What happened to Radio/Music?

[quakerboy]

In 2004, over the course of multiple months, I weaned myself off of a local Hip-pop station, and converted to listening to Air America while stuck driving for work. I noticed that as the periods of time between music increased, there were no new songs when I came back for a brief listen.

Today, I got tired of hearing one host after another say the same thing, capped by "Best of" I switched back to hip-pop for the first time in well over a year. There was finally a new song. It was also the ONLY song. In a 6 hour period, in and out of the car, I literally only heard commercials, and "pa-pa-pa-pokerface, pa pa pa...". more than 8 times. And not a single other song. Not one.

What. the. hell.

[blue_onyx]

1. I love the song Pokerface so that wouldn't have bother me

Radio does seem to play the same songs a lot. I started listening to a "hits without the rap" station rather than the local "mainstream/top 40" station. One of the big reasons was the Top 40 station played the same songs and it was usually hip hop/rap. By not listening the Top 40 station, I do miss out on some of my favorite songs but it's worth it to avoid hip hop/rap.

[Left Is Write]

6. I love Pokerface too, and have been known to listen to it more than once on purpose.

:D

[alarimer]

2. Clear Channel happened.

The homogenization of music was a direct result of media consolidation.

Fortunately for me I have satellite and never listen to radio anymore.

[mwooldri]

24. Then Mel happened to XM...

Yep, satellite radio's better than terrestrial for choice right now but the thing for me that sits in our bedroom is this:



Though if you have the money the Grace WiFi radio is apparently better than this. I got a deal on the Aluratek and it's OK but for us we find it a bit quiet plus it doesn't support stations that stream in RealAudio.

Since Sirius and XM merged the music channels have got worse (BPM's nothing like the XM BPM).

Mark.

[alarimer]

25. Yes, I do not like the XM channels.

I preferred Disorder, which they got rid of. And the Loft is not the same at all.

[ornotna]

3. Clear your mind

Go here- http://wmnf.org/home

This probably doesn't help you out in the car but it can sure help at the computer.

Commercial radio sucks big time, I gave it up long ago.

[sarge43]

4. Another one for the computer

http://www.vpr.net/listen

Classical music and the BBC

Get a CD player for the car.

[dbt]

5. It's been a Perfect Storm.

For openers, there's the age-old Catch-22: If you want your station to be popular, you have to play only familiar music--but how does any new music get to be familiar if you won't play it because it's not familiar?

Then there's a mathematical component. Playing the same handful of songs over and over does result in higher audience ratings than the opposite approach, "Jack" formats ("we play what we want") notwithstanding. Would that this were not so, but it is. I have found it out the hard way. Radio is a lowest-common-denominator business.

If that weren't enough, Bean Counters run both the "record companies" and the radio stations. In order to maximize profits, any sort of risk-taking is to be avoided. "Downward spiral" comes to mind.

And the damage that Clear Channel has done to Radio cannot be overstated. What a greedy, bloodsucking cancerous mass on the ass of Common Sense that corporation has been! (Has anyone in the top levels of CC ever actually been on the air?) It all reminds me of that verse in John Prine's "Paradise:"

The coal company came with the world's largest shovel,
Tore out the timber and tortured the land.
They dug for their coal til the ground was forsaken
And wrote it all down as the Progress of Man.

Is it any wonder that there are now at least two generations of young people who have just given up on radio?

[Left Is Write]

7. I became disillusioned with radio and quit the industry 14 years ago.

(Though there were also some external reasons for my quitting.)

I never listen to the radio anymore.

[MilesColtrane]

8. I generally haven't listened to music on the radio since 1991.

I will occasionally listen to the area's only classical and blues/gospel stations though.

[mvd]

9. There's not enough variety IMO

If you don't like rap, bands like Nickelback, or Lady Gaga/Miley Cyrus, your choices are limited. Fortunately, they still play artists like Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Green Day, and Taylor Swift.

[quakerboy]

10. In my local area, apparently

If you don't like the song pokerface, your choices are limited. Unfortunantly, they do not still play anything else.

[mvd]

11. I mostly listen to my own collection and XM radio anyway

:hi:

[quakerboy]

13. Company car

and a lack of money. I own 10 cds, no Tapes. The company car has a tape player. And a completely nonfunctional CD changer from the 80's

[charlie and algernon]

12. Top 40 stations play songs on a 90 minute loop

At one job I worked out, we were in a basement and could only get one station, a top 40 station. :eyes: They essentially played the same songs on a 90 minute loop. You could set your watch to it. we picked one song, I think it was the Rehab song, and determined it played 6-7 times during our shift.

[bigwillq]

14. Poker Face is awesome.

But overplayed.

[quakerboy]

16. What makes it awesome?

Serious question, not snark. All I really noticed was the repetitious part, and the part where in the course of my work day I did not hear a single other song.

[bigwillq]

17. The beat

the lyrics. It's a great dance song. Yes, it's repetitious, and yes it's kind of annoying. But every time I hear it, it makes me happy and I want to dance.

[quakerboy]

19. hmm

It makes me think of strip clubs. Not really sure why, other than the beat is similar to what came through the walls when I lived down the street from one.

[bigwillq]

20. It's def a club song.

And I love club songs.

[Left Is Write]

23. It's catchy. The hook is melodic. They beat is great.

All the Dick Clark requirements. :D

[LanternWaste]

15. I'm happy portable music exists...

I'm happy portable music exists... I haven't listened to the radio since I was working graveyard shift in a convenience store to pay my way through college, and that was in the mid 80s. Even then it becoming maddeningly repetitive-- I can only imagine how much worse it must be in the here and now-- what with the music being forced into ever shrinking blocks of air time.

I was carpooling with a co-worker last year who listened to Howard Stern on our way to work. If that bathroom-humor-pretending-to-be-insightful radio show is indicative of "successful and insightful" broadcast these days, I'll gladly go back to listening only to my LP's. :)

[CreekDog]

18. Radio and Audio were tombstoned

it wasn't pretty, believe you me! :P

[nytemare]

21. A woman at my work plays the local hip hop station.

They literally only play about 8 songs, continuously, over and over, unceasingly. The numa numa song, Dead and Gone and about 6 other maddeningly irritating earworms, including that one by Beyonce.

There really is some good neo-soul music out there. It just drives me batty that a radio station, with all the past selection and current selection they can choose from decides to play the same non-melodic crap.

[GOPisEvil]

22. Thank goodness I have KEXP.

Commercial-free. Listener-supported. And they play a lot of stuff I like. And some stuff I don't, but it's stuff you don't hear anywhere else.

[pokerfan]

26. I have two local college radio stations

99% commercial free. One plays jazz; the other plays classical.

[AllenVanAllen]

27. Radio commercials suck major ass

They're what drove me away from commercial radio altogether. I love hearing new music myself. Luckily we have a cool collage and Pacifica station here in town.