Is it just me, or does todays Radio suck? When I was a teenager FM was cool, it had laid back D,jays and they played cool new music. That's were I first heard Alex Harvey, Hawkwind,Atomic Rooster,Zappa,The amboy dukes, Robin Trower,Roxy music,BOC,Captain Beyond,Audience, Bowie,Steely Dan,etc.
The AM of that day used to be Hit Radio, and played the top hits of the day.
FM today has become Hit radio, with a lot of cookie cutter stations all playing the same old hits, with a few of those old fm classic hits as well.
Does it only bug me, that they only play the one hit off the LP over and over again. When in fact the lp had even better tunes on it, but they never play them.
Recently with the advent of eBay, I have been able to collect a lot of rare and Great music that I never new existed before.
When my friends here the new tunes I have They get the same Idea that I always get, to start a new radio station that plays this unknown treasure. As well as the songs like "Candys gone bad" off of the Golden Earring lp with Radar love on it, you know the one.
You know what I'm talking about, am I alone here.
I must state that I live in a smaller town now, but we can still pick up the Jacksonville Florida stations. Does this kind of practice go on all over the country?
The new music of today no longer interests me with Rap and the Rock of today all sounds the same, with only minor exceptions like Radiohead.
WHAT do you think, is their some stations that I could pickup on the internet that would satisfy my craving?
would you like to be able to get in you car and tune the radio to a station like the one I described?
Ohlala: Your response is not without validity (or predictability), as far as it goes. But it ignores our ability to develop tastes for musics from cultures foreign to our own, or from eras that can be described likewise. If familiarity with the elements (or lack of same) was the only litmus test for acceptance or appreciation of "new" (to us) musical styles, then it would fail to explain both why I don't like most of today's radio pop, as well as why I do like many kinds of music that were not a part of my upbringing or cultural background.
Ohala,Thanks buddy ya I guess, it's my eBay name too but had to settle for rockenroni. The guys at work gave me that name cuzz I always had tunes playing. I will look into getting something started. One of my buds is serious about this idea. This is one Idea (internet) that had not occurred to us old tech farts.There May be a problem as I only have one computer.
Mutahman, thanks for the link.
Hbarrel, No their names were, Reed Dickie and Ziggy Zapski on CFRW/FM
"FM today doesn't play music. Noise is what I call it."
Thank You for your support,
"Those Beatles kids just scream and yell and play that god awful distortion laden electric guitar"jposs
The key word is they could still PLAY the guitar. I know what you are saying and I hate becoming my Parents but I love music and stopped looking to the present media because of the noted points.
As I said at the top,I have been very fortunate to come up with some new tunes all 69/74 in the last 6 months like Dr, Z,Can, Gravy Train,Dragonfly,Finch,Magna Carta,Caravan, Daddy Longlegs,Druid,Embryo,Patto,Gomorrha,Brainbox,Gandalf, Khan,Sweetsmoke,May Blitz. I have had these others for years Groundhogs,Beggars Opera,Triumvirat,Camel,Amon Duul,Audience. Just to list some, lots of good tunes out there having fun looking. So much more,but can be expensive on LP. It would be nice to find a site or something that plays this kind of music so one could become acquainted with more tunes. Ron
Rockinroni I'm going to guess you grew up listening to "The Buzzard" just based on the names cited in the original post. FM today doesn't play music. Noise is what I call it. Life is bad when AM talk radio is more entertaining than FM.
I cna just hear my grandparents writing the same thing Rockinroni just posted 35 years ago.
"Those Beatles kids just scream and yell and play that god awful distortion laden electric guitar, they sure can't play proper instruments like strings or horns like they used to. That Mick Jagger has a horrible voice, and his guitarist only knows three chords! And don't even get me started on Bob Dylan"
Well the current pop scene is dominated by RAP, how many of them can play something besides a 1200.
"I saw some PC/Internet radio software for $20 on Amazon"Ohlala
Is this software made so I can stream my tunes on the Internet?
Topic,PoP Music While I cannot be so nieve as to say, Age does not have a part in the type of music you like. I agree with the Z man. When was the last time you heard a good guitar solo or some good keyboards someone who didn't think screaming was singing. (This is a generalization I know) but that is my point. The Quality of current day musicianship (for the most part) is not nearly of the same caliber as the late 60's early 70's etc.
The argument about what is random novelty fails to take in to account that what is "new" (as in the "new" that is relevant in my argument) is often outside something like a culturally born critical taste boundary. Age is cultural condition in which particular tastes are influenced. The times one grew is quite an influence on taste, actually. And, aging does make oneÂ’s tastes more rigid. Evidence is abundant on this one. Anyone can think of exceptions, but stepping back what I describe is a powerful generalization. Z-, your notion is not scrutiny, but an excision of certain realities which require personal effort to overcome.
