The Beat needs more diversity

May 11, 2007 at 7:54 pm · Filed under Music

I’ve been playing with Python and PHP to track radio station playlists, and noticed something interesting. Let’s compare the popular songs for the Beat (CFBT) vs the Zone (CJZN).

The Beat’s Results:

  1. Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z Umbrella 84
  2. Timbaland Feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake Give It To Me 76
  3. Nelly Furtado Loose All Good Things (Come To An End) 71
  4. Carrie Underwood Some Hearts Before He Cheats 64
  5. Gym Class Heroes Cupid’s Chokehold 62
  6. Diddy Feat. Keyshia Cole Last Night 58
  7. Maroon5 Makes Me Wonder 58
  8. Justin Timberlake Futuresex/Lovesound Summer Love 56
  9. Avril Lavigne Girlfriend Girlfriend 54
  10. Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveSounds What Goes Around…Comes Around 51

The Zone’s Results.

  1. Rise Against The Sufferer & The Witness Prayer Of The Refugee 32
  2. Silversun Pickups Silversun Pickups Lazy Eye 31
  3. Linkin Park What I’ve Done 31
  4. Queens Of The Stone Age Sick Sick Sick 27
  5. Finger Eleven Tip Paralyzer 26
  6. Plain White T’s All That We Needed Hey There Delilah 24
  7. White Stripes Icky Thump 24
  8. Priestess Hello Master Talk To Her 22
  9. Kaiser Chiefs Ruby 22
  10. Ten Second Epic Count Yourself In Count Yourself In 22

The Zone has 611 songs played in that period. A good mix of music. Compare it to the Beat’s 358, that’s just pitiful. The most popular song was played 84 times on the Beat, that’s 12 times per day.

I’m not saying that the Beat’s music sucks, they’re a good station to jump to when my favourites are running ads or playing a song that I don’t like.  The problem is that they play the same stuff, over and over again.  There are a lot of good independant Canadian hip-hop artists out there, so why doesn’t the Beat try to promote them, instead of filling their Can-con requirements with Nelly Furtado ten times a day?

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