from now, look back on the early 2010s and view either 'Somebody I Used To Know' or 'Happy' as songs that are as iconic as, I dunno, 'Thriller', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Purple Rain'? I kinda doubt it. I think there are other songs that people will associate this decade/year with.

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Of course "Somebody I used to know" will be considered a classic. "Happy" will be remembered too. They are good witten songs.

Radio always ruined songs by them playing too much, it's nothing new.

I will always love you, Nothing compares to you, Walk like an Egyption (how much I hated that song)...

I think i'm noticing more though because of covers, pardoies, and social media. I think it's cause i'm young and use social media obviously so that probably has a deal with it.

Take for example Let It Go from Frozen shit. I saw shit posted about it EVERYDAY on facebook. And if not that, someone at work would be like ''zomg look at this frozen cover'' ''zomg look at this frozen parody'' then the song was everywhere too. All that combined burnt me out on it for life.

I wonder how it must have been when One Sweet Day was number 1 for sixteen weeks

nextedition said:

Radio always ruined songs by them playing too much, it's nothing new.

I will always love you, Nothing compares to you, Walk like an Egyption (how much I hated that song)...

I remember these being played all the time:

Everything I Do ~ Bryan Adams

Need You Tonight ~ INXS

Jump For My Love ~ Pointer Sisters

It Takes Two ~ Rob Base

U Can't Touch This ~ MC Hammer

That's All / Invisible Touch ~ Genesis

Borderline / Vogue ~ Madonna

When The Going Gets Tough / Caribbean Queen ~ Billy Ocean

Lady ~ Kenny Rogers

Atomic Dog ~ George Clinton (The adult urban station still plays this and Flashlight )

Say You Say Me / All Night Long / Dancing On The Ceiling ~ Lionel Richie

Here I Go Again ~ Whitesnake

Take My Breath Away ~ Berlin

Oh Sherry ~ Steve Perry

A Little Respect ~ Erasure

Pour Some Sugar On Me ~ Def Leppard

She Drives Me Crazy ~ Fine Young Cannibals

Because I Love You ~ Stevie B

Between The Sheets ~ Isley Brothers

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ Billy Joel

My My My ~ Johnny Gill

Heart Of Rock n Roll ~ Huey Lewis & The News

Livin' On A Prayer ~ Bon Jovi

nextedition said:

Of course "Somebody I used to know" will be considered a classic. "Happy" will be remembered too. They are good witten songs.

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Kind of replying to both this and your other post, but on the subject of overplayed songs, I noticed at the end of last year on a couple of message boards I visit, that the 'worst songs of 2013' threads featured a couple of songs in there that were not so much bad, as much as they were overplayed.

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Incidentally, I am now listening to the R&B Top 100 of the year 2000, and I'm noticing that the better songs in there are hovering in the 40s, 50s, etc., while the higher up you get, the more vapid, repetitive tunes you get. I mean, I like Sisqó, the man has talent, but I can take or leave 'Thong Song' at this point.

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There are songs that were hits that are no longer played, then you have so-called "classic rock," which is in the mind of the beholder. What I think about what is classic is different than what you or somebody else think. I think Frank Zappa is classic rock but will you hear him? Prince is classic rock right?

Prince is classic rock right?

Well he's never, ever played on "classic rock" radio, interestingly enough. Never was.

Zappa was not played a lot on the rock radio stations because he didn't have a lot of radio hits. But every once in a while they'd play "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" if it was a snow day, or one of his funny ones late at night. Nowadays I'd be surprised if he got any play at all.

[Edited 6/6/14 12:26pm]

bobzilla77 said:

Well he's never, ever played on "classic rock" radio, interestingly enough. Never was.

Zappa was not played a lot on the rock radio stations because he didn't have a lot of radio hits. But every once in a while they'd play "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" if it was a snow day, or one of his funny ones late at night. Nowadays I'd be surprised if he got any play at all.

