February 29, 2008, 9:28 pm
Filed under: Music
Filed under: Music
The idea for this blog started while I was at work today. It was a typical day (my 5th day), I was reading through list of thousands of songs, listening to the girls next to me talk about their usual shit.
I guess somehow a song came up and one of them asked, “Haven’t you heard that song on the radio?”
“No, I don’t listen to the radio, I put songs on my iPod.”
“Well how the hell do you hear about new music?”
Not too long ago if a friend told me to “check out this band,” I wouldn’t know the first place to go to hear them. I would have to hope that this friend had a maxwell cassette tape of their demo…or to try not to sound like I’m trying to sound too old…a fresh CD-R, burned at about 2x speed.
If there was ever a time that this did happen, it certainly didn’t happen often. This was a time when underground was still “underground” by definition. Underground was an alternate culture for music, a group that a lot of music listeners wished they could be a part of. But to do this, you needed to know where there were shows. This meant going to your local record store counter, or perusing the streets for telephone poles.
But now things are different. Underground isn’t so underground anymore. As I believe I have mentioned before, along with countless others, myspace, purevolume, and those alike are beasts. Now adays “word of mouth” music has endless possibilities of travel. A lot of times a friend will say “dude, have you heard this band?” and we will respond, “yep.” Bands are becoming huge off of these sites.
But just because the Underground scene is no longer just a “scene” anymore, are these bands really getting “heard.” Where is their chance to sky rocket? How do they get themselves to the “public?” More and more people are using iPods, XM radio has endless choices for you to listen to whatever you want, and TRL has only 10 of the same 30 second video clips, playing for weeks at a time.
I guess what I’m saying is that radio as I remember it is almost dead. I don’t really know anyone who listens to the radio anymore. The last time that I found a new band from listening to the radio was when I heard Muse’s “Time is Running Out.” on K-Rock (NY). I can’t remember anything after that. However I still do listen to the radio every once in a while, but pretty much everyone I know is, or is almost through with it.
Don’t go telling me that its because radio sucks. Please… that’s a cop out. I think it’s just less important than it used to be, so the only thing you really hear on it are those same artists that do well on it…. good ol’ top 40.
The reason I wrote this is because I’ve recently become more aware of things in the music industry. I don’t know, I just am really into it now…what’s wrong with it, how can we (us musicians) make it better. How can we use these current events that seem so negative and make them a positive again.
Let’s start with not seeing them as a negative.
Find a way to get radio to an iPod! Maybe iPods can come with an automatic subscription to a Radio Podcast. Your typical stations, Rock, Pop, Rap, Country, anything. Each week its updated with a new playlist of current songs and new hits. I don’t if that would work, I’m just trying to think of ways because Radio was one of the hugest way to get your name out.
Remember that scene in “That Thing You Do” when the Wonders hear their song on the radio and go nuts?? That was it. That’s all that used to matter. Some bands wouldn’t even worry about having an album…they just wanted a “Record” on the radio.
Oh, here’s an idea that I would be shocked if it wasn’t already happening. Radio myspaces! A station could have a myspace and update playlists every week. It could work just like radio, bands getting royalties and everything based on plays.
I don’t know, THINK people. Stop just saying things are “dead.” and start thinking of ways to keep them alive. What works is what works. Yeah technology advances but concepts and ideas don’t. When CD’s came out, you couldn’t make mixtapes, you couldn’t record off of other devices… so we came out with a CD Burner. We used the same old “idea” and took it into the new technology. Suppose we just got frustrated and said “man, mixtapes are dead.”
Ok I’m really rambling right now and I don’t like it. To just summarize what I wrote this for…
STOP fighting changes in time and technology. START using them for better. We know what works, now lets ADAPT.
ok?
ok.
Currently listening to:
Arlo Guthrie - Alice’s Restaurant
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
I think you made same valid points but I feel as though they’re disjointed. Radio as we knew it is dead. In a weird way myspace/purevolume/the internet is the new radio in that it’s where you discover new music. There’s too much music out there for mainstream radio to keep up with. And they have commercials…please. People who want the radio experience get it from Satellite radio, more channels, more music, less bullshit and the cost hasn’t deterred people. It’s lame to feel bad for the radio, they dug their own grave and they will lie in it. We are evolving, we are adapting, FM is not a part of the future.
Comment by Ryan March 3, 2008 @ 1:51 pmI agree with what you’re saying, and that was my point but just to clarify…
Yes, radio, as we know it in a physical sense, is almost or already dead. But the idea is alive and well..and that is what is needed to be exploited. It’s a fact that the concept of radio has been one of the most powerful kinds of promotion and marketing in the history of music.
So what I was saying was to use what we have now to keep the concept truckin. I agree myspace and the internet in general are ways to discover new music but its still on a very “word of mouth” basis. There aren’t many places to just turn a dial to “pop” and get a myspace playlist that changes every hour, with different personalities dictating what is played. Although you can “browse” myspace… “knowing” where what you’re looking for is still a large portion of it.
And being on myspace is less important to bands than being on the radio used to be.. because its much easier. You can reach a ton of people on myspace but they can’t really reach you without hearing of you first.
I wanna say that Purevolume right now, is one of the closer online venues that has a radio vibe. Making the front page (which as you know changes every week) is much like getting on the radio. And people get signed from being on the front page of purevolume, just as way back in the day, if you got the DJ to play your “demo record, or tape,” then a label might hear you and want you.
Thanks for commenting buddy! This is fun. HA.
Comment by guilmette March 3, 2008 @ 7:05 pm