Might need to cool those jets, boys. Playing 2 R&B songs doesn't mean they are tweaking the format. Motivation has been in rotation for a while -- I have tape of them playing it as part of the "New at Two" several months ago. It's never going to get major airplay either.
This is what I was trying to point out in my somewhat facetious 'KZZP Novacane & Motivation' comment earlier (KZZP is a top 40 / rhythmic lean top 40).
What's happening now doesn't show that electro dance is in its final days. However, it is evident that hip hop and r&b are improving, and while dance is still holding strong as the overall trend topper at the moment, it is possible that if more quality hip hop and r&b (along with alternative) continues to "rise up", we might have a modernized version of the 90's sound - when we had all types of sounds in chr and many formats doing well independently with their own sound. Remember back when you had hip hop, alternative/rock, r&b, pop, and dance all doing well together (as oppose to one sound mostly dominating a trend) and you also heard it all on your local chr's? With the way things are going now, it could happen again.
As far as motivation not getting major airplay, I'm not exactly sure about that because for some reason, I feel that Kelly Rowland has finally mastered her first successful U.S. hit, and it seems like it has potential to keep growing, possibly at least to the point that Ciara's "oh" did. I was a little skeptical about it at first because not only was it Kelly Rowland, but the song was so slow, and it is a very quality tune, so I automatically assumed it would never catch on. Looks like, though, this song may do some surprising things, or be the song that helps ensure that Kelly's follow up single does even better across the board, due to familiarity.
This is just a hypothesis, but I have a feeling that Kelly Rowland may finally find bigger U.S. success with this album...
