When I first started in radio if I played a song that was more than 10 years old, it really stood out like a sore thumb.

Further back than that, it was almost unacceptable. Thinking back on those early days, when I also DJ’ed at high school dances, weddings, and later in clubs, if you dipped back 30 years you would be playing music from the 1950’s.

And likely, finding yourself looking for a new gig very soon.

I rarely go out and play live anymore. Used to do it, as Harry Chapin sings in “WOLD”, as the DJ at the high school sock hop just like “a big time guest MC”. But a family friend was getting married and asked me to do it. The response I received surprised me.

It didn’t surprise me so much that I could play Wild Cherry’s “Play that Funky Music” back to back with Ke$ha’s “Take it off” and make a clean fun segue out of it. It’s a blast to beat mix music. Even at my age. What surprised me are many other songs that are 30 years gone by or older were popular with early 20-somethings…..and they knew the words to these songs as well.

Trust me. When I was 20 something, I couldn’t recite the first verse of “Some enchanted evening”, a popular song that would have been about 30 years prior. Certainly would never have played it back in the day with Steely Dan’s “19” or “Sweet Home Alabama”, which to this day still packs a dance floor at most public gatherings with a diverse age group. Yep, the teens know all the words, though they probably have no idea of who McGovern was.

I’m not writing anything all of you don’t already know here. What’s intriguing to me in this scenario is that kids can listen and like what parents used to listen to growing up, and vice versa. And that makes radio, and recording “new music”, much different for us today.

Mass appeal in texture, style, and genre is at a point that it’s never been before. Exciting for anybody in the music industry. From artists, to producers, to radio programmers.

I heard a station north of my area recently brand themselves as “Tavern radio”. A take-off somewhat from the former satellite service “The Bar”, their playlist featured these five songs in one hour: “Rock with you” (Michael Jackson), “Horizontal Bop” (Bob Seger), “I love this bar” (Toby Keith), “Hit me with your best shot” (Pat Benetar), and “Raise your glass” (Pink). Heard ZZ Top, Carrie Underwood, and Jimmy Buffett, too. After wondering if I had been on the road too long and just imagined this, and maybe caught skip from another station on the same frequency, it all made perfect sense to me. I’ve heard all of those songs in a bar setting. It wasn’t about the genre. Or the year the song was recorded.

It was a theme. Have fun. Sing along. Because chances are, you know the words. And even if you didn’t, it put you in a frame of mind that equaled one word: fun.

That’s why I’m really pumped about 2011 as we go into the new year. Artists may cross into two, three different genres with singles that would only be released and worked in one in the past. The music scene, though diverse and certainly somewhat geographical by design, seems to be focusing on the music and its appeal and less about if the artist has bucks and a major label behind them, or how they may look in front of a camera.

Keep an open mind. That seems to be the mantra for all in the industry as we forge forward.