Oh, its 7-string guitar, btw. And, in a rebuttal against an above-posted idea that no youngsters know how to play instruments anymore, we or I were/was talking about technical proficiency, not song quality.
First off I'm not THAT old - Hell, I'm "ONLY" 35! That said, the suggestion that getting on-line to go to different websites, download the music or go to a band's website is a little bit like the suggestion my old man had when I couldn't spell a word; "Go look it up in the dictionary". My answer was "but I don't know how to spell it!" The point is that a little too much effort is required to "find" new bands and music. My point about radio when I was growing up was that the only "effort" involved was flipping on the radio and tuning into a station. Today it seems you have to "actively" be exposed to new music. As I said before, I think radio today is so fragmented that you just can't get the diversity that you could back in the day. I've got satellite and there are 30+ digital music channels. The way they have these broken down into so many categories almost requires that you constantly flip channels to get any diversity at all! This trend, unfortunately, is found in almost all mass media these days - radio or otherwise - THAT is the problem with radio today IMO!
The commonly held theory about getting too old to appreciate something new just doesn't hold up under scrutiny. That is, if you construe "something new" to mean something new to the listener - which is what is pertinent - and not necessarily to mean only the latest thing. Looked at that way, it becomes clear that we never lose our capacity to keep expanding our musical horizons as we grow older. Don't believe the hype (and yeah, I think Korn sucks, no matter how many strings their bass has).
Thanks, Unclejeff, nice of you to say. I was wrong about equalizing the 1965 and 2000 Top 40, but neither represent what I consider the best music. While I don't care for Korn's songs (maybe I'm too old by six, seven years), they definately can play their instruments. The 7-string Ibanez is very difficult. Even Sum 41, covered Metallica's "Master of Puppets". I sure can't play that song! Being frusterated when my elders complain about my generation, my point is that there are cool, smart, talented youngsters running around. Their efforts are just not on Clearchannel. And I think a lot of talent, with less music-purist mindsets(not to judge them at all), are being currupted by commercialness.
Some of the above posts sound like middle age people rambling on about how good things were back in the day. As far as I'm concerned there was great pop/rock music being made in every decade since the 1950s and it's continuing thru the present decade. It's never been easier or cheaper for musicians to record and distribute, at least on a limited basis, their music. Rock/pop is youth oriented music and half the point of youth oriented music is that old people won't like it. It's music created by young adults for teenagers and other young adults. Some of you are just old, deal with it.
Hey Ohlala---don't retreat. I love it when someone who is eloquent can take folks on.
I just got back from a very good friend's home. He lives about two hours from me. His daughter graduated from High School so I went down for the event. The point being that her 16 year old brother is developing his interest in the guitar and it turns out that he has been waiting for some time for me to pay them a visit. While anyone who knows me can see I would never buy his music, I can appreciate it. He put a DVD with some group called 'CORN' --or was it KORN?--anyway it seems he couldn't wait to get my opinion of the group. These guys played on their feet, bent over at 90 degrees at the hip. The vocals were abusive---the kids were swaying and shouting and loving it. My friend's son asked me what I thought. I said "Sweet Jesus---that guy on bass is one of the best I have heard in a long time" The kid jumped up into the air, slapped me a high-five and yelled "Yeah, yeah, I knew YOU(!) would see it!" As a matter of fact the bass player is really good. But as too many of our parents were distracted by Alice Cooper's dress, this kid's parents couldn't get past what the group looked like. I really don't care for the music, but folks, there is plenty of talent out there. We are just stuck in here!!
A lot of kids arent exposed to good music thorugh the radio, but young kids that actually want to make music are being exposed to whatever they want to hear.
The internet allows anyone to find out about any artist they want to, whether they heard them on the radio, or live, or from a friend, or from AudiogoN, or from another group's mailing list, or from XM or Sirius, or from Kazaa. You don't need a DJ to tell you about an artist today, you go look at their website, or the website a fan made about them.
Radio is no longer the only way to spread music. I have gleaned 99% of my music collection from non radio sources, most of which were listed above.
Kids are still making great music and radio has sucked for the last 20 years.
I am not in the least bit worried.
There is more accesible music available today then there was 20 years ago.
