It started with Hillary Duff and Miley Cyrus selling albums and concert tickets but struggling to get airplay at top 40 radio. And it wasn’t so long ago that even Justin Bieber’s music was considered too young for the format, let alone songs from the latest generation of stars from Disney and Nickelodeon shows that targeted tweens.
How things have changed.
This week, Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” debuts at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, Demi Lovato’s “Heart Attack” is No. 6 on Mainstream Top 40 and No. 20 on the Hot 100, and Selena Gomez’s “Come & Get It” bullets at No. 5 on Mainstream Top 40 and No. 8 on the Hot 100. Ariana Grande’s “The Way” rises 12-9 on the Hot 100, and the Jonas Brothers are lurking with “Pom Poms,” which has sold 129,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Disney Music Group senior VP of promotion Scot Finck says it hasn’t always been this way. During the last 15 years the label has pushed hard to get acceptance at top 40 for a series of artists starting with Duff and Cyrus. “We fought for their validation. We’d post a hit and then radio would be like Dory in ‘Finding Nemo’ — they would completely forget. So we’d come again and post another one.”
But today, he says, things are different. “Now 99% of radio programmers understand these artists deliver audience. They drive [Arbitron’s Portable People Meters] and fill concert seats. It’s the fruits of many years of labor.”
Beyond consistent label promotion, why have teen stars gone from question marks to staples at the format? Possibly the most succinct explanation comes from Phil McIntyre, who manages Lovato and the Jonas Brothers. “These are the stars of their generation, and their generation is now the radio-listening audience.”
It helps that these artists are delivering the right songs. “They’re putting out mainstream, right-down-the-middle pop music,” says Rich Davis, PD at Clear Channel’s mainstream top 40 KDWB Minneapolis. “These are really good pop records, really well-produced. They just sound good.”
Part of what’s helping these artists shed their tween or teen labels more quickly than artists like Duff or Cyrus did is their multidimensional approach to promotion that starts with a command of social media.
With this surge of under-21 artists, “they’re not doing it out of thin air,” says Charlie Walk, executive VP of Republic, label home of Grande and 17-year-old viral sensation Austin Mahone. “What they have in common is a sticky audience that follows and communicates with them.” Davis believes the window that listeners get to peer through into the artists’ personal lives makes a difference. “You feel like you know the artists on a different level than we’ve had a chance to in the past. It’s almost like you are vested because you know their story.”
“It’s all about moving the masses,” says LH7 Management CEO Brian Teefey, who manages Gomez. For example, with Gomez, radio stations get an artist that reaches audiences through movies, a fashion line, a fragrance and charitable acts. “She’s bringing all these different audiences to the station. So maybe a fan that doesn’t love her music but loves her fashion line tunes in to hear her.”
The result of all the exposure, Davis says, is multigenerational appeal the format can’t deny. “I’ve got two daughters and a wife, and they all love Selena and Demi. They think they’re great songs, and as a PD of a top 40 station, if I’m getting moms and daughters to the station, then I win.”
(Additional reporting by Jason Lipshutz.)