Mason’s Observations: “Pop” Radio’s Major Problem

Week after week, incredible songs with true passion and potential get overlooked or squeezed out by records that no active listener cares about. It can be said now, more than ever, as several major artists have songs in the Top 20 airplay despite a total lack of streams, requests or consumption of any kind: Ariana Grande “twilight zone”, Ed Sheeran “Azizam”, Maroon 5 “Priceless”, Miley Cyrus “End of the World” and Benson Boone “Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else”. We have absolutely no opinion on any of these songs, except for the raw facts that anyone studying basic audience research can see. Mediabase is a valuable tool, but it has no direct connection to audience like or dislikes. There are songs we love, hate and are sick and tired of, but our only job is point out the songs that are clearly listener-popular and those that aren’t.