[Edited 6/6/14 12:26pm]

It appears Frank Zappa only had 3 songs hit the Top 100 singles in Billboard, and only 1 hit the Top 40, which is Valley Girl which made it to #32. "Classic Rock" is like "oldies", in that they play songs that were big hits or popular on the old AOR format. Then it's only certain acts and hits that are played.

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Prince was not played on AOR, which rarely played black acts not named Jimi Hendrix. I did hear Beat It a few times, probably because of Eddie Van Halen. They didn't play female acts that much either. It was mostly white male hard rock bands, heavy metal, southern rock, prog, and sometimes pop rock like Loverboy, Journey, Tears For Fears, and Styx. They'd play The Beatles and George Harrison solo. Sometimes AOR would play an entire album.

Well first of all, RADIO today is a whole new animal. Disc Jockeys or whatever they are now, have NO say in what they play at all, I can name tons of artists that benefited from DJ's having influence in their careers by having the freedom to play them.

A few examples.

STYX- "Lady" this song bombed when initially released, as STYX was on Wooden Nickel records, peaked somewhere around #90. Then they released two more albums that sold less and less and they were on the verge of getting axed, when suddenly a jock in Chicago played "LAdy" every night at 8Pm till the country jumped on the song and took it to the top 10, despite being a few years old and a few albums old too.

BILLY JOEL- "Captain Jack" though never a BIG hit, this song could be called one of his signature songs from his second album. But again never was big, till albums later when "Songs in the Attic" was released a Jock in Phillie pulled "Captain Jack" live and played that and the studio version till Billy Got noticed, Billy was also on the verge of being dumped from Sony as he was 5 albums into his career with barely a gold album yet.

THE BEATLES- well u can insert many songs here that were B sides that became number one hits.

RICK SPRINGFIELD- "Jessie's Girl" RCA hated this song, never thought it was a single, in fact it wasnt till a DJ in LA heard that RCA was releasing "I've Done Everything For You" as the new single, well though that song was a minor hit in the top 25, that DJ took it on his own and played Jessies Girl, the phones lit up and RCA had to release it now. Became a number one hit, launched Rick to consecutive multiplatnum albums, and won him a grammy over Bruce Springsteen, ironically.

these are just for instances where RADIO back in the day, having freedom worked to the benefit of the artists, no more. Today overplaying is ALOT different than back then. I can remember in the Summer of 1984 alot of songs being overplayed, BUT the fact is there were tons of variety, a radio station had a 40-60 song play list, now they have 10-15. Do the math. Plus now none of these artists and others would have survived

lastdecember said:

RICK SPRINGFIELD- "Jessie's Girl"

But this was played so much, that most people in the US think he was a 'one hit wonder'. When they had a local radio station a few years ago with a format called "retro" that played 1980's hits, Jessie's Girl and Don't Stop Believing by Journey was played quite often. It's a classic rock station now. I think the retro station didn't last all that long was because they played the same songs (and performers) over and over, but so does the classic rock one (like Freebird & Blinded By The Light). There were two classic rock stations though, but the other one became a hip hop station a few months ago, which we already had a hip hop station which has been around since the late 1980s, and the Top 40 pop station seems like it's almost a rap station some of the time. So that's 3.

MickyDolenz said:

lastdecember said:

RICK SPRINGFIELD- "Jessie's Girl"

But this was played so much, that most people in the US think he was a 'one hit wonder'. When they had a local radio station a few years ago with a format called "retro" that played 1980's hits, Jessie's Girl and Don't Stop Believing by Journey was played quite often. It's a classic rock station now. I think the retro station didn't last all that long was because they played the same songs (and performers) over and over, but so does the classic rock one (like Freebird & Blinded By The Light). There were two classic rock stations though, but the other one became a hip hop station a few months ago, which we already had a hip hop station which has been around since the late 1980s, and the Top 40 pop station seems like it's almost a rap station some of the time. So that's 3.

