Old School Hip Hop is the new Golden Oldies
While radio stations have seen their audience decrease as tech-savvy consumers flock to satellite radio and streaming audio, broadcasters might have finally found a format that can lure listeners back to FM: Classic hip-hop. Playlists that shine the spotlight back on artists like the Notorious B.I.G., Naughty By Nature and Missy Elliott are currently sweeping the nation, with major broadcasters like Radio One, iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media frantically changing the format of underperforming stations to the sounds of classic hip-hop, the New York Times reports.
This makes perfect sense. Hip hop debuted around 1979 — 35-ish years ago — now dubbed “Old School”. “New School” hip hop began around 1983 and carried through to the early ‘90s — 22-ish years ago. The broader era of “Golden Age” hip hop spans mid-80s to early-90s — call it 25-35+ years go. In 2015, this is a 25-35+ years old genre.
So, what are “oldies”?
In the 1980s and 1990s, “oldies” meant the 15 years from the birth of rock n roll to the beginning of the singer-songwriter era of the early 1970s, or about 1955 to 1972, although this varied and some stations chose 1950-1969.
Doing the math, in the 1980s and 1990s, “oldies” encompassed a format including music from 25-35+ years ago. I may be mistaken but Golden Oldies have always seemed like a tried and true radio station format.