CHR so far in 2012, and where it's going?

[carolinaradio]

Any thoughts about CHR so far this year?  I know we're just a month in to the year, but there's been some new stuff released and of course songs from 2011 that have just started charting higher this year.

Seems to me that CHR is still resisting rock.  There was a lot of talk back in the summer about CHR becoming more balanced and perhaps some rock returning, but that seems to have failed to materialize, although there has been a period where there was more variety on the charts.  I think CHR is pretty rhythmic now.  Adele is staying strong, and we're seeing Gavin DeGraw have success with a pop track currently.  Kelly Clarkson has a couple of decent pop tracks, as well.  I'm watching The Fray's latest, but I have a feeling it may not get extremely far.  Still very rhythmic IMO. 

Any guesses on what direction CHR will take this year?  Maybe 2012 will be the year the format becomes more balanced (I doubt it really), or will it stay pretty rhythmic?  I don't look for a return of rock this year.  If there was, I don't see it being fueled by Nickelback and/or Daughtry, seeing the performance of the tracks they've released so far.

[KDM 7000]

Interesting that you bring this up because I am watching to see how far the Coldplay ft Rihanna "princess of china" track or even "paradise" goes. Even though I've known about the first one for some time and have seen some chr stations lightly play it for a while, it just now seems to be making a chr radio impact and the promos for chr radio adds are just now showing up in my email.

I'm also wondering if songs like "Somebody I used to know" by Gotye may cross over into CHR this year, and if so, how would that change the landscape of the overall sound of top 40? If Adele could make it, then I'm sure Gotye could easily make it as well, and I bet it would create somewhat of a chain reaction of similar productions being released, causing somewhat of a short lived trend in sound. Not sure how many songs actually make it to Hot AC first before crossing over to CHR, but I'm guessing it could and has happened. It would be interesting if both the Coldplay and Gotye songs cross over.