Well classic rock radio has always sucked, people think Stairway to Heaven is the only Zep song ever, they dont play things like "Dazed and Confused" etc...as for Journey i think there are a few more that get overplayed by them, Open Arms would be one. As for Rick, this is played more since it was a hit, then when it was on the charts. And thats the point, radio programmers have no clue on anything, if you get an 80's station you'll hear the same Duran Duran song, the same Cure Song, the same Lionel Richie song, the same etc....asking anyone in radio today to DIG is falling on deaf ears

lastdecember said:

Well classic rock radio has always sucked, people think Stairway to Heaven is the only Zep song ever, they dont play things like "Dazed and Confused" etc...as for Journey i think there are a few more that get overplayed by them, Open Arms would be one. As for Rick, this is played more since it was a hit, then when it was on the charts. And thats the point, radio programmers have no clue on anything, if you get an 80's station you'll hear the same Duran Duran song, the same Cure Song, the same Lionel Richie song, the same etc....asking anyone in radio today to DIG is falling on deaf ears

You sure are negative. Where I live, there's 5 or 6 college stations and they don't have a pre-programmed Clear Channel playlist. One is jazz, one is classical, one is rock, and so on. One of them plays random music, depending on what time or day it is like rap, country, blues, death metal (at night), tejano, disco, local acts, metal, classic rock, soul/R&B, new music, funk, jazz, bluegrass, female blues, gospel/Christian pop, folk, etc. It's not just overplayed hits. I know people who have those car radios where the name of the song playing shows up before the song actually starts, but that doesn't happen with college radio, nor the religious music stations.

MickyDolenz said:

lastdecember said:

Well classic rock radio has always sucked, people think Stairway to Heaven is the only Zep song ever, they dont play things like "Dazed and Confused" etc...as for Journey i think there are a few more that get overplayed by them, Open Arms would be one. As for Rick, this is played more since it was a hit, then when it was on the charts. And thats the point, radio programmers have no clue on anything, if you get an 80's station you'll hear the same Duran Duran song, the same Cure Song, the same Lionel Richie song, the same etc....asking anyone in radio today to DIG is falling on deaf ears

You sure are negative. Where I live, there's 5 or 6 college stations and they don't have a pre-programmed Clear Channel playlist. One is jazz, one is classical, one is rock, and so on. One of them plays random music, depending on what time or day it is like rap, country, blues, death metal (at night), tejano, disco, local acts, metal, classic rock, soul/R&B, new music, funk, jazz, bluegrass, female blues, gospel/Christian pop, folk, etc. It's not just overplayed hits. I know people who have those car radios where the name of the song playing shows up before the song actually starts, but that doesn't happen with college radio, nor the religious music stations.

Actually its not me, i have heard countless artists and DJ's say this numerous times. One example would be Eddie Trunk of that Metal Show ( a show which actually showcases new and old doing new stuff) he has had artists on their that are pretty well known that say classic rock radio is shit, its mindless, you used to have dj's playing albums regardless of what the single was (in most cases these artists didnt have singles) but things like classic rock, its "Stairway to heaven" or "More than a Feeling" "smoke on the water" "Feel like makin love" "working for the weekend" etc......great songs but give them a rest. every single station plays them

lastdecember said:

Actually its not me, i have heard countless artists and DJ's say this numerous times. One example would be Eddie Trunk of that Metal Show ( a show which actually showcases new and old doing new stuff) he has had artists on their that are pretty well known that say classic rock radio is shit, its mindless, you used to have dj's playing albums regardless of what the single was (in most cases these artists didnt have singles) but things like classic rock, its "Stairway to heaven" or "More than a Feeling" "smoke on the water" "Feel like makin love" "working for the weekend" etc......great songs but give them a rest. every single station plays them

