Why is radio so shit?

[Cerveza mas fina]

Is it me or do playlist nowadays consist of 25-35 songs top played all day?

Growing up in the 90s there were different shows etc and you actually coule here some new songs etc.

What happened?

[Momo]

havent listened to radio since 2002

[Tasty]

It was invented like 300 years ago.

Old things suck. Mostly.

[Mr. Gundam]

Commercial radio? Sure.

Find an independent listener supported station. Seattle's 90.3 FM KEXP (www.kexp.org) is a great option.

[Akala]

It has always been like this? At least now we have luxury of not caring at all.

[tiesto]

Deregulation of the airwaves, causing ClearChannel to purchase tons of smaller, local stations, followed by payola.

[Himu]

I should not be hearing Sam smith on an r&b station!!!

[Himu]

Hip hop stations are poop now. They play so much trap and I just want to bang to some hip hop! I listened to some old hip hop albums the other week thinking,”maybe I just don’t like hip hop anymore?” after over a year of nothing but trap on the radio. Nah. Still love hip hop!

[ToxicAdam]

The only time radio (in America) wasn't shit is when Mtv (circa 1985-1995) was being programmed by smart college kids and promoted (mostly) good music and had a huge influence on what ended up being popular. Which mainstream radio was then forced to play.

Outside of that window of time, radio has always been the same 12-20 songs over and over and over. Rarely a meritocracy and mostly controlled by the major labels influences.


I suppose the 60's was probably a great time for radio also. They were independent, DJ's had a huge influence on what got played and the audience was actually able to interact and influence them (based on their reaction).

[Cerveza mas fina]

Trap is ok but its not hip hop for me, the flow of trap rappersingers is sooooo bad

[bork]

[BlueTsunami]

College stations all day everyday. And NPR. But once in a while some chucklefuck aspiring DJ will put on some 30s era bluegrass like he or shes being cultured and I'm all like 

[Assimilate]

This dude talking about the radio

 

[Himu]

My hope is that hip hop is in its hair metal phase and that next decade will bring grunge phase.

Also toxic, what about the 70’s?

[BlueTsunami]

What are your thoughts on Kamiyadas style, Cindy?



I personally love the energy

[toku]

[Himu]

What are your thoughts on Kamiyadas style, Cindy?



I personally love the energy

I’ll have to listen to it later. At work.

(Image removed from quote.)

Trap is ok but its not hip hop for me, the flow of trap rappersingers is sooooo bad

https://twitter.com/memespng/status/1012957708897660928?s=21

[Mandark]

Every reply to this thread is really "I'm old."

But it's all good, cause I'm old with ya.

[Himu]

Cream has put me up on the dark trap and I think it’s fantastic so

[BlueTsunami]

Trap is awesome with a good subwoofer and system in general. As long as the production is on point I couldn't care less what the rapper is dishing about if the shits mindless

[toku]

[tiesto]

Every reply to this thread is really "I'm old."

But it's all good, cause I'm old with ya.

Tbf, I didn't like the radio back when I was in HS either, since it didn't play any of the stuff I listened to.

[Akala]

I am listening to more rappy stuff than I ever have before. There is a ton of good stuff out now.

[Himu]

That I have to search for when I don’t feel like searching for shit.

Back in the day all you had to do was watch mtv raps or read the source to find what was good. The radio would play what was good. Now the radio isn’t reliable, magazines are dead, websites are all over the place, and there’s no central tv show or whatever showing the latest, greatest singles. You basically have to dig deep. I ain’t got that time. Being a music fan has become like being an anime fan. You gotta find the right people that feel your type of music now. You can’t rely on no one else to tell you what’s good.

[Mandark]

Late 90's/early 00's rock radio playlists were the worst, man.

[Himu]

Late 90's/early 00's rock radio playlists were the worst, man.

[ToxicAdam]

My hope is that hip hop is in its hair metal phase and that next decade will bring grunge phase.

Also toxic, what about the 70’s?

The music industry shifted to an album-orientated focus. So they would often hold back the best songs from being a single, which would encourage the consumer to buy the album. Which is why some of the most iconic rock songs of the 70s were never radio hits.

Also, payola played a big factor in that decade.


Here's a minidoc on payola if you want to learn more: https://www-rollingstone-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/delve-into-the-seedy-world-of-seventies-payola-in-new-rs-mini-doc-178271/amp/?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQECAEoAQ%3D%3D&jwsource=cl

[BlueTsunami]

Radio was only really good for when Richard Marx's Hazard would come on on a rainy nightdrive

[Trent Dole]

Late 90's/early 00's rock radio playlists were the worst, man.

CLOSING TIME
IT IS TIME TO CLOSE NOW
SO GTFO OF THE STORE

This was their better jam tbh:

[mormapope]

I am listening to more rappy stuff than I ever have before. There is a ton of good stuff out now.

Hip-Hop has never been better; so much amazing stuff out there.

Agreed very much so. Astroworld came out recently and is an excellent album and probably my favorite for this year. Hip hop is the most enjoyable genre to explore or listen to tons of new music constantly.