Well said Zaikesman, 1965 AM radio (all we had) delivered the goods. Yes, we suffered with commercials and reverberated Disc Jockeys. We had to endure if we wanted to hear:
the Byrds the Zombies the Kinks the Animals Them the Rolling Stones Bob Dylan the Beach Boys James Brown the Yardbirds the Moody Blues the Supremes the Beatles.....just to name a few. Yes, radio today sucks hard.
Over the last year I have driven through many states for various reasons. Radio is incredibly homogeneous across the country and can be divided into 4 groups; AM talk radio, FM Country, FM Classic Rock and FM Pop - the latter having a couple of sub-categories. The problem is finding a station not built to "pander" to a target audience. Back in the '70s I remember listening to an "album rock" station that would play anything from the Moody Blues to The Cars or from Janis Joplin to REO Speedwagon. It was the "rock genre" but not sliced into "Classic, lite, Grunge , Alt", etc, etc. Stations that painted with a broader stroke like this were able to expose someone to a lot of different styles within a genre and were also able to aviod repeating the same artists songs over and over again! Today all sounds the same because, as so many others have pointed out, the media conglomerates have emphasized (too much) what their marketing departments tell them, all in order to have "documentation" to help in their sales of advertising. I say bring back the radio station who turns you on to all types of artisis, SPONSORS LOCAL music events with LOCAL artists AND has DJ's that actually can tell you about the music you are about to (or just) heard! Media conglomerates owning a bunch of stations doesn't bother me as much as some people but I just wish the people at the top would wake up and allow the station managers to call thier own shots in their local market. This could make radio cool again IMO. Regards, Tony
Oh, I'd bet whatever kids listen to while their teens will be playing in their retro-minds and considered, in some way, classic 35 years from now. While I personally think you are overstating Top 40 1965, there is no doubt it is better than present Top 40, and that my initial corresponding post would be better off deleted.
Yes I agree with you Zaikesman, with your Elvis comparison. Elvis couldn’t help himself. It was an expression of how the music moved him, plus maybe a little showmanship. I liked Elvis but you have to admit, it is not the same today. They have pushed it way to far in my opinion. It is not dancing, it is smut. (There I go again, but it is how I feel)
"the glaring lack of anything else in the way of creativity and expression"
This is really a sad state of affairs, I totally agree!
This WGON idea may be the Ticket, I will investigate this further. Cheers Ron
Ohlala, maybe Top 40 radio in the 60's was wasted on you, but it wasn't a waste. You take just about any Billboard Top 40 from the era you denegrate, and I guarantee you that around fully half those songs will be well-known and -loved classics to this very day, and will continue to be so on into the future. The same could never be said about today's charts. 1965 lies at the heart of the greatest vintages for influential singles in rock history. I'm not saying that everything deserving made the Top 40 in those times, just that an awful lot of what did was as good as it has ever gotten.
Ron, your reaction to the "degenerates gyrating their pelvises" which you find so "vile and insulting" echoes nothing so much as the criticism heaped on Elvis Presley in the 50's. Rock has always been about S-E-X at bottom...It's not that which is intolerable to us, it's the glaring lack of anything else in the way of creativity and expression to go along with it. Image isn't just everything now, it's the only thing.
"To start from the top all radio wasn't always like this."
Oh, sure. It would be great to cruise around listening to cool, local djs and good music. Cooler than the less personable XM and CDs. No one I know respects radio. What else can you do, but persue the alternatives? I saw some PC/Internet radio software for $20 on Amazon...I dunno...WGON? That would rule.
Ohlala,I hope you are right about the future, you are right about top 40, never really my cup of tea, although some good bands did surface there a as well.
To start from the top all radio wasn't always like this. Stereophile's r2d4 really doesn't do it for me either. That's why I find a lot of new tunes on ebay, Even though the LP's are most times over 30 years old.
Well if there is no acceptible solution, I guess your done. Just forget about it. What good does complaining do? You all are complaining about top 40 garbage, and, looking at 1965 Billboard, top 40 has always been a waste. Edgy, innovative artists don't make it to radio. Radio is done. Its been done for years now. Find new solutions, its really not that hard. I've never listened to radio and don't have problems finding new bands.
Kids can go to clubs. Hell, I was going at 14, and there's all-ages shows. My guess is that you all have been in to popular music, but don't care for where has gone. And now, without the spoon-feeding delivery, you just can't find where the good, cool stuff is at. Well, I wouldn't worry too much about tomorrow's artists. Those people are with it enough to cut through the pop and join a more interesting scene.
Nrchy, my Parents like rock & roll. My mom is a big Elvis fan. Jposs, I don't go to clubs and anyway Kids can't go to clubs. where are they supposed to go to become indoctrinated. This is what Zaikesman is talking about.
