Is corporate radio ruining music?

[Life_Long_Dem!]

with monopolies like clear channel and cumulus ruling the roosts it seems to me the quality of music on the radio has gone down the shitter. They play the same 40-50 songs all day on top 40 now and rock radio even sucks, it is either crappy manufactured bands that all sound the same or even on classic rock radio it is WAY TOO MUCH of certain bands and they totally ignore others. What do you all think?

 

[elvis]

with monopolies like clear channel and cumulus ruling the roosts it seems to me the quality of music on the radio has gone down the shitter. They play the same 40-50 songs all day on top 40 now and rock radio even sucks, it is either crappy manufactured bands that all sound the same or even on classic rock radio it is WAY TOO MUCH of certain bands and they totally ignore others. What do you all think?

Yeah this has been going on for at least a few years now.

 

[k2skier]

947.fm

 

[stekim]

Actually, I think the music nowadays just totally sucks ass. That's the real issue.

 

[DiamondDave]

It's why I have been a Sirius subscriber since the first month it was out

 

[KittenKoder]

I listen to "custom" radio online or CD's or my MP3 player ... so I wouldn't know anymore.

 

[Amanda]

with monopolies like clear channel and cumulus ruling the roosts it seems to me the quality of music on the radio has gone down the shitter. They play the same 40-50 songs all day on top 40 now and rock radio even sucks, it is either crappy manufactured bands that all sound the same or even on classic rock radio it is WAY TOO MUCH of certain bands and they totally ignore others. What do you all think?

They play the same 40 songs on top 40 stations... whoddathunk it?

You guys are so cute. Your parents hated your music too. It's our time, deal with it.

 

[KittenKoder]

The only difference between music now and music in the past, the music now is the same music just redubbed.

 

[edthecynic]

with monopolies like clear channel and cumulus ruling the roosts it seems to me the quality of music on the radio has gone down the shitter. They play the same 40-50 songs all day on top 40 now and rock radio even sucks, it is either crappy manufactured bands that all sound the same or even on classic rock radio it is WAY TOO MUCH of certain bands and they totally ignore others. What do you all think?

In some areas there are college stations below 92 FM that play a wider variety of music, but the internet has the best musical choices.

Here is a link to a radio that if you plug in a name of a group you like, it makes a playlist of similar music.

Listen to Free Personal Online Radio – Last.fm

 

[Coloradomtnman]

This has been the course of music since the late 1960s and early 1970s when pop music really started to become marketable. The djs of the era could play all B-sides if that's what they wanted to do, but then radio stations started selling more and more air time for advertising and pretty soon it was the companies buying airtime who were dictating what they wanted played, and what they wanted played was what was popular.

And it has only gotten worse because of a vicious cycle, kids grow up hearing simple pop music and become musicians who aren't very good and particularly brilliant who audience are kids with even less exposure and understanding of music who grow up to become musicians with even less talent until we get what we have currently: music made to sell, nice prettily packaged crap. Its been so over-produced, so edited and reformed, so directed at selling as much as possible that it no longer has a soul.

Just ask 20-somethings and younger if they like the Beatles. Most will say "No", or "Who?" They've never heard of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. They've never heard of Canned Heat or Ten Years After. They don't even know who Elton John or Bob Dylan or The Who is. They've heard of Hendrix because of "Wayne's World" and they've heard of Led Zeppelin cause Led Zeppelin is still around, but they don't like it. "It's old..." they say. They've never even heard of Zappa or the Mothers of Invention or J. J. Cale, Aretha Franklin, etc. etc.

If you listen to music played on the radio today and compare it with music played on the radio ten years ago, 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, you can easily differentiate the music that was made for fun, out of passion, out of joy, and you can hear how much more complex, soulful, original, and sincere it is. Even Abba is far better than anything you'll hear on the radio today. Have you listened to modern Country Western music? It doesn't even sound any different than regular pop music! I love Johnny Cash, Waylen Jennings, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and even Dolly Parton! Even Garth Brooks is better than the new crap that gets aired. Aretha Franklin has more talent and her songs have more sincerity and soul than modern R&B and Soul which is just about getting laid or is played on synthesizers.

Modern pop music lasts a couple of months before growing stale. There's nothing to it. Its built on catchy rifts which are repeated until even fans don't like the song anymore within a couple of months. There's no substance. I've been listening to Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, the Beatles, Clapton, and all those bands from the Golden Age of rock and roll music and it doesn't grow stale because there's something new to be discovered each time you listen to it. Its like a book. Some books are just books: romance novels, unoriginal sci-fi and fantasy novels, mystery novels and some books are texts: Shakespeare's works, Cather in the Rye, On The Road, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Catch 22, The Grapes of Wrath, Stranger in a Strange Land, etc. etc. They withstand the test of time.