Best Weeknd song since his last album came out in 2016. Very dope song that would be challenging editing and cutting to play on radio.


When that second half starts


Meanwhile, Kanye has just released something that does sound mentally ill/fucking nuts but competent in structure. Ive never laughed at an entire song like that in a while.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I still find it funny that the biggest hits in pop music since the mid 1990s have been made by the same couple of Swedes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Martin_production_discography

[Himu]

Okay where do I start with the latest hip hop then? I like grit hip hop but not mob deep grit (they scare me ). Where do I get good storytelling? I haven’t paid attention to the genre in years and base most of my impressions from the radio.

[toku]

Okay where do I start with the latest hip hop then? I like grit hip hop but not mob deep grit (they scare me ). Where do I get good storytelling? I haven’t paid attention to the genre in years and base most of my impressions from the radio.

[Assimilate]

My hope is that hip hop is in its hair metal phase and that next decade will bring grunge phase.

Also toxic, what about the 70’s?

My hope is that hip hop dies and never comes back. It was never good, and it will never be good.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Every reply to this thread is really "I'm old."

But it's all good, cause I'm old with ya.

Tbf, I didn't like the radio back when I was in HS either, since it didn't play any of the stuff I listened to.

Is cuz you didnt live in Holland man

[Cerveza mas fina]

Late 90's/early 00's rock radio playlists were the worst, man.

Can never hate this song as I played it for 4 years when we were closing up the bar I worked at (how original huh but who cares at 5 in the morning).

This is another one we played too (for all the German boreans)

[TVC15]

During my radio listenin’ years I just listened to The Clash. They didn’t play them on the radio.  Radio sux

[Fifstar]

Too me it feels like as alternative music scenes got bigger and more prevalent. These days so many styles coexist from Hip Hop, to Indie, EDM, more underground style house and techno. Each with multiple subcategories. And it's not just insiders that listen to those styles, everybodys seems to listen to some kind of non mainstream sound.

At the same time, a lot of pop music seems to have become more samey and derivative as ever before. I'm not talking about artists like Rihanna, or Taylor Swift or Adele or whatever. Whatever you think about their music, they still have some style and persona, even if it sometimes changes between albums.

German pop radio is flooded with a crop of songs that really all sound the same. Musically each song is made up of a simple beat (kinda like a dance beat, but softer) and bland guitars, while the arrangement is mainly a melancholic verse with a more uplifting chorus. The lyrics are basically "dummys first emotional song". Songs about feeling troubled, but mostly applicable to the everyday person. The only thing that makes you go aha for a quick moment is parts where the singer suddenly seems to put his all in emotions and sings dramatically. Reminds me always of the young contestants on shows like 'Idols'. It always feels very fake to me, especially to the backdrop of the samey music. I don't believe you is all I am feeling. The biggest problem with those songs is really that the all sound the same. A Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys album probably had more diversity than all the songs from those singers combined.

A good international example of this would be Shawn Mendes. There are dozens of similar artists.

Those songs in both german and english make up like 50% of mainstream radio shows. Like Lager said, this is with 30 songs making up the main rotation of a radio station. The other songs are a mixture of a pop dance songs from europe, flavor of the year big american pop production, a song from the 80s and a small mixture of digestible tunes from the smaller-but-small-anymore genres I mentioned in the beginning.

So to me mainstream radio sucks more than ever before because it has become to derivative and samey, all while we have huge scenes that make great (and often accessible) music plus the huge catalog of the last 70 years. Of course, this has been going on for a long time and depending on how old you are you probably draw the line at a different era. For me personally I would say radio became shit in the 90, but this partly because I grew to love a lot of the 80s catalog. Which is kinda funny as 80s music was shunned as being to pop in my youth under the influence of Nirvana and later Hip Hop. But those songs were more creative, sometimes had soul, creative arrangements, tried out new sounds. This all still happens, but a lot less often on mainstream radio.

[BlueTsunami]

[Shuri]

Teenagers have it so easy now to discover music compared to when I grew up. You can listen to any song, on demand, at any time, and get suggestions for everything according to your taste. it's amazing!

Back when I was a teenager, pre internet, to get what I want, I had to listen to this badass dj who hosted a 2 hours show at midnight every friday night. This was on a classic rock station too, so you would hear some Santana, and then suddenly it would switch to Atari Teenage Riot. The guy was super hardcore into importing music (a foreign concept these days) and he would play super eclectic music (at the time) from his own collection. No ads, no cut, 2 hours of music.

That's where I discovered Dj Shadow, trip hop, drum and bass music, all sorts of obscure electronic music from the UK, cut chemist, the orb, tons of metal, random indie band and more. He would give suggestions after each song, i remember writing down names of tracks, labels, and etc. That show had a major impact in shaping my musical tastes.

Now these days, you have Spotify and others services, and it's great, but I really miss having a live dj talk between tracks and give suggestions. It's all automated now but it feels very soul less and corporate. The recommend artists are so random sometimes that it gets pretty obvious that they are trying to sell you some new artist.

The availability of music is incredible, but the curating is what's missing.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Agree, availability is only nice when you put in the time, most people are better off with curated services maybe.