Why would they do that? Apparently there's an audience for the current classic rock format or it wouldn't exist. Some people like the familiar. There's a local adult R&B station that if you listened to it 6 or 7 years ago, they're literally playing the same songs now regularly (Atomic Dog, Golden Time Of Day, Outstanding, Living For The City, Sweet Love, That Lady, Best Of My Love, etc) with a few new songs thrown in (mostly neo-soul, plus Jaheim & Charlie Wilson. They love Jaheim. ). But the station regularly gets the highest ratings in the city. That's why people watch reruns of Dragnet, The Flying Nun, and I Love Lucy. I Love Lucy has been on air since the 1950's, so the episodes have been broadcast over and over. There aren't many choices for older viewers on network TV like in the past such as Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, & Matlock. The older TV shows also get a new audience as well. Antenna TV currently airs The Monkees and that is probably one of the reasons teens and young adults have gone to their recent concerts and conventions. TV wants to get a younger audience for their advertisers, so a show geared towards senior citizens is not a priority.

Do the "Old School" stations only have permission to play certain songs also lastdecember? It seems like those stations are on repeat as well

Question. Do the artists have any say on radio play? meaning, if an artist released a single, could they say that the radio stations couls only play the song no more than once an hour or two? Playing the music constantly not only makes people get tired of the song, but it takes away from the song in my opinion. Meaning, a great song can easily become a song you completely dismiss because radio has literally shoved it down your throat.

People can blame the internet all they want for the Industry going down hill, but radio dj's are also a major part in it. There is A LOT of great music out there being made today, I wouldn't call it "underground" i'd call it music that most of the general public just aren't exposed to. If radio dj's would operate how they used to, it would be a good thing for not only the artists, but for the industry as a whole.

dm3857 said:

Question. Do the artists have any say on radio play? meaning, if an artist released a single, could they say that the radio stations couls only play the song no more than once an hour or two?

Getting songs played on the radio has more to do with the record label than the artist. That's why the majors are important, they have an A&R department or an promotional department to "pimp" out the records and money to make videos or put songs in TV commercials, like Sting did a few years ago or currently Michael Jackson's Love Never Felt So Good for Jeep. A small indie label doesn't really have the big money or clout to get songs played. Commercial hit radio runs from companies advertising on it, so they have to have content that appeals to as large an audience as possible. Lower watt stations, talk radio, or AM will have more local commercials than a Top 40 station, and college radio generally run from pledges and they don't air commercials. Selling records always depended on getting a lot of radio play and saturation. In the early 1960's, The Beatles had the top 5 spots on the Billboard charts. That's because the group got a lot of airplay and people requested their songs to be played. I don't think there is as much emphasis on listener requests today. The Thriller album sold big because of saturation on radio, MTV, and the media. CBS Records had the funds to do so.

What alot of people dont realize, especially or indie artists, or just older artists doing their own thing, ALOT has to do with that base they have, this is why you see them all with their own websites, merchandise for sale etc...Alot of artists today are not business wise and many of the older ones arent either, I think people feel that anyone can just do it on their own, it is not an easy thing at all, even if you are a big seller when that label is gone and YOU make the call on everything its not easy, sure you reap the most of money, but you also lose it just as quick if you do things wrong. Threee of the best artists at "getting it" out there to me are Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters and Rick Springfield, strange trio there but technically all are on their own so to speak.

As for things like airplay, its up to fans to request, email etc...but to be honest you are beating a dead horse on that one. I spoke to someone who runs Rick Springfields merchandising, concert site. And i asked her about how he plans out tours because he is doing over 100 dates this year and has pretty much done that for a decade now, but she stressed, its NOT mapped out like someone who has the benefit of major label and promoters, and IF you want a certain artist in your town, YOU GOTTA do the work, the artist makes very very little call on this, sure there are places they wanna play, but the fans gotta get on these venues and say BOOK so and so, and depending on the economics of it and the demand they do. I saw Rick play at the City Winery here in NYC last November, small amazing venue, stripped down show, i asked about him coming back to that venue and was told, you gotta let them know you want it, venues will book what is demanding, Rick played 2 sold out nights there, so there is the demand.