The effects of corporate music


I'm old enough to remember AOR and being able to listen to music that at the time I thought was just bizzare, and that was on the radio. There were so many stations around with a huge variety of music to hear, including things I had not heard before.

In the last thirty years music radio has changed so much, and for the worse that I no longer listen to music radio. I can't help but think that cumulus and others of their ilk have destroyed radio, but I also wonder how big their influence has been on the quality of music.

There used to be more of an edge to music, and I'm not talking about the trash made up of violence and sex that is todays rap music. People had more to say, and better ways of saying it when I was young. The musicians did not try to substitute shock for substance when making their records.

Are there still musicians around that are great artist, but we never get to know them because they don't fit the formula of corporate radio stations? Is there still a place for small stations that are unwilling to play the drivel that passes for pop music, or the oldies that comprised our youth, but are getting old even to those of us that love those songs???
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Showing 2 responses by darrylhifi

Yes here in the New York / New Jersey area , their really is not a clear channel , all can hear , radio station that caters to "new rock and roll" . You would have to go out of your way to find a station ie a small independent or college station, then get a strong antenna and hope you could recieve it. So where I am , its basically alternative rock, pop, or classic rock. Again College stations are a good way to go.

Another issue, and this one is just opionion, is that if a new Rock band manages to somehow penetrate the media , I see people jumping all over them as copycats. Case in point the Band Jet. I like them, great to hear some new rock n roll. But I have seen many post they are an AC/DC ripoffs or comments similar. Well if we used that logic "in the good old days" we could have said Hot Tuna was a rip off of Ten years after , which was a ripoff of Grand Funk Railroad , which was a ripoff of Bad Company...well you see my point.

My third point , and this one we will put under a "Crazy Darrylhifi theory" , is that we are never going to hear music like that again, because musicians are not taking drugs like they did in the mid 60's through the late 70's.
Seriously some of this genius, was influenced by LSD and other mind altering substances. Im not advocating kids start taking LSD, just they were different times where getting high was the norm of the hipee culture.

And finally, I have a son , who will be 12 shortly. He would love to be a baseball star. When I was 12 , I was equally split between dreaming to be a baseball star and a rock n roll star. Their is no longer that glamour to want to grow up and be the Beatles , or be the Rolling Stones, so without the desire of kids to get into Rock n Roll , we are left with William Hung and American Idol.
The times, they sure have changed. Long Live Rock.
Was wondering why on one state run New Jersey Radio Station they keep playing Elton John, Barbara Streisand , Liza Minelli and Culture Club.