From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
Subject: Re: Top 40 CCM albums of 1992
Date: 6 Jan 93 19:16:09 GMT
Organization: AT&T

In article <103826@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>In article <1993Jan6.140234.18793@cbnews.cb.att.com> ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman) writes:
>
>>Me either.  Anybody know if any demographic studies have ever been done
>>to determine who buys these albums?  In the secular music world, the
>>standard line seems to be that adolescent girls tend to buy Top 40,
>>adolescent boys tend to buy Heavy Metal, etc.  
>
>Not to pick nits here, but if enough adolescent boys buy *anything*,
>they'll put it into the Top 40.  Wouldn't it make more sense to say
>adolescent girls *and* boys buy Top 40?  I haven't looked at that list in a
>few hundred years; isn't there lots of heavy metal on it?  Or am I just
>being too literal here? 
>
>I guess what I'm asking is -- what is meant by "Top 40"?

Well, I guess I was thinking specifically of the Billboard Rock and 
Pop Top 40, or whatever it's called - the most generic of the
"official" Top 40s that combines rock, pop, rap, ballads, etc.  

Yeah, you're right.  There is a fair amount of heavy metal (or at least 
Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns 'n Roses, etc., which I suppose could loosely 
be classified as heavy metal) on the Top 40, so my distinction wasn't a 
very good one.  What I'm getting at, though, is that record labels 
tend to market certain styles of music to specific audiences -
The Madonna/Paula Abdul/En Vogue/Whitney Houston/Mariah Carey 
axis tends to appeal to adolescent girls.  I don't know why, but
that seems to be who buys most of the records.  Guns 'n Roses/
Metallica fans tend to be adolescent boys.  Sandi Patti fans tend to 
be Christian women who have Big Hair and Christian men who like women 
with Big Hair.  Rush fans tend to be computer scientists.  These
are just personal observations (well, except the Big Hair part,
which has been objectively measured six different ways), and I'm
sure that there are lots of exceptions.  But I *do* know that 
the A&R departments at the big secular labels spend a lot of time 
and money researching just *who* is likely to buy a certain sound.

And I'm wondering if similar tactics are used within CCM.  What are  
the factors that push a CCM album into the CCM Top 40?  Airplay?
Who decides what gets played?  Distribution?  Who does the marketing,
and how are various albums marketed?  And, above all, who or what
is the target audience for a Michael W. Smith album or a Steven
Curtis Chapman album or a Michael English album?  Who buys this
stuff, and what traits/beliefs do they hold in common?

Again, I intend no disrepect to these musicians or to anyone who
might buy their music.  I'm just curious as to how the music 
gets popular in the first place.

>Do these trends carry
>>over into CCM as well?  No flames intended toward either genre of
>>music - I'm honestly curious.  And what types of music do middle-aged
>>ex-hippies with sarcastic streaks tend to buy?
>
>Gimme a "D" .... gimme a "Y" .... gimme an "L" .....

I love these guys.  DYL (pronounced "Dial," right?) is one of the
best rap bands I've heard in a long time.

>The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world --
>if only from time to time.     -- Annie Dillard, "An American Childhood"
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
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Newsgroups: rec.music.christian