Those '90s Country Stars Still Getting It Done!

As Kasey Musgraves plays to 53,000 at RodeoHouston to excellent reviews, you clearly see the new kids have taken over the playground. You see it in all of art and media. Out with the old and in with the new ... CUT, rewind ...

Begin the week with the Oscars, The Green Book got Best Picture with some controversy but that was an old school story about a different time. The Lady GaGa/Bradley Cooper onstage love-in was very retro. Most often compared to Leo and Kate's chemistry in Titantic. Old-fashioned performance at a grand piano, you could almost imagine in some MGM musical.

Cut to Houston where Kasey rode a horse old school around the stadium floor. Jump ahead to Wednesday night and the Rodeo re-books after a nine-year miss, Brooks & Dunn ... 71,366 dancing in the aisles and singing joyfully every song.

It was 1992 all over again. Garth Brook's sold more tickets to Heinz Field Pittsburgh this week for a May show than Pitt vs. Penn State in football. That is something!

Garth also went back in time to sell his big '90s hit albums on vinyl in a box set. Original analog, remastered, etc. Maybe one of the most beautiful box sets ever. Blew up the Internet Tuesday when modern day bots tried to horn in, crashing the site. That's so 2019! And we go on...

Fleetwood Mac had an arena show in Nashville this week and it got more talk than any other live music show. The obvious is right there in front of you: The world is not exclusively in the hands of those 30 years old and younger.

Radio had the 25-54 F and M forever. Someone decided we don't want to do that anymore. Let's go with Taylor Swift Country. Okay. Country will be the modern-day Top 40 pop. And down that road everyone went.

The smart play by the big corporate folks was to have a pod with both flavors of Country. When you add both those numbers up, it usually looks pretty good if the playing field is equal for both stations ... and it rarely is.

It is hard to mix George Strait and some of the newer acts but its more about the vibe and feel than the music. Just like hit Pop stations don't play Beatle music or even James Brown or Temptations in R&B. It's about looking to the next thing. Looking to the future.

It's always been that way actually. Big bands moved on eventually because smaller groups and rock moved in. The home studio-inspired acts came next and on we go. But it is cool that a '90s act can sell out stadiums in two of America's biggest cities, while a '70s act Billy Joel sells out Madison Square Garden every month.

That much-maligned Vegas gig for many musicians has been and remains that pot of gold in the desert. The residency keeps going with Janet Jackson doing it. Garth has already done it. Who will be next?

Oh yeah ... killing content to reduce your minutes-per-hour spot load is crazy! You play a lot of music for sure, but if that's all I want you have too many places to go that have NO commercials. Content is what makes you special. Duh. You can't be just a jukebox and corporate promo machine. Give the fans something they can say they only heard on YOU!