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Is anyone playing current Top 40?

Hasn't Top 40 always been aimed at younger listeners?

Honestly, I don't think so..... or not as young as current music. To me, current top 40 is mainly geared toward tweens and younger. 60s and 70s music was fairly universal (other than the elderly or very traditional people). 80s music was aimed at young ADULTS for the most part....and teenage boys on the rock side. Grunge in the 90s was way too depressing for kids.
So you don't know who BTS is, then? :D The chorus in the number one song right now by Olivia "Good for you" is like a Descendents song sung by a teenage girl. Bruno Mars has very danceable songs. So does Dua Lipa. But the Weeknd, and the ones you mention above are lame.

There are exceptions. But most if the current top 40 is hip hop (which is honestly kind if yard to pull off live for many bands), and teen girl melodrama. Bro country fills in some gaps. There are rarely huge hits that are really good danceable "party" songs. Even some of Dua's songs are a bit serious for the dance floor. Even with a nice beat the content of the songs can be a downer.

And I say that as someone who actually likes a lot of new music as far as riding down the highway and letting my daughters "DJ" the ride. But they just don't translate well for a club gig to me.

Plus, most bars I play aren't frequented by those with fake IDs to get in.
 
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If this doesn't get asses on the dance floor, perhaps nothing will.

Nope. And, honestly, I don't hate a lot of that stuff. My daughters are 9 and 12. They keep my 50 year old butt "current".

I totally agree with @buldog5151bass on this one. Most newer music is aimed at very young people. And very young people don't go to the kinds of bars that have live bands (for the most part). They're into DJs.

"Can't Stop the Feeling" is the latest pop hit we do. We do several "country" songs from recent charts. (They aren't really country songs to me, but I like the songs.)

One thing I will mention about the newer music my girls are into. There's not a lot to celebrate in the songs. They aren't "party" songs. They aren't made for dancing. They remind me of the 90s, when most music was a downer (with exceptions, of course). Olivia Rodrigo doesn't have much in the way of "party" music. Nor does Ed Sheeran, Billie Eillish, Shawn Mendez, etc. They have good breakup songs, and love songs. But nothing I would try to play live. The Weekend has a party song from time to time. Dua has some catchy stuff. But most current pop hits just aren't..... "fun". Kids are pretty melodramatic these days.
It just shows the current feeling …

in the 90s it wasn’t a happy time just like right now it isn’t happy…

it also shows that Boomer wanted to be hippies and party and have no care
 
I'm sure there were parallel scenes in other US cities. THis culture doesn't exist anymore.
i think they were ubiquitous. even when i left the city (there were 10-12 competing teen clubs in/near indy, mid 60s) to go visit my 'country cousins' there was some version of a 'teen scene' joint(s) with bands.

Too many people have rose tinted glasses… top 40 or whatever always been meh. The good songs of the 70 (50 years ago) aren’t that much better … where are all the bands people are so proud and happy and rave about here ? No where that is where. People only remember the good.
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1970 - Wikipedia
i can appreciate your "rose tinted glasses" point, but: what is it about that list that annoys you? :laugh:
 
That is impressive.
Totally agree. But to be fair to the artists he displaced, his new release dropped 11 days ago and has 29 tracks on it. So, huge immediate buzz that can fill up more spaces than most releases with that buzz. (My 20 year old musician son reports Donda it has great moments, but needs editing.)
 
We do everything from 1957 to 2020 (haven't added anything from 2021 yet) in many genres and we stack our setlist to favor the clientele at the venue. If any song we cover get a negative or indifferent reaction from the crowd more than once, it gets dropped from the rotation. I agree with others that Top 40 has become a nebulous thing these days.
 
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I guess there are no live bands a t Teen Clubs anymore.


Actually (again, according to my 20 year old musician son), Philly had a thriving house party scene a couple of years ago that underage kids went to, with bands doing original material rather than covers, that played a similar niche. Covid killed it, or at least put it on ice.
 
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As of today, most of the Billboard Hot 100 seems to be Kanye.

The Hot 100 Chart | Billboard

My acoustic trio has recently done "Circles" by Post Malone and "Levitating" by Dua Lipa with success. But past that, i can't see attempting many of these songs.
I’m looking it right now and can’t find any Grunge song piercing the top 40 during the 90s weird how our perception isn’t the reality
 
Hasn't Top 40 always been aimed at younger listeners?
In the 80's I was in my 20's. There were huge crowds of 20-somethings in the bars listening to bands like mine playing what was then current music, which has now morphed into classic rock. The record-buying public wasn't high-schoolers back then; it was also all of us in that generation. Things seem a little different now.
 
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Too many people have rose tinted glasses…

top 40 or whatever always been meh. The good songs of the 70 (50 years ago) aren’t that much better … where are all the bands people are so proud and happy and rave about here ? No where that is where. People only remember the good.

Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1970 - Wikipedia
Uh, that list is filled with classic songs by revered artists. Those artists include The Beatles, Sly & The Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel, Chicago, The Carpenters, Santana, The Four Tops, The Kinks, CCR, The Jackson 5, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, The Spinners, Joe Cocker, Ike & Tina Turner, The Temptations, The Supremes, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Glen Campbell, James Taylor, Elvis, etc.

Not exactly a list I would refer to as "meh".
 
At my nephew's wedding a few weeks ago, my niece's boyfriend went absolutely bonkers dancing to Cottoneyed Joe.
The first post-covid show I did with the blues band. Outdoor, youngish crowd, polite, not too responsive, whatever, they're paying us.

End of the first set we launch into Come On Pt. 2 by Hendrix. This one entire table with six 20-somethings gets up and starts dancing like maniacs.

Who knows what's going to get young people on the floor these days?
 
Uh, that list is filled with classic songs by revered artists. Those artists include The Beatles, Sly & The Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel, Chicago, The Carpenters, Santana, The Four Tops, The Kinks, CCR, The Jackson 5, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, The Spinners, Joe Cocker, Ike & Tina Turner, The Temptations, The Supremes, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Glen Campbell, James Taylor, Elvis, etc.

Not exactly a list I would refer to as "meh".
None of the songs are the one associated with the artist by cover band.
 
It just shows the current feeling …

in the 90s it wasn’t a happy time just like right now it isn’t happy…

it also shows that Boomer wanted to be hippies and party and have no care

Meh. That last sentence is a bit if melodrama in and of itself. Having "no care" is one thing. But who wants to GO OUT on a Friday or Saturday and be peppered with songs about injustice or breakups? If people are going out, they mostly want to CELEBRATE and have a good time.

What was so unhappy about the 90s? Other than the total downfall of live music brought about by depressing grunge music, of course.
 
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