The evil curse of the radio playlist

[LVSteve]

Listening to music on the radio has become a disheartening experience. For sure, there are types of music I won't listen to, rap and country and western are but two of them. My complaint is that whatever genre you want to here, they trot out the same old tunes day after day, week after week.

Oldies and Classic Rock stations are the worst offenders. They have a vast catalog of material to choose from. But what do they do when they want to play a Yes tune, put on "I've seen all good people" every darned time. What's wrong with "Starship Troopers" or "Roundabout" every so often?

Then there are the rock bands they all but ignore. The British bands "Wishbone Ash" and "UFO" spring to mind, lots of good honest rock tunes you almost NEVER hear. Then they ignore certain periods of a band. Does any radio station in the US own a Def Leppard album prior to "Pyromania"? Somehow I doubt it.

The playlist is the biggest insult to the art of music there has ever been. Thank goodness for my CD collection and MP3 compression so I can put a slew of sounds onto a CD or into my phone from the golden age of classic rock, the 70s and 80s.

Check out the axe solo in this tune.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ki5ePvAZ8[/ame]

 

[rwsmith]

You said it...

I've told this story here, but I've had the same problem, but BAD. We had a station here with a long playlist and you seldom heard songs played close together. But over time their playlist got shorter and shorter to where I was hearing the same songs 3x day. I like the Eagles. Desperado, Lyin eyes, Take it Easy, Tequila Sunrise, Witchy Woman. One of these Nights, Already Gone. Best of my Love, Take it to the Limit. But do they EVER play any of these songs?

NO!

So what do I hear at least three times a day?

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

 

[JohnRippert]

I have about 30GB of MP3's or around 5000 songs on a flashdrive that I play on shuffle in my vehicles. I have not listened to radio in years.

 

[ExcitableBoy]

I will first state that I AM A ROCKER!!!, and have been since the mid-'50s...

I gave up on radio as a music source in the early '80s... it was as if someone had flipped the switch back to '59-'63. After the tragic deaths of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens there was a pall that dropped over Rock 'n' Roll by an avalanche of anyone named "Bobby", and tons of cutesy boyfriend/girlfriend songs that could cause diabetes in any healthy "Rocker", the few bright spots notwithstanding.

Around '63 there came a flash of light with a burst of Motown, up-tempo blues and the start of the British Invasion, fueled by the ashes of '50s black R&B, rockabilly and roots rock 'n' roll. British blues, hard rock, psychedelia, progressive, funk, and a seemingly unending flow of musical creativity poured out into the airwaves like an unstoppable tsunami... We never had it so good musically.

Then it all seemed to come to a screeching halt again, and turn formulaic and trite in the early '80s. As before, there were the exceptions (I still pick-and-choose some newer artists to listen to. If the music is good, it's good, and I don't deny it just because of any particular year in which it's been produced.), but since then, I rarely listen to music on the radio anymore. If you can't stand the repetition of the "playlists", just don't listen. IMO the dial is now best served by "talk" venues.

Just thank your particular god for the invention of the many music-media platforms in existence available for the recording and replay of whatever tunes that float your boat.

(I purposely omitted any bands or artists as examples for "The Rennaisance" because we all have our own tastes, and there are few other subjects that cause more passion than "discussions" about music, which is why they are taboo on this forum. However, once the fun begins with this topic, I reserve the right to jump in at any time to champion my own preferences. Even us Old Guys can still kick it!)

 

[fat tom]

I do Sirius.
f.t.

 

[coltle6920]

Well,LVSteve,one can only assume you don't listen to any Xmas tunes over the Holidays.Talk about a limited playlist.

I currently have 500+ MP3s either on CD or my computer.Many are duplicates but by different artists.I'll spend a couple of hours on YouTube downloading music videos and converting them to MP3.Sometimes I search by band name but more often by decade.Another favorite search is for "One hit wonders".

Sure stirs up some memories from my younger years.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

My coffee roaster Norm has a table top Sirius.
He only listens to one station.
It's piano Jazz.
No horns, no singing, maybe a little bass and drums.
Sirius has a bunch of stations.
They must have at least one you would like.

 

[Fishslayer]

Listening to the local classic rock station you'd get the idea that Bob Seger was a two hit wonder...

 

[bigwheelzip]

I never had a good ear for music but my husband swore the only place worth turning on the radio for classic rock was Cleveland. As soon as we got close to the PA/OH state line, he'd start scanning for stations.

 

[eveled]

In school we learned about a huge scandall. I only remember because of the funny name. Payolla,. It involved radio stations not playing enough variety. What we have now seems much worse yet nobody cares.

 

[Muss Muggins]

Pandora . . .

 

[rwsmith]

You may be right...

In school we learned about a huge scandall. I only remember because of the funny name. Payolla,. It involved radio stations not playing enough variety. What we have now seems much worse yet nobody cares.