That doesn't mean all modern music sucks; just any you hear on the radio and, well, most modern music.

 

[Life_Long_Dem!]

See my thing to is that back in the day you could have a band put out an album and have pretty much all the songs on it be radio singles with in the time it takes them to put out the next cd but now a days that is far from the case as with my fav band breaking benjamin, their last cd phobia came out in 2006 and in 3 years 2-3 songs hit the radio from it and there are many other bands, artists out there with the same issue.

 

[Amanda]

See my thing to is that back in the day you could have a band put out an album and have pretty much all the songs on it be radio singles with in the time it takes them to put out the next cd but now a days that is far from the case as with my fav band breaking benjamin, their last cd phobia came out in 2006 and in 3 years 2-3 songs hit the radio from it and there are many other bands, artists out there with the same issue.

Really? What day was that back in? How many albums can you name that had every song as a radio single? I'll rep you if you can show me proof of 5 albums that meet that criteria.

 

[Dis]

See my thing to is that back in the day you could have a band put out an album and have pretty much all the songs on it be radio singles with in the time it takes them to put out the next cd but now a days that is far from the case as with my fav band breaking benjamin, their last cd phobia came out in 2006 and in 3 years 2-3 songs hit the radio from it and there are many other bands, artists out there with the same issue.

Dude. That's cause Breaking Benjamin sucks by a landslide.

Try Nickleback. Most of their songs become radio singles by the time they put their next CD out.

 

[random3434]

Kids, tweens, teens and young adults need to be turned on to the good music by someone else. If they wait for the radio to tell them what they should listen to, they will become music sheep!


Thank goodness for my older sister turning me on to her music. In my 20's my friend Brad had a ton of music of bands I had never heard of, and still are some of my favorite bands.


There is a whole big world out there beside mainsteam radio. Try it, you'll like it!

 

[Iriemon]

...

Just ask 20-somethings and younger if they like the Beatles. ...

Every generation has its own music, and will think that music is great and the newer stuff is lousy.

But actually, most kids I know are not only aware of the Beatles, a surprising portion of them are really into them. When I was a kid you didn't find many kids who were into music from three or four decades earlier.

 

[random3434]

...

Just ask 20-somethings and younger if they like the Beatles. ...

Every generation has its own music, and will think that music is great and the newer stuff is lousy.

But actually, most kids I know are not only aware of the Beatles, a surprising portion of them are really into them. When I was a kid you didn't find many kids who were into music from three or four decades earlier.

My 13 yo daughter loves band shirts. The first one she ever got was one with the Beatles. I just asked her how many she now has (she buys a lot on her own with birthday/ Christmas $$ ) and she said she has 25, each with a different band. I admit I have borrowed her Zeppelin, Grateful Dead and Ramones one!

Her ipod has about 100 different bands on it, ranging from classic rock, punk, "skater bands" "Hot Topic" bands ( that's what I call them!) and of course your teen bands like Downtown Struts, Against Me, 3 OH! 3, and Angels and Airwaves.

 

[manifold]

It always cracks me up how people seem to have some sort of shut off valve when it comes to music. Once they hit about 25 years old they've heard almost everything they're ever going to like. There is always good new bands if you're willing to seek them out. But I will confess, I don't seek them out as much anymore either simply because I don't have the bandwidth. But I don't kid myself about it. Once in a while I hear a new band and like their sound and check them out. Like the White Stripes for example. But Dis, Nickelback sucks...and then some. They're shit is so damn formulaic and corporate that it makes me want to puke.

 

[random3434]

It always cracks me up how people seem to have some sort of shut off valve when it comes to music. Once they hit about 25 years old they've heard almost everything they're ever going to like. There is always good new bands if you're willing to seek them out. But I will confess, I don't seek them out as much anymore either simply because I don't have the bandwidth. But I don't kid myself about it. Once in a while I hear a new band and like their sound and check them out. Like the White Stripes for example. But Dis, Nickelback sucks...and then some. They're shit is so damn formulaic and corporate that it makes me want to puke.

My ex fiancee (he's 41 btw) turned me on to about 10 cool bands I have never heard of. Ryan Adams, My Morning Jacket, Damien Rice to name a few. Now I am a fan of their music too.

 

[manifold]

I saw my morning jacket on SNL a while back. Whatever the opposite of really impressed is... I was that.

 

[Toro]

What gets me are all the ads.