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February 22, 2010
Alexander Salamon
When clicking the radio favourites button, listeners can easily tell that current music is suffering. Modern radio lacks character. It seems as though radio stations play the same 20 songs throughout the day. The same loop, the same routine, every day, over and over again as songs released months ago are still played hourly over the radio waves.
What radio stations do not understand is that old is not necessarily bad. I realize that everyone has individual taste and that is to be expected. Modern music, to me, seems to all be edited and mass produced to sound the same. The same beats, the same voices, the same bland performances. Unless radio stations start playing a wider array of selections with innovative and brisk new music, I see no point in listening anymore.
Although radio stations such as 91.3 The Summit offer a wide selection of different genres throughout the day, a new radio station could engage the area by playing classic songs that are rarely heard by legendary bands whose songs never make it on the air. Pop music is being stereotyped while classic groups such as Rose Hill Drive, We The Kings, The Black Keys and YES are getting thrown under the bus.
New artists are creating stimulating contemporary music. In fact, these songs are catchy enough that radio stations play them over and over again only to lower the true beauty of them. While artists such as Lady Gaga, the Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Swift are over saturating the radio waves, radio stations can improve music quality by introducing varied artists every now and then.
Most Overplayed radio songs:
Down – Jay Sean Featuring Lil Wayne
Poker Face, Just Dance, Bad Romance – Lady GaGa
I Got a Feeling and Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Pea
Replay – Iyaz
Waking up in Vegas, Hot N’ Cold – Katy Perry
TiK ToK – Ke$ha
Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) – Beyonce
You belong with Me, Love Story -Taylor Swift
Live your Life – T.I Featuring Rihanna
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
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February 24th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Choose NPR talk. Very little advertising, No on-air argueing, and somewhat educational. I suggest you get an IPod or equivalent for your music fix. Ole Jim
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February 27th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Hi Alexander:
You make some good points. Dig a little, deeper, and you will find that the radio stations in the US are owned by a small number of corporations. It isn’t like the good old days of the 20th century when each radio station was an independently owned entity. Each station had some say in programming. With a small number of corporations deciding what to play (i.e what we have to listen to), it is no wonder that variety is lacking in programming. The same problem exists in newspapers and TV stations.
You hit the nail on the head when you said “Modern radio lacks character.” This is a sad testimonial to our society as a whole as to what sells. Consider, as one example, “Tik Tok:” It is a song glorifying the party-to-excess lifestyle, underage drinking, disobedience to parents and authority, being self absorbed (“The party don’t start til I walk in!”), and presented in a way as if this is what brings fulfillment and contentment to life. I won’t comment about the work of some of the other “artists” in your list. Their work is full of explicit immorality that would not be appropriate to discuss in this public forum.
In your list, the only artist who is inspired by simple values, as exemplified by her work, is Taylor Swift. (Aside: Have you seen the video for “You Belong with Me?” The high school football team in the video uses the name “Knights.” The uniforms sure look like Hoban uniforms. The football game part of the video was filmed at Pope John-Paul II High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee.)
The problem goes far beyond the repetitiveness in the songs that are being played. The real problem is the repetitiveness in the message that is being played.
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