However, most of what I listen to is 'album rock' from 60's and seventies. These records aren't 'promoted' anymore like Top 40 but have a life of their own. One factor may be that since radio stations have to pay ASCAP or some other outfit for playing rights, they are minimizing their cost.

Also, Hotel California is supposed to be the most requested song, right? So play it, a LOT.

Back in the heyday of FM, they would play a side of a complete album with no commercial break, then play the other side and announce it in advance so you could be sure to tune in. The playlist was anything that they had in the studio. Some took requests. No comparison at all with today's stations.

That period of music was rich and fertile. If you couldn't stand an album, there were at least ten others that you could try, and more.

 

[wingriderz]

Listening to the local classic rock station you'd get the idea that Bob Seger was a two hit wonder...

Seger rocks lol

 

[soFlaNative]

ZZ Top according to playlists recorded one album... Eliminator.
How's bout some Tres Hombres or Tejas?

 

[Texas40]

The local rock and classic rock stations here pretty much suck.
Both seem to have only about 10 cds. The morning show on the rock station "Billy MadisonShow" is entertainment for 12yr olds. Just childish drivel.
At least the classic station plays "music" from 830 to 10am.
I miss the 70/80s time when the local rick station had good DJs who knew music and would play "variety" now same old repeats.

At least the station up the road in Austin plays a variety of rock and I mean a wide variety although they to do repeat some popular ones to often.


So many good songs on albums that dint get air play because sone exec says playXXX.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[august1410]

It's amazing how many prolific artists were "one/two hit wonders"

I know for a fact, Heart had more than four songs. Well, of course, you never hear anything else than "Barracuda", "Magic Man", "Never" and "Alone" on the radio.

I am not a big Aerosmith fan, but I do know they have been around for almost FIFTY years and have recorded more than five songs.

I guess it's a side effect of getting older, but I remember the oldies station playing stuff from the 50s and 60s.....now they are playing stuff from the 80s. The classic rock station plays music from the 90s.

 

[sheepdawg]

As far as in my ride, who needs AM or FM radio, I listen to 1000 or so of my favorites, no Freebird or Stairway to Heaven ever.

I do have the acoustical versions of Layla and Hotel California which I find to be quite good.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

It's been a long time since I listened to over-the-air radio for music enjoyment. Regularly repeating what their target audience likes is a long proven business model for as long as I can remember for music radio. Their audience is typically only listening for a few minutes during the day while driving. Some operators go with a 'no repeat' approach between X-Y hours.

As far as repeating songs... Apple tells me my music library is 26 days, 14 hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds long... before I have to listen to the same song twice. Playlists, albums or specific songs, while on the road I just tell Siri what to play and she does her thing. Nice thing about iTunes Match is that none of my music actually needs to be on the device... stream it all. Apple has iTunes Radio but I don't use it.

Pandora is good for what it is. REALLY likes the way Pandora interfaces with Amazon's Echo (Alexa). Whatever ya want to listen to, doesn't matter if the station has been created or not, Alexa will create the station on the fly and start playing. Generally use Pandora with Alexa for just background music in the home through the day. Echo speaker is good enough for that. Wife loves the ease and convenience. No remote controls, no buttons, no searching for music or searching for her iPhone in the house .... Alexa... play Three Doors Down radio... Frank Sinatra radio... or... And if ya hear something you like but don't know who it is-- Alexa, who is this artist? So easy....

 

[NYlakesider]

How true this is about a lot of radio. They seem to play the same songs/artists over and over. It sounds like its a loop, you listen to it and many times you know what the next song their going to play is.

Simon and Garfunkel had a lot of hits, but there are only two or 3 that get much play. Same for the Doors just to mention two artists. Course a lot of the Doors were very long songs, and that means they loose time to play commercials. In many cases you get 5-7 minuets of commercials and 2-4 songs and back to the commercials again. At Christmas time the best golden oldie station in the area goes 24-7 Christmas music as early as the beginning of November. I enjoy that music but enough is enough!

My last 4 vechicles come with XM, but after the free period I do not renew as at least the stations I listen to also are on the loop schedule. No commercials at least! XM where I live is spotty at best. Fading in and out due to the mountains and in the good weather the leaves on the trees.

I have read that even though they are considered satellite based they are many ground stations also use to disseminate the signal. I tend to believe that as I loose the signal in a place that is totally open to the sky. It goes out when crossing a almost mile long open deck bridge. Noway could a satellite not hit you there.

For the most part my vehicle radio is off more and more and to be truthful I really do not miss it much.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

I'm surprised Sirus/XM is still in business.

When we got smartphones years ago one of the first things we did is cancel our subscription to Sirius. Is whatever exclusive content on Sirus/XM worth a paid subscription (what are they charging these days?) or is it just the ease using a device that's mounted in the car dash instead of using a smartphone and bluetooth to the car audio? I can't think of anything we listened to on Sirius that we can't get with our smartphones... we're not Howard Stern fans.