Performances from the first day of the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada Friday, September 23, 2011. The festival marks the official launch of iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s free digital radio product combining more than 800 broadcast radio and digital-only stations from 150 cities.
Today the radio behemoth Clear Channel announced a festival celebrating the relaunch of its online service iHeartRadio, which currently allows listeners to tune into the chain's terrestrial-radio outlets from all over the country (as well as about 150 digital-only stations) and which will eventually allow listeners to personalize their stations, a la Pandora. The two-day iHeart Radio Music Festival, which will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on September 23 and 24, has a star-studded bill and prices that are surprisingly decent for the amount of talent on display (single-day tickets start at $45 a pop before service charges). But what does the lineup say about the current status of each format in Clear Channel's arsenal—pop, hip-hop/R&B, country, adult contemporary, and rock? A brief analysis after the jump.
lady gaga will be performing at the iheartradio music festival
LINEUP OF iHEART RADIO FESIVAL 2011
Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Steven Tyler, The Black Eyed Peas, Kenny Chesney, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Carrie Underwood, Jane's Addiction, Nicki Minaj, John Mayer, David Guetta, Rascal Flatts, Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Sublime with Rome, special performances from Usher and Sting.
iHeartRadio Festival: Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Usher, Coldplay, Alicia ...
THE BREAKDOWN
POP
On the bill: Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Jennifer Lopez, David Guetta, Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson
Notable omissions: Adele, Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Rihanna, LMFA(ugh)O
No discussion of pop music in 2011 would be complete without Gaga, and Lopez's recent successes seemed pretty improbable immediately in the wake of the loud thunk made by "Louboutins" and "Fresh Out The Oven" a few years back. But Adele's been the true pop star of this year, ruling the sales charts with an iron fist and crossing genres like other people cross the street—perhaps she'll be added later. And you'd think the bookers at Clear Channel would strike while the iron was hot and announce the group with the current No. 1 single in the country as being part of their festival—even if "Party Rock Anthem" will be more spoiled than a dropped ice cream cone by mid-September.
(Also, weren't the Peas supposed to be going "on hiatus" as of Thursday? Did will.i.am suddenly land a sponsor for their comeback, one who had a really tight deadline for disbursing funds?)
HIP-HOP/R&B:
On the bill: Alicia Keys, Usher, Nicki Minaj
Notable omissions: Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Chris Brown
Or really, anyone who gets played on the chain's urban-leaning stations while spitting rhymes, and not unfurling melodies. (Even Minaj's biggest hits have seen her singing as much as, if not more than, rapping.).
ROCK:
On the bill: Steven Tyler, Coldplay, Jane's Addiction, Sublime With Rome
Notable omissions: Any rock band that put out its first record during the 21st century
Seriously, maybe it's time to follow WRXP's lead and put the radio version of "rock" out to pasture. And I don't even mind Coldplay all that much.
