[Beagle]

Why do they exist? Why is this all I can pick up for rock selection on the FM dial? Do we really need to hear The Doobie Bros "Rockin' Down The Highway" 5 times a week? Or Boston? Or The Who, Floyd, Zeppelin, Stones et al all the time ?

I cannot believe that this is all people want to hear. These same stations used to play 90% new or recent releases during the late 70's and throughout the 80's. And any 'new' stuff they throw in is so predictable, Creed and the like.

Don't most people who like this old music already have the albums? Why do they have to have them on the radio as well? Why not promote new artists and refresh the airwaves a bit, or at least play some different cuts off the albums? Why is everything so safe?

There is a lot of dung out there but there are a lot of new releases that nobody gets to hear because they don't know about them or don't get to hear. The only decent FM radio is the local university station.

I am convinced that FM radio is just a vehicle for commercials and weather reports and some jerk mouthing off, thinking he's cool. And I mean just that and only that. Radio used to help sell albums by exposing the music to people. Now they just sell products from advertisers.

 

[zoboomofo]

Its for these reasons that I only listen to radio when I'm in the car. I've seen radio stations introduced as cutting edge, and different from the other guys. Then after a couple of weeks, they play the latest Creed and other mainstream acts, promoting the latest shows they happen to be sponsoring that week. This leads to a lot of overlap in the playlists for each station so that on any 3 stations, I might hear the same song. These playlists are my biggest pet peeve, because the music director makes us listen to each top 40 track maybe 4 times a day at least. Its at night time that at least one of these stations really shines. I suppose evenings aren't so restricted by plug-o-la and the like, so I get to hear the latest up and comers, indie classics, or whatever. Thats why David Hawkes is the best DJ I've ever heard. He plays what he wants to play (for the most part).

 

[Ross]

Agreed. As one local radio station says in their advertising: "The best classic rock is no classic rock".

Ross

 

[zoboomofo]

I should clarify one thing, and that's that I'm not against classic rock, but against playing songs that we've all heard too much. There's definitely lots of classic stuff out there that I haven't heard, and our local station always throws in some rare or odd gems at lunch time. Folks can enjoy this music at work without having to bring their music library with them. More important for me is that these stations expose this music to new generations. I was blown away with these old acts when I turned away from the pop stations many years ago. I kept thinking about the great strides we've made in music over the years, and the pioneers in musicianship and styles. It made me wonder why not enough of these lessons in music haven't been put to use in 'popular music'. I really enjoy the station we've got actually. Its free of self-conscious trendiness, and conformity, and there's lots more variety than those kinds of stations during the day.

 

[davidcotton]

Check out my thread "its hard being a classic rock fan..." to see my point of view on this!

To be honest I am sick and tired of the radio stations playing the same stuff day in day out. For gods sake people these bands have released more than one song each you know! Even if you take the cd singles there are like three songs on there. Worst case scenario I know of is that a local radio station (wasnt "rock") played a song, played another song had a chat followed by ads then played the same damn song again!

There are lots and lots of bands out there who never get the airplay that they deserve, how about putting a station out with some of those bands to make it "fresh exciting and alternative"? instead of playing the same stuff over and over and over and...

 

[gloco]

This is exactly the reason why i burned a pile of cd's to listen in my brother's car on long trips. A few mixes never hurt as well

 

[redshifter]

when i dj'ed in college i would pick the most outrageous stuff i could find--usually frank zappa and the mothers of invention. i have to play the disclaimer between each song. i don't think i ever played ANY regular classic rock, with the exception of some devo once in a while. people would call just to tell me the music was really freaking them out; once the cops called to say they loved it!!

i thought for a sec i was busted..

 

[aeberbach]

Classic Rock stations are a reaction to the market and sometimes are the best alternative. It's a necessary evil.

On my morning commute (SF Bay area) I have a choice of

1. Classic Rock (The Bone)
2. Howard Stern (it was funny for about a week, but I grew out of that kind of humor in high school. Anyone who has sex more than once a year doesn't need to hear Howard talk about it.)
3. Watered-down contemporary stuff.
4. Classical, interspersed with 15-minute commercial breaks.
5. Jazz, but the announcer's voice makes me want to punch her and I'm sick of hearing individual credits for each band member and their life histories after every track.
6. NPR.

There's just nothing else - it's all Britney and NSync and stuff I just can't stomach.

Normally NPR wins. Sometimes (pledge drives - yes, I already paid, stories I just don't care about) NPR isn't an option - what else am I going to choose? At least with the Classic Rock station I might get to hear Heart or Jethro Tull or something. I don't think that anyone would argue that most of what is on radio today is just utter ****. At least Classic Rock gives you a couple of decades to select from, as opposed to the current catalogs of the major labels.

Sadly my car has a navigation system and that means no in-dash CD. I hate trunk mounted changers because you end up listening to the same six CDs all the time, so I never bought one. An MP3 player with a cassette adapter is a possibility but who remembers, and then it has to be put away every time I park to avoid smashed windows.

 

[davidcotton]

Quote:

Originally posted by aeberbach There's just nothing else - it's all Britney and NSync and stuff I just can't stomach.

Agreed Just be thankful that you don't live in the uk where its dominated by boy/girl bands and dance

 

[Cherokee Mist]

It's surely twisted, sick irony when most of the greatest classic rock bands of all time don't get played in the country (UK) that they originated anymore. You would think that there HAS to be a market there for this music...

CM

 

[zoboomofo]

I always try to be patient with contemporary radio music, but there's something about prefabricated bands that turns me sour. I'm sure they can churn out some nice tunes, but anybody can if they just put their money to it

.

These bands have come and gone since before I could remember, but we always saw them quickly fall flat on their faces, and off the airwaves. The problem these days is that the old men in charge of these projects are apparently getting so 'good' at what they do, that <gulp> these acts have staying power, and broad appeal among generations. So then the turnover is so low that pop is saturated with them - a monopoly on pop music if you will.

For pop, we used to have the urban dance music/ British pop station, the contemporary geezer station, and the retro geezer station (Captain and Tenille type stuff). Now we have popstar fluff stations 1 through 3. Utter **** indeed.

 

[Masonjar]

Ok.. think about it this way:

If there was a radio station that played songs from YOUR cd collection, at random, 24 hours a day.. would you listen? I don't know about you, but you bet your sweet ass I would listen! It would save me the trouble of making all these mix cds and tapes that I've made over the years.. People listen to what they like.. I know that with Classic Rock radio, you hear some songs WAY more than others, but isn't that the case with your own collections? I'll be the first to admit that I have "hits" .. songs that I listen to more than others, especially when they're new to my collection.. maybe I'm more "song" oriented that some people. But most people are that way. For the most part, people aren't as adventurous as folks like us.. they want to listen to what they know.. it doesn't matter if it's the 234, 249,959th time they've heard the song...

-jar

 

[aeberbach]

Quote:

I always try to be patient with contemporary radio music

You can try to be patient... but you KNOW that the key change is inevitable!

 

[morphsci]

I agree and like aeberbach if its radio it is almost always NPR. I thought XM radio might be O.K., but I have been less than impressed with the broadcast quality that I heard. The selection of music did not seem bad. decisions, decisions.....

 

[zoboomofo]

aeberbach said,

You can try to be patient... but you KNOW that the key change is inevitable!



Well, the channel changes are usually pretty instant, but I like to check back once in a while. I changed channels so many times, I ran out of channels to change. That's how I got introduced to classical and jazz.