Right on Zaikesman! Todays Radio Sucks. Mtv,VH1,BET ,what ever I have, to listen to music, it's unlistenable,most of it is just a bunch of degenerates gyrating Their pelvises in my face. I don't know about YOU, but I find it vile and insulting to say the least. This is the modern Pop I guess. They can all drown in their degradation as far as I am concerned. Do you think there any hope we can climb out of this muck, and get back on the road to some Pop music where people don't act disgusting, and they again play instruments?
Unclejeff, I disagree with your analogy about the state of todays radio vs. 50 years ago - it was much more local and diverse then. You can pick a trivial tune off the hit parade, sure, but you're ignoring the rich stew of musics from which rock & roll developed. Also, you're confusing the continued evolution of a pre-established art form with the birthing of something really new - do you actually think that in our current mass-media climate, a new musical art form on the scale of rock & roll could spontaneously arise? I don't believe that's happening any time soon, and that the continued viability of rock as a post-golden-age but still-able-to-regenerate art form is being stifled like never before. Keep this up for long enough, and even the quality of the underground withers over time, as new generations coming up lack the exposure to a stimulating, organic artistic environment (remember, it's a pop art form, and that implies some degree of mass accessability and participation in its growth) that forms within them the raw material necessary for new important artistic movements. Rock is a dissapated and stratified art form whose remaining energy is either yoked to a money machine or toiling in obscurity, and whereas radio once nurtured it, it now does its best to squash the life out of it.
Get your butt out and go to a club! Ask around about who is good and they are there to be discovered. My parents don't like the music I listen to, and I doubt I will like the music my kid listen to.
That doesn't mean there is a lack of good music out there.
Zaikesman very good post yes this is another problem we have had for a while now as someone stated earlier the people I don't know what to call most of them, They can't sing, write music, play interments. All they know how to do is sample others music, not all of them but you know for the most part this is true. The popular music of the day the stuff most of the kids listen to today is not music. Yes I’m an old fart but when is the last time you saw a new good guitarist. Used to be almost every band had a guy who could do more than just play a few cords over and over.
They must be somewhere but where can you find them?
Thanks for the tip about WJZR. If I connect my tuner to my TV ariel (which I no longer use for TV!), I might be able to pull it in from where I live. Then again, I'd be paranoid about lightning strikes!
Wdhsvbgod....Your right. Jazz 91 is member supported and plays good music. If you are near Roch. N.Y. there is also WJZR 105.9. The nice part about Jazz 91, you can request them to get some music (try out) to play on the air. I finally got them to get some Joe Beck tunes. Good stuff. But overall, radio does s--k, I really feel sorry for our youth who's music has no meaning or just. Thank God for auto cdplayers. If your nearby, check them out. Later.
Yes, we all know that most radio blows, and has for quite some time now. The really scary implication of this lies in the musical atmosphere that the 'artists' of tomorrow grow up in today - I think we've already seen this factor come home to roost with the MTV generation, and it's only getting worse. The irony about this, at least as far as pop music goes, is that it was the product of the mass-media culture spawned during the second half of the last century, but now that media culture's continued amalgamation seems to have strangled pop's artistic development. And the funny thing is, the industry's starting to pay the price now for having finally gained the near-complete control they were always after, in declining sales. For my money, this all began back when CD's and videos combined to kill off the medium of the single...Congrat's fellas, you've murdered your golden goose, and will spend the rest of your lives trying to suck the marrow out of a corpse.
Yes sir. I remember fondly the local night DJ playing album rock, of his choosing (!), each evening. Maybe it was because we had the same taste in music, but the variety was there, and I looked forward to hearing something new most every night. It is an argument that, in the 70's, there was more quality rock n roll than today. I think it was because many of the musicians had a learned background in music that they employed in their creations.
To think that they would play an entire new album each week, sometimes with a countdown for easier timing of your tapedeck, was amazing.
I'm up in Brunswick, Ga. The Jax "classic rock" stations have a playlist of maybe 200 cuts and you hear the same thing over, and over, and over, and over...
Pretty pitiful. See you at the Jacoby Symphony Hall, if you want a really fine music experience!
I don't actually live in Toronto, but I am only about an hour-and-a-half away and visit occasionally. I have been to George's too, but that was a lifetime ago. I have two small kids and don't get out to hear live music of any type much anymore.
Oh well, they'll be grown and gone before I know it and the music will still be there. For now I just have to cozy up with my system and a glass of wine (or two, or three...).
