Early '70s Radio: The American Format RevolutionEarly '70s Radio focuses on the emergence of commercial music radio "formats," which refer to distinct musical genres aimed toward specific audiences. This formatting revolution took place in a period rife with heated politics, identity anxiety, large-scale disappointments and seemingly insoluble social problems. As industry professionals worked overtime to understand audiences and to generate formats, they also laid the groundwork for market segmentation. Audiences, meanwhile, approached these formats as safe havens wherein they could re-imagine and redefine key issues of identity. A fresh and accessible exercise in audience interpretation, Early '70s Radio is organized according to the era's five prominent formats and analyzes each of these in relation to their targeted demographics, including Top 40, "soft rock", album-oriented rock, soul and country. The book closes by making a case for the significance of early '70s formatting in light of commercial radio today. |
Contents
Progressive Rock Formats and | |
The Soul Radio Crisis and | |
Country Radios Growing Pains | |
Never Ending Song of Love The Continuing | |
Notes | |
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60s and early adult African American airplay album artists audience became Billboard Book Billboard July black music Broadcasting bubblegum Cash Box Claude Hall commercial Country Music country radio country stations crossover cultural Davis decade demographic disc jockeys disco drug early 70s Elvis Presley featured female film free-form Frith genre Grand Funk Grand Funk Railroad hit radio housewife Ibid label late 60s Led Zeppelin listeners magazine male movement Music City music industry Nashville Nixon Opry Osmond Partridge Family played playlists political pop charts pop music popular music preteen program director progressive rock radio formats radio industry Radio Programming radio stations Record World rock music Rolling Stone Screenshot sexual singer single Skeeter Davis soft rock songs soul music sound success teen teenagers television Top 40 hit Top 40 radio Top 40 stations underground radio Vietnam voice Woman women wrote York youth