[Excelsior]

Quote:

Ever wonder why you see and hear the same 20 artists on the rotation on radio & television? No, it's not because people are calling the radio stations requesting the songs incessantly. The answer: media-consolidation. 90% of the media is controlled by only 6 companies: GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom & Time Warner. Compare that to 1983 when media was owned by 50 companies. According to FreePress.com, "media consolidation means less diversity in programming and ownership, fewer voices and viewpoints, less coverage of local issues that matter to communities and less of the unbiased, independent and critical journalism we need to prevent abuses of power." Media-consolidation has affected the balance and diversity of today's music, which is especially evident when it comes to hip hop.

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[UrbanNerd]

Well, you know that black woman runs Radio One, who owns at least one urban/R&B/Hip-Hop station is each major city. She keeps the same format for each station.

[Basil Ransom]

The image didn't show up.

I find the radio irritating. I can't be sure, but it seems like the top hits playlist is much much smaller than it was 5 or 10 years ago. The hip hop station here, Power 106, is far less hip-hop oriented than it was years ago, although that may be due to the increased number of Hispanics in LA. And the two modern rock stations, KROQ and Star 98.7 getting to be indistinguishable nowadays - years ago, Star only played gay stuff like Train and The Goo Goo Dolls.

On the other hand, I'm not so convinced that it's solely due to media conglomeration. For instance, an FM talk radio station here turned into a hits station here, in order to make more money. The 'Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga 24/7' strategy isn't a losing one per se. Also, motivated people have increased to superior media, such as CDs, mp3s, podcasts, satellite radio and even internet radio. I do wonder how many drivers actually use something besides the built in radio.

[Hades]

I don't mind modern music or short playlists.
What I don't like though is that country music and hip hop seem to be getting closer together. Some country songs even make the rounds on hip hop stations and I just can't wrap my head around it. Don't even get me started on the Top 100 Billboard, easily 40% of that music is complete shit.
Johnny Cash type country music is cool by me. Biggie Smalls type hip hop is also cool by me.

The only solid backwater of music, IMHO, is classic rock, electro-house/trance, and very heavy metal.

[Goldin Boy]

Unsurprising. In '80's there were 6 major labels in the US. In the 2000's we are down to the Big Four and if a merger between EMI and Universal is approved it will be soon to be Big Three.

Not much can be done except to stop listenting to the radio and requesting the same songs to be played. Mainstream hip-hop is too formulaic: Dance style beats, singer on the hook, two verses about partying and a bridge. Most mainstream crap isn't worth the money they want for it so it's best to look underground or use torrents.

[Timoteo]

What you're seeing is certain formats are disappearing, and radio is sounding the same almost everywhere on the dial. As Basilransom touched on, only the most profitable formats are being heard, and all the "niche" formats are falling by the wayside. If it isn't popular to the largest audience, it doesn't survive anymore.

Back in the day, payola was the way to get your song on playlists. You slipped some money to the radio station dj, and he saw to it that your song got squeezed in. They cracked down on that, so if your record isn't selling a lot of units, or isn't a genre that can be easily categorized, you're hardpressed to get airplay. The more popular genres of Hip-Hop always survived without airplay because, even edited, artists and labels knew stations couldn't play their songs (though some of it could get airplay VERY late and overnight). I've NEVER been a big radio guy. For the most part, the radio woke me up in the morning, and I didn't listen to a minute of it the rest of the day. I always listened to first cassettes, then CDs, and now mp3s of course. Media companies and radio stations are largely in control of what gets played. Once a song makes the list, it has to get a certain amount of rotations per hour (I'm not sure what the formula is), but you're not imagining that you've heard the same song far too many times in a few hours.

The artists in the popular categories that win Grammies pretty much tells you what's playing on the radio.

[speakeasy]

(05-23-2012 09:37 PM)basilransom Wrote:  

The image didn't show up.

I find the radio irritating. I can't be sure, but it seems like the top hits playlist is much much smaller than it was 5 or 10 years ago. The hip hop station here, Power 106, is far less hip-hop oriented than it was years ago, although that may be due to the increased number of Hispanics in LA. And the two modern rock stations, KROQ and Star 98.7 getting to be indistinguishable nowadays - years ago, Star only played gay stuff like Train and The Goo Goo Dolls.

On the other hand, I'm not so convinced that it's solely due to media conglomeration. For instance, an FM talk radio station here turned into a hits station here, in order to make more money. The 'Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga 24/7' strategy isn't a losing one per se. Also, motivated people have increased to superior media, such as CDs, mp3s, podcasts, satellite radio and even internet radio. I do wonder how many drivers actually use something besides the built in radio.

Thank goodness for KCRW. That non-commercial college station is a godsend. I don't know what I'd do without it. The amount of non-mainstream music I've learned about since I began listening back in mid 90s is insurmountable. I've even volunteered for them. You gotta show your support for those iconoclast local stations that are listener supported and aren't owned by Clear Channel.

There's also internet radio and now I can just plug my phone in the stereo jack in the car and listen to almost anything imaginable over 3G. It's getting to the point that it's close to replacing satellite radio. The days of corporate radio are numbered.

[R Smoov]

Man, screw the radio. You think I have time to hear some hipster talking for 20 minutes before they play a song I'm not in the mood to hear?

Nah, I'll stick to torrenting songs to my iPod or use Pandora. There I can chose what song I'd want banging in my ears.

[Kickb]

To add to your post, sometime last year, I talked to an old Radio DJ named Fast Eddie Coyle. He told me that he got fired and replaced by a computer and that all of the stuff you hear on the radio is pre-recorded. All of the songs are no longer chosen by the DJ. He said it's a dirty industry.

[Screwston]

I haven't listened to the radio in a few years. I like the classic rock station though.

[cibo]

Too be fair, I read an article a few years ago from the Economist for an internet music subscription service. With the service you could listen to nearly any song. However, everyone just listened to the same music still since they liked listening to music others did. Music is culture thing which means that there's a lot of group influence on what is considered good.

[porscheguy]

Radio is part of what they now call "old media." It's hurting big time. Satellite radio only made a small dent, but MP3s/Ipods dealt a serious blow. Now we've got smart phones with Pandora, and they can connect directly into your car. Have you ever listened to "terrestrial radio" during rush hour? It's like 30 minutes of ads, 15 minutes of morning show bullshit, and maybe another 15 minutes of music.