I tend to agree with the original post of Rockinroni. Which is why I got my car wired for Sirius satellite radio - - had it for about three months and *love it*! Best thing since sliced bread! Sixty (60) music channels - commercial free - and, in addition, you get many decent channels (with and without) commercials. Well worth the $12.99 month subscription price - and then some.
Ah yes, radio is like anything else, money talks. We live in a world of mergers and comglomerates where huge profitability is paramount and all things that don't fit nicely into the corporate concieved mainstream are increasingly harder to come by. That is why recording artists who are deemed not a good comercial prospect can't even get a recording contract or are told exactly what to write to be signed. For example many years ago a group called "The Crackers" signed a contract and recorded their first album. The company decided it didn't like the name "The Crackers". The album was released and the group wasn't informed by the company that the company had changed the groups name until the day before the release.The album's title is "Music From Big Pink",you know the rest of the story. Cheers, Lee
Radio definitely sucks. One decent alternative is the Americana music channel on DirecTV. Sound is okay, but the great part is that they play music that cannot be found on the radio. It has introduced me to a number of singers/bands that I would not have heard otherwise.
Most stations do suck today. Too many ads and yes, the same songs over and over and over, and yes, there are better songs on those albums. Today's stations are geared toward pigeon-holing listeners into neat demographics for selling commercials. However, in the Bay area we have KFOG which is pretty good, at least they do have some variety. I like our local college station too. I used to like our local classical station, but lately it's ad after ad after ad, and they seem to play the same stuff over and over, comparable to the replay of the "top 40" of classical. Ugh!
Mezmo, I don't know what type of music you like, but when I lived in NYC and on LI (48 years), I listened to college radio since the mid-seventies and there were many to choose from. My favorites are WNYU 89.1 and WUSB 90.1. I believe they couldn't be received thru your (tv)cable however. I moved to Melbourne, Fl 2 years ago and this place is barren wasteland. The local college station WFIT changed their format to smooth jazz a few years ago from what I was listening to up north, (winter vacation the last 11 years down here so I've heard the downhill direction of this station). Meet one of the DJ's who now owns a underground cd store but it still isn't like NYC. Amen for audio streaming.
XM radio is the best thing to happen to radio in my life time. The programming is absolutely first rate, and I would almost be willing to bet a years subscription to anyone that had it that they couldnt find a station that they absolutely loved, and considered the best radio station they have ever heard, if not two or three.
I used to hear about new bands from mailing lists and friends. Now I hear about new bands from mailing lists, friends, and XM radio, and in particular for me XMU on XM radio.
I can't live without it now, I have an XM radio in my car, my wife's car, and in our boat.
I sgree and stopped listening to radio stations 20yrs. ago.It is all commercial now. If you have underground stations just starting out they usually fair better because they have not been sanitized yet.
KROQ in LA was the last radio station I ever liked then I moved back to the East Coast and I have not found any stations between NYC and Maine that can do it for me.
Being older i sometimes listen to talk radio.Howie Carr is pretty good,but I really do not agree with all he has to say either. I like Howard Stern also.
Face it there are no great bands like there was when we were younger if you are 40 plus.
As a follow-up to my previous post, let me share some excerpts from yesterday's lead editorial in The Seattle Times (one of the few independent newspapers left in the country, although one could argue that it's not a very good paper):
"The FCC has made it easier for big owners to buy up TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers like so many yachts...The commission asked large media chains what they wanted, and listened to them. It asked the American public what it wanted, received 750,000 responses, and ignored them. About 99.9% of the responses from the public were opposed to what the FCC did. It's time for America to ignore the FCC.
It's time, specifically, for Congress to declare that the FCC was wrong and the American people right, and to enact into law the restrictions the FCC has just ignominously diluted.
At stake is American democracy. That is because a democratic republic requires citizens who can find many points of view. And that is what is being lost here...
To this concern, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has been as uncaring as a stone god. He and his fellow believers unleashed a new round of mergers and acquisitions that will leach the industry of its remaining local flavor. What we shall get is raunch, blather, and blandness. The alternative is to fight back --- in the courts, in Congress, and, most of all, in a hurry."
If you agree with this editorial, as I do, then it's time to E-mail your elected representatives in the House and Senate and call for a Congressional vote on the new FCC ruling.
Precisely--they suck and we can expect them to get worse. There was a "comminuty owned" radio station in Charlottesville, VA that was, and still is, one of the best that I have ever heard. Then I moved to NYC and expected to be able to find here, of all places, at least one or two decent options. One decent jazz station. That's it. Otherwise, in one of the biggest and presumptively most diverse markets on earth, a horribly banal sucking void of homoginized tripe. Don't waste your time, look for music elsewhere. (Yes, I am bitter).
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