Hey guys,

I'm doing a research essay on the role of radio in spreading pop music to a mass audience, and I need some help.

Can someone tell me how a song from a different genre (alternative, rock, country, etc) can crossover to pop? How would the song garner attention from pop radio stations? A few reasons, please!

And on top of that, can someone provide a few examples of recent crossover hit songs? All I know about is Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People, but I would like a few more examples to make a concrete argument for this essay.

Thanks guys!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossover_(music)


hope it will help

Lady Antebellum has achieved crossover success as well with singles such as 'Need You Now' or 'Just A Kiss'.

Thanks! Btw, do you know how they were such big crossovers? Like... how and why did pop radio stations decide to jump on it and play it until it garnered success?

Rolling In The Deep is also another example. Adele said it herself.

A recent example would be Jay Z & Kanye West "N***as In Paris." Urban and rhythmic stations were playing this at first, but the pop stations picked up on it later than the other two formats and became a crossover hit.

I guess it depends on how "catchy" a song may be. N***as In Paris has that catchiness to it (even though the song is purely rap, the beat itself is easily able to be danced to). Pop stations tend to go to catchy, dance-type songs that are easily picked up on. Plus, Jay & Kanye have had success on pop radio in the past (for example, Jay's "Empire State of Mind" and Kanye's "Gold Digger"), so that may also play a factor as to if a pop station decides to support these type of artists. Hope this helps.

Carrie's 'Before He Cheats' is an excellent example:

Lady Antebellum's Need You Now was really a big crossover hit, going obviously #1 on Country, but also #2 on Pop, #1 on AC and Hot AC, #2 on the Hot 100, #1 on Radio Songs and going to sell over 5.7M copies

Also, Adele's Rolling In The Deep was played on almost every format (i think Billboard wrote something about this)!

Basically, all the rock you see on the Hot 100 are crossover pop singles.

Taylor Swift is a good example of this. However, Teardrops On My Guitar, Love Story, and You Belong With Me all became hits because she released a pop radio mix for all three. You Belong With Me got the best pop mix and that's why it was such a huge hit.

The Band Perry did the same thing with If I Die Young and it hit #14 on the Hot 100.

He wants to know why they got picked up by pop radio tho.

This is intresting someone should explain

Without remix

because they were amazing and Pop could not resist but spin them

The reasons why they pick up is because some times they are specifically designed to appeal to a certain hybrid of audiences. For example, country pop songs like Taylor Swift's are tailor-made to not only appeal to Country moderately, but they are also able to get pop spins because of the crossover nature.

This is the most basic reply ever

Does anyone have a detailed explination

basically a song would fall under a certain genre lets say rap or country but follows the structure of a pop song; simple, catchy hook etc so pop radio picks up on it for being instantly listenable, and viola multi format smash

Faith Hill crossed over in the 1990's with "This Kiss." LeAnn Rimes did, as well, with "How Do I Live?"