Even though I love being a radio DJ the role of radio in today's music world has been dwarfed in recent times by the rise of blogs, itunes, and even internet sites like pandora and last.fm. Kid Rock who brought us "Bawitaba" back in the late 90s new track "All Summer Long" is now up to number 28 on Billboard's Top 100 (and has been on the list for 6 weeks). Rock's album "Rock N' Roll Jesus" which features the track however has been out since October nearly 10 months! This late single peak is due not to the digital revolution of download mp3s but solely to airplay and may possibly cue a revival of music that gains popularity due to airplay.
The song is actually a mashup of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" that features (non)poetic lyrics such as the first line of the song...
"It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long"
Are you kidding me?
Most readers of blogs like this probably agree that America's standards for what qualifies good music has again been severely damaged over that last few years but discussion that I do not want to dabble in (not worth the space in my blog). The question of whether radio's role in music today and if it will continue expand in America again is yet to be seen.
My proposal for strengthening both the quality of music and also expanding radio's role in entertainment is best solved by changing radio back to old school freeform. Freeform radio is rare today and KRUI is one of the few stations in the state of Iowa that still sticks to live djs. Live DJs not only bring a new flavor every shift to a radio station but also diversify the music on air to expose listeners to a variety of music in stead of a computer that shoots out songs for djs to spit out on the air.
While this may only be part of the problem of why so many people despise pop music today but with songs like "All Summer Long" becoming popular from air play - you have to ask if the quality of today's pop music could be increased from live djs.
I will admit - I may be just a tad biased on this topic. I want to turn over this discussion to you readers...what do you think?
1 comment:
I totally think that radio should be djs only and as free-form as you said. Even at University of Oregon KWVA Collage Radio (where I dj-ed at for 2 years) you had to play a few songs off the "charts" shelf. Witch severed its purpose for keeping new music coming from the labels (as long as they saw their songs on our charts). It still wasn't completely free to the dj to decide. So if the labels aren't getting any special "ass kissing" priority, then yes I think it would improve the quality of music put out on a label. Although if you are an artist, its easier than it has ever been to get people to hear your jam all over the world via internet. So there is less need for a record label's distribution skills. I'm not saying I wouldn't accept a contract to a label as an artist, but if you can get the right dj to hear your song, it might end up on the next essential mix.
Screw broadcast quality. I want digital beamed right to my mobile with my favorite djs selecting. A good dj will scour the internet/itunes/blogs/labels sites/beatport for good music and not rely on any one source of music. In some cases the dj is the label (diplo, peanutbutterwolf, and many more). And in these cases can become very successful. I don't know what do you think?
Post a Comment