Why come all the best songs are never played on the radio?

psycopathicteen · Post by **psycopathicteen** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:42 am

Everybody I know agrees.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:52 am

I sure agree ! They never pass video game music on it, at least not here. But not everyone like the same music, so that is why.

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:52 am

"Discuss!" ?

Could you be a bit more specific? There are plenty of radio stations out there. At least some of them probably cater to your taste in music.

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:55 am

Because music taste is a very subjective thing and each person thinks of a different setlist when they hear the term "the best songs"? So whatever the radio stations pick, they are highly unlikely to please everyone.

Also, in this day and age, who needs radio? You can download all "the best songs" for free (lets not discuss legality, OK?), put them in your MP3 player and carry them everywhere. Why care about what the crappy radio stations are playing?

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:00 am

Bregalad wrote:I sure agree ! They never pass video game music on it, at least not here. But not everyone like the same music, so that is why.

One of the major radio stations here in Sweden (P3) used to air a show called Syntax Error once a week in the early '00s that played video game music. There's an online archive available where the shows have been preserved in mp3 format.

psycopathicteen · Post by **psycopathicteen** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:11 am

Too much rap and hiphop on the radio. Not enough variety. I don't really have a favorite genre but I know good music when I hear it.

Post by **tepples** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:39 am

FM radio is 100 percent advertisements. When they're not playing obvious commercials, they're playing four-minute advertisements for major label albums. If you want radio matching your tastes, you need to either A. get a cellphone, subscribe to a data plan, and listen to Internet radio, B. start liking talk radio and listen to your local NPR station, or C. move to a town with college radio.

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:42 am

psycopathicteen wrote:Too much rap and hiphop on the radio. Not enough variety. I don't really have a favorite genre but I know good music when I hear it.

If you mean commercial "rap" like T-Pain or Nelly or some clown like that then I agree. There's not a whole lot of real rap on mainstream radio channels though (like Immortal Technique or Non Phixion for example).

Super-Hampster · Post by **Super-Hampster** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:02 pm

What Tepples said. They play the newer stuff 30 times a day so you'll know it exists so you can buy it. Only by the time you've heard it for free 30 times a day you're sick of it because it pretty much sucked the first 150 times you heard it.

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:37 pm

Super-Hampster wrote:Only by the time you've heard it for free 30 times a day you're sick of it because it pretty much sucked the first 150 times you heard it.

It seems to work for the majority of the people though. If it gets exposure on the Radio and on TV, it gets popular.

psycopathicteen · Post by **psycopathicteen** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:07 pm

tokumaru wrote:
Super-Hampster wrote:Only by the time you've heard it for free 30 times a day you're sick of it because it pretty much sucked the first 150 times you heard it.
It seems to work for the majority of the people though. If it gets exposure on the Radio and on TV, it gets popular.

To illegal imigrants yes, to everybody else no.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:01 pm

Too much rap and hiphop on the radio.

Although I like dozens of different musical styles very much I can't stand this as well so I understand you. Many people says "yeah most rap suck but there is good rap as well", well no I disagree I can't stand it - it's not music to me. OK many people agree with that as well, but then they'll be fond of heavy-death-metal stuff, that just happens to be the other musical genre I can't stand as well.

I don't know about the US, but here thanks god those controversial genres aren't much on radio, however, what is present is that modern commercial electro-pop music which, while not absolutely horrible like the mentioned genres, is just completely bland and uninteresting. It's just that - commercial.

There is however here radio frequencies where they plays good 80s stuff, funk or whatever, so it's actually good to listen to. Not enough techno, jazz or classical for my tastes though but oh well. I hardly listen to the radio and listen mostly game music, which makes it embarrassing when people ask what music I listen to, because there is almost all genres in games.

I'm also lucky that in my country, there isn't too much ads on the radio (there is some, but not too much) however, on the TV it's just ads half of the time so I hardly ever watch it.

Post by **Memblers** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:27 pm

Unfortunately, it's all about money. My first guitar teacher told me about payola. It's all bribery and money laundering. I believe the broadcast frequencies belong to the public, but this arrangement only benefits the biggest record companies and the companies that own the radio stations. So, fuck the radio, fuck (most) record companies, and fuck the FCC for selling us all out.

Truly great bands had become famous because their fans shared and traded music with their friends. Major record labels just want to sell records (not literally, you know what I mean), and it benefits them to pay the artist as little as they can, and put them in debt so they need the label (while the label doesn't need them at all).

Everything is changed after the internet emerges, the fans can connect directly to the musicians. The record labels become nothing more than promotional tools. They are going to promote what they want to sell, and maybe a smaller amount of other stuff, if we're lucky.

Actually I did get lucky, there is a good radio station I noticed recently. If you're ever in central-Indiana, tune it to FM 91.9. They have a website with a live stream, as well: http://www.919witt.org/. I've heard them play classical, techno, folk, bluegrass, old radio broadcasts, drums, Iranian music, sea shanties, basically any kind of interesting stuff, and not ever a commercial. (nothing more than the live DJ briefly mentioning some sponsors). It's FM radio done right, it's surprising.

I also have had Sirius satellite radio for a few years, only because it was a gift. I thought I might subscribe, but it costs too much. I don't use it as much (I had a previous job that involved lots of driving), but it's really good too. Just too expensive for me.

naI · Post by **naI** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 4:13 pm

Radio air time is all about flair and shallow rhythm, but not about substance and musicianship. They aim to appeal to the lowest common denominator because it's "good for business."

Celius · Post by **Celius** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:30 pm

I seriously agree everything on the radio kind of sucks. The amount of compression and auto-tune on people's "voices" has now crossed from tasteless into tactless. Yes; it's actually insulting to me personally. I feel like telling producers, "do you really think I'm that stupid?" because they try and fool me in to thinking someone is just amazing at singing when their voice has pretty much been processed into a square wave. There is absolutely no musical integrity or authenticity in what you hear. Pretty soon instead of people actually performing, people are going to have holograms of lip-syncing body-doubles who are actually robots, so no one needs to even show up to their own concert.