Male bias against AT40?

[lasvegaskid]

Back in the day, it seemed most of my male friends were into Nazareth, AC/DC, and Van Halen. They looked down their noses at "wimpy" top 40. However, my female acquaintances were totally into Casey.

Did anyone else encounter this gender difference when it came to AT40?

[reachinforthestars]

My observations in this site over the years would point to a male-dominated following. With a few wonderful exceptions.

[tpanther775]

Jan 13, 2013 23:05:25 GMT -5 lasvegaskid said:

Back in the day, it seemed most of my male friends were into Nazareth, AC/DC, and Van Halen. They looked down their noses at "wimpy" top 40. However, my female acquaintances were totally into Casey.

Did anyone else encounter this gender difference when it came to AT40?

I do think it was like that back then. I think it was once said on an AT40. Casey was answering a question about who had the most #1 hits. Male or Female artists. Males overwhelmingly won. He mentioned how it seemed at the time more females tend to buy singles and males more often to buy albums. It does make sense.

However I do agree that it seems more males like AT40 than females as this moment. I guess us males other than a few exceptions are more nostalgic. I know thats the case between me and my wife.

[doomsdaymachine]

If you're talking about AOR yahoos, their minds were as narrow as the side view of a postcard. Later in the '70s, they founded the "Disco Sucks" brigade.

[chrislc]

Generally speaking, pop music appeals more to females, but numbers appeal more to males, so AT 40 would have been both appealing and unappealing to everyone!

[dukelightning]

No doubt about the male bias against AT40 back in the day when these rebroadcasts were being played originally. I got a lot of flack from fellow students and especially DJs who were into AOR, new wave, punk and such when I was in college/college radio.
But am most perplexed by the lack of females on this board seeing as how they had at least as many questions and LDDs sent in to AT40 or so it seemed.

[canat40fan]

OP, I ran into the same thing in high school back in the mid to late 70's. Most of the guys were only into progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Rush, Supertramp, The Who, The Stones, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Styx (before they went mainstream).

I liked that stuff, but I also liked pop music, some disco, new wave, AC, and even some country. So I guess I would classify myself as having a diverse, renaissance musical taste. I also think that is the case for anyone posting here on this message board. Thinking about it, we all like to listen to the complete AT40 countdown with all of the different musical formats contained within it. Not everybody can do that, but it's a characteristic that we all here share.

[Jeffster]

Jan 14, 2013 21:07:25 GMT -5 doomsdaymachine said:

If you're talking about AOR yahoos, their minds were as narrow as the side view of a postcard. Later in the '70s, they founded the "Disco Sucks" brigade.

Psst. Disco does suck.

[donwa001]

As I listened to AT40 back in High School and College, I never found another person, male or female, with my passion of watching and recording the Pop Charts.

And not all Disco sucks. Still listen to "Vertigo / Relight My Fire" by Dan Hartman, for example.

[countdownmike]

I was in AOR radio from 1977 to 1998. AOR was positioned as anti-Top 40, so it was natural that, no matter what we really believed, we had to convey a dislike for anything associated with Top 40. We even banned the airplay of certain songs by staple AOR artists the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart. We didn't play "Miss You" or "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." But our wives and girlfriends loved those songs. Often at station remotes where we played music, there was often a fight (not physical) between males and females over the music---rock and roll or disco. We guys love nostalgia where our ladies just move on. I have the old records and play them. My wife smiles and watches "Housewives." I love listening to American Top 40. My wife smiles and goes to early morning church service. I blog about AT40 and post here while she writes lesson plans. She hardly remembers buying "Rocket Man" and "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" (I acquired her record collection upon marriage. Even by then she was done with the records). I have every record I ever bought. She smiles and says "keep it neat" in the basement. I played "Love Jones" and she says "I remember that one." It was her copy of the record. She forgot that she bought it. The difference between us and the ladies is that their memory of the "trivial" stuff we post here is short-lived, while we hang on to those memories. Some of us in AOR have fond memories of AT40 and some Top 40 songs. We knew they existed. I don't think many of us were that narrow-minded to totally dismiss the most popular form of music, without which there would have been no radio as we knew it. And many of us who were in the AOR format back then probably listened to and appreciated hearing "The Relay" by The Who this morning on AT40.

[jdelachjr2002]

Jan 20, 2013 19:47:18 GMT -5 countdownmike said:

I was in AOR radio from 1977 to 1998. AOR was positioned as anti-Top 40, so it was natural that, no matter what we really believed, we had to convey a dislike for anything associated with Top 40. We even banned the airplay of certain songs by staple AOR artists the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart. We didn't play "Miss You" or "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." But our wives and girlfriends loved those songs. Often at station remotes where we played music, there was often a fight (not physical) between males and females over the music---rock and roll or disco. We guys love nostalgia where our ladies just move on. I have the old records and play them. My wife smiles and watches "Housewives." I love listening to American Top 40. My wife smiles and goes to early morning church service. I blog about AT40 and post here while she writes lesson plans. She hardly remembers buying "Rocket Man" and "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" (I acquired her record collection upon marriage. Even by then she was done with the records). I have every record I ever bought. She smiles and says "keep it neat" in the basement. I played "Love Jones" and she says "I remember that one." It was her copy of the record. She forgot that she bought it. The difference between us and the ladies is that their memory of the "trivial" stuff we post here is short-lived, while we hang on to those memories. Some of us in AOR have fond memories of AT40 and some Top 40 songs. We knew they existed. I don't think many of us were that narrow-minded to totally dismiss the most popular form of music, without which there would have been no radio as we knew it. And many of us who were in the AOR format back then probably listened to and appreciated hearing "The Relay" by The Who this morning on AT40.

Interestingly my sister just married a young man with an interesting rock album collection. His favorite rock act is the Beatles so the wedding reception was Beatle-themed complete with Strawberry Fields tic-tacs.

And Mike the "Basketball Jones" version by Cheech & Chong was awesome.