I'm really disappointed with radio today. I grew up in an era where radio not only played mostly original, creative music, but the on-air personalities actually knew stuff about the artists they were spinning (spinning - a 20th century term referring to the spinning of the record on the turntable). They had news about the artists, their previous and upcoming concerts and albums, sound bites of interviews with members of the groups and lots of trivia to keep you interested and engaged. It was the next best thing to having a real relationship with your favourite artists. In the days before 'format radio', DJs played what they liked and what they thought you would like. There were no quotas. They played stuff that was relevant. Music that might be different, but still reverberated with the audience. Maybe I'm getting old, but if you were just getting introduced to popular music for the first time today, you might have difficulty telling one (commercial, signed) artist from another in many cases.
This assumes you got most of your music from radio, of course. There are actually many great, unique, talented artists out there. Most of them will never air on any traditional, commercial radio station. Many of them will never get signed to any record label and even if they do, the label will be happy to let them wallow in permanent obscurity. At one time, that was a real shame, was accepted and had no solution. Nowadays, I actually have hope for these new artists, thanks to 3 things. Publicly supported, independent radio (including college radio); MySpace (where artists can showcase their stuff); and online music sales sites that sell independent artists' music (including the artists' own web sites).
The music industry has for too long flooded the airwaves and the music stores with cookie cutter, copycat, formulaic music, like so much junk food, then gotten upset because the music buying public has begun to treat their product like what it has become - junk food. Something that is popular today, gone next week. No staying power. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon album lasted 14 years on the charts. That will never happen again. Today, commercial talent is created in the recording studio using electronic wizardry and duplicated on stage using recorded playback and lip-syncing. Even radio that claims to play the 'classics' rotate the exact same catalogue over and over again. Note to radio: Aerosmith made a lot more than Dream On and Pink Floyd has other great songs besides Money or Comfortably Numb. But what can I expect.
This music industry I have been describing is on its last legs and they know it, but they're trying to suck every last ounce of money out of your pockets until consumers have enough. Commercial radio will falter soon after. The new era will herald the proliferation of internet resources that discover what you like now, suggest new artists you have never heard of and offer to sell you the product much cheaper than the commercial stuff - and hopefully with no DRM. Smart artists will even give their songs away, knowing that there is money to be made not in the music, but in the concerts, t-shirts and the ongoing relationship they can build with you as an appreciative fan. This has already started.
If I owned my own radio station, there would be no contests. No request line. I would not be playing music you already know. I would (hopefully) be playing music you have yet to discover. Because that's where the true power of radio lies. If you want to hear the same crap over and over - buy the freaking CD or mp3. But if you want to hear what you've been missing..........
Times are tough at CanWest Global, especially the local newspapers in the chain. But this was an article published in the Vancouver Province about a car accident that killed two girls.
