Why Is Pop Radio Not Picking Up Shallow?

[rumours 45,521]

Let’s face it: Gaga needs a face tattoo to get played on pop radio. 

[OBEY 57,109]

Its not pop

Its screams

Its not very polished

It doesn’t have the conventional structure

its guitar driven

basically the song has almost everything to not succeed on pop radio

[Economy 46,745]

8 minutes ago, PhillipBagshaw said:

It's not gonna do well on the radio. In addition to being an unstructured song, the song itself doesn't sound anything remotely close to anything else on the radio right now. With all the other odd-ball songs that come up at least they sound like something similar to what's being played right now. Also, it's a live track. That never gets picked up. It's a lost cause, it doesn't matter how much we love it. I'm counting on INLA

I'm not convinced there will be a second single

 

But if there is I feel like "is that alright" if anything is more radio friendly

 

INLA is beautiful but it takes almost 2 minutes for the powerful good parts to actually kick in and as soon as it done it dies off again. INLA is a long song with only the middle of the song carrying a real punch

 

Is That Alright is shorter and has more action all the way thru

[GGDTim26 103]

33 minutes ago, M Monstre said:

I think it's because it's just so different from anything else on the radio right now. 

Also, I'm no composer, or musical analyst, or whatever but I think one of the "problems" with the song, and the reason why it may not do extremely well on radio is that it's a very unstructured song. When you look at a song like Is That Alright? or Before I Cry, you can easily see them doing well on radio because not only do they sound like radio ballads, but they have a structure. It's a verse --> chorus --> verse --> chorus --> bridge --> final chorus. With Shallow, it's not like that. It's like verse --> verse --> chorus --> bridge --> final chorus. In my opinion, it takes too long to get to the "meat" of the song, which is why it may not doing extremely well on radio.

Now before anyone quotes me, I love Shallow. I love the fact that it's live, both Bradley and Gaga complement each other well, it showcases Gaga's amazing vocals at the end, etc. However, that's just the reality of how music is these days. 

This! But can you also imagine Taki Taki playing then shallow following? Neither can I, girlie! 

AWRUTW, INLA, & Is That Alright are perfect for top 40 radio ballads. But ITA & AWRUTW more or so. 

[Fifi 591]

Today "shallow" was #54 at pop from #75(last week)... Give it a little time. Pop radio stations have been hesitant at first but all this massive success forced them to start playing this. Hopefully it can go top20 or even top10 on pop radio.We'll see.

[Economy 46,745]

3 minutes ago, Fifi said:

Today "shallow" was #54 at pop from #75(last week)... Give it a little time. Pop radio stations have been hesitant at first but all this massive success forced them to start playing this. Hopefully it can go top20 or even top10 on pop radio.We'll.

Yeah I'm thinking the 1 week delay (with it initially not being intended to be a radio single) may have made radio stations not jump on the hype and be cautious and seeing if other stations pick it up first and they don't want to be the first ones to do it

 

I think if it keeps surging on Hot Adult Contemporary tho it may spill into Top 40 more easily because HAC overlaps some of Pop radio audience who listen to both since HAC plays a lot of new music as well unlike full on Adult Contemporary

[theahsfan 13,695]

Maybe because it’s not a pop song? And sounds absolutely nothing like what would be played on radio 

[Emvee 7,571]

People counting on the second single to be the smash they’ve been waiting for are going to be very disappointed. 

[Blastertoyo 22,728]

For those of you saying Shallow is not “radio friendly” or the structure is too different let’s not forget that In My Feelings is literally just incomprehensible screaming for half of the song... 

[StarryNight 10,103]

It's just a cute buzz single before real deal smash aka INLA 

[Reality 71,433]

1 hour ago, GGDTim26 said:

This! But can you also imagine Taki Taki playing then shallow following? Neither can I, girlie! 

AWRUTW, INLA, & Is That Alright are perfect for top 40 radio ballads. But ITA & AWRUTW more or so. 

2

Agree 10000000%

[TeenIdle 121,108]

58 minutes ago, StarryNight said:

It's just a cute buzz single before real deal smash aka INLA 

That cute buzz single is top 5 in both the US and the UK and is Gaga's biggest streaming hit since Applause 

[Levels 2,988]

Let's stop pretending we don't know why.

Hint: ageism.

[ALGAYDO 29,638]

Radio is trash and trash doesn’t have taste. 

 

Also, maybe their payola checks didn’t get cleared? Lmao don’t forget labels pay radios to play their music. I have a feeling Interscope doesn’t do stuff like that for the Gags anymore. 

[WhiteWitch 720]

3 hours ago, Economy said:

Sales: monstrous

Streams: pretty solid

Radio: been surging on Hot Adult Contemporary for almost a week and AI to spins ratio in all formats have a high  ratio showing public interest

 

So what's the issue? It's not even top 50 

Because 1: Radio is slowly dying out

2: It really isn’t “Pop”