I used to listen to Magic 61 when commuting at one period in my life, and I noticed that each alternate song was something I liked, but interleaved each other alternate song was sappy to the point of revolting. This was totally regular, and occured day after day, and the DJ or program director had to be doing it purposely.
So there had to be a way for them to categorize the music, and there had to be a way to specify it, ie, “The policy of this station is to alternate regularly between [normal?] oldtime selections and [sappy? sentimental? moany? sickening?] oldtime selections.” And in their library maybe there were shelves labeled each way. So what is the vocabulary for this?
For examples, much Sinatra, Barry Manilow, and a lot of Christmas music would fit this category I am calling sappy. But most versions of, say, “Joy to the World” aren’t. It’s not just a matter of being upbeat either, “Silent Night” can be done either way.
Perhaps the word you’re looking for is “schmaltz.” It’s a word for sweet, sentimental, cheezy music. In another era you’d find the bands of Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk playing schmaltz.
I like to think of it as ‘Aural Comfort Food’…that sappy, schlocky, gawd awful junk that they play is like a big old Linus Van Pelt security blanket for the masses. On average I suspect that most people have a different kind of ‘programmed’ reaction to that programming than you are exhibiting. I’m pretty confident that the likes of my mother are soothed by it…it puts one in mind of happier times and gets folks in the ‘mood’.
The mood for what? Well seemingly a whole mess of unthinking consumption that serves our dark corporate overlords well. I usually just turn the radio off.