(no subject)
You know, I was thinking about something today: I hate the radio industry. Honestly, they're one of the industries which I generally can't stand. There are many reasons for this, chief among them the centralization of the radio industry in a few hands, the increasing homogonization [yes, I know I spelled that wrong] of what they play, and the ever-increasing number of ads. However, what got me mad at them today was totally unrelated to those things. I was jogging home from the golf course today with my iPod on, and I'm flipping through the songs until Hey Ya comes on. Now, as we all know, it's a great tune. It was an incredible song, deserved to be nominated for Song of the Year, and pushed Outkast into the stratosphere. However, I don't really like the song anymore. Sure, it's nice and everything, but....I dunno. The song has just been worn out for me. And the reason for this is simple: The tendency for radio to take something with some originality to it, push it as hard as they can into the mainstream, and flog it until it dies. Rather than expanding their horizons and having a continued stream of innovation, they take a couple cool-sounding songs and market the hell out of them, which just leads to making everyone who hears the song hate it more and more.
Over the last couple of years, there are four prime examples I can think of that really prove this point. They are:
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal: I remember way before this song got big, I saw the video late at night on MTV 2. I thought it was an extremely cool song, and the video was also good. I remember downloading that song and listening to it a decent amount for the next couple weeks. Suddenly, it was EVERYWHERE. You couldn't get away from that song. For a while, it was downright painful to listen to. Now that it's had a couple of years to age, it sounds a lot better than it did at the height of the hysteria around that song, but it just lost that air about it. Putting it into play is nice, but playing it every friggin' hour on six different stations...you wanna vomit after hearing it.
The other three are essentially the same story, so I'll just list them here:
The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Outkast - Hey Ya
Eminem - Lose Yourself
All of these songs got so played out that they just don't sound good any more. It's really sad that this happened, and it's yet another reason to hate the current state of the radio industry. So here are the lyrics to "Radio Radio" by Elvis Costello (which is a really kickass song, by the way).
I was tuned into the shine of the late night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With everyone of those late night stations
playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the reciever
When the switch broke cause it's old
They're saying things I can hardly believe
They really think we're getttin' out of control
Radio is the sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the Voice of Reason
But they don;t give you any choice
'Cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you were told
You better listen to the radio
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me
Some of my freinds sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut out
They don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel to reel
And the radio is in the hands
Of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anesthetize they way that you feel
Radio is the sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the Voice Of Reason
But they don't give any choice
'Cause they think that its treason
So you had better do as you were told
You better listen to the radio
Wonderful Radio
Nothing Less than Radio
Radio, Radio
Over the last couple of years, there are four prime examples I can think of that really prove this point. They are:
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal: I remember way before this song got big, I saw the video late at night on MTV 2. I thought it was an extremely cool song, and the video was also good. I remember downloading that song and listening to it a decent amount for the next couple weeks. Suddenly, it was EVERYWHERE. You couldn't get away from that song. For a while, it was downright painful to listen to. Now that it's had a couple of years to age, it sounds a lot better than it did at the height of the hysteria around that song, but it just lost that air about it. Putting it into play is nice, but playing it every friggin' hour on six different stations...you wanna vomit after hearing it.
The other three are essentially the same story, so I'll just list them here:
The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Outkast - Hey Ya
Eminem - Lose Yourself
All of these songs got so played out that they just don't sound good any more. It's really sad that this happened, and it's yet another reason to hate the current state of the radio industry. So here are the lyrics to "Radio Radio" by Elvis Costello (which is a really kickass song, by the way).
I was tuned into the shine of the late night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With everyone of those late night stations
playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the reciever
When the switch broke cause it's old
They're saying things I can hardly believe
They really think we're getttin' out of control
Radio is the sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the Voice of Reason
But they don;t give you any choice
'Cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you were told
You better listen to the radio
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me
Some of my freinds sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut out
They don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel to reel
And the radio is in the hands
Of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anesthetize they way that you feel
Radio is the sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the Voice Of Reason
But they don't give any choice
'Cause they think that its treason
So you had better do as you were told
You better listen to the radio
Wonderful Radio
Nothing Less than Radio
Radio, Radio