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???
128x128nrchy

Showing 9 responses by hammy

There's old slappy, sittin' on a bench.
Starin' down those young punks
who pay him no respect!
"Kids these days!
I think they're all on drugs- don't listen to their elders- they're stupid and they're smug!
Their minds are rotted out
from they're music and they're porn!
I wish they could hear classics
like metallica and Korn!"

Hammy

Ps. Metallica? Taht was old news twenty years ago! You're old already!

Hammy
Much of it is VIDEO. Yes, it killed the radio star. Janice would not have looked good on MTV. Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to clearchannel or mtv. My wife belongs to a house party music club in Berkeley. Every week new folk artists come to perform to the audience of about 20. Why wait for radio play that will never happen? Afew clicks of the mouse will research whatever genre you want on google. Here's folk:
http://www.jg.org/folk/info/artists.html#A

most of these sites have music to listen to. Bypass the corporate filter!
Darryl- do you live in New Jersey? My governator can whip your governor's butt- he's just afraid your guy will like it.

Hammy in CA.
Slappy- chk out "the string cheese incident" http://www.stringcheeseincident.com/htsound.htm or the "Austin Lounge lizards" demented hillbilly Pink Floyd cover http://www.austinlizards.com/songs/brain_damage.mp3 How about their lyrics to:
"Jesus Loves me but he Can't Stand You"
I know you smoke, I know you drink that brew
I just can't abide a sinner like you
God can't either, that's why I know it to be true that
Jesus loves me--but he can't stand you

I'm going to heaven, boys, when I die
'Cause I've crossed every "t" and I've dotted every "i'
My preacher tell me that I'm God's kind of guy; that's why
Jesus loves me--but you're gonna fry

God loves all his children, by gum
That don't mean he won't incinerate some
Can't you feel those hot flames licking you
Woo woo woo

I'm raising my kids in a righteous way
So don't be sending your kids over to my house to play
Yours'll grow up stoned, left-leaning, and gay; I know
Jesus told me on the phone today

Jesus loves me, this I know
And he told me where you're gonna go
There's lots of room for your kind down below
Whoa whoa whoa

Jesus loves me but he can't stand you . . .

You want humorous UNcorporate music with social commentary, these guys are it. Highway cafe of the damned is hilarious. Too bad it's not on the website.
P.S.- am now listening to http://www.wazee.org/ which is streaming alternative rock. I have no doubt you can get metal, whatever. Ain't the internet grand?
Jsonis- how the hell did fred durst get so famous? Who does he know? He is so full of himself he'll chase A list actresses who want nothing to do with him. How many more minutes of fame does he have left? Sorry...ranting again.
Hey Nrchy- what is AOR? Short for aorta? Music with heart?There is still plenty of music with "edge." Much of it rap. Of COURSE much of rap is mysogynistic, L.C.D. (lowest common denominator) poser crap...but you have to separate the WFTC (wheat from the chaff), just like T.G.O.D. (the good old days). College radio has bands with an edge. Once again, you have to sort through acres of crap. The jewels of the sixties play everyday, but thankfully the crap is rarely played. (I suppose "woolley bullie" was somebody's 'special song'). There will always be sugary brittany crap, and somewhere, in the midst of bad art, bad music, and bad literature, some real meaning to those who still have the energy and impulse to search for it.

That was my SOTD (sermon of the day)
HEY NOW! I didn't say I didn't like LOOKING at Brittany! Isn't that more evidence for what's wrong with commercial muzac? Get a bimbo or bimbob, put 'em in spandex, and process in some real singers to "thicken up" lame vocals. Same story with that country singer Shania Twain. She sounds better on TV than radio.