"pop" radio

[Guest treble charged]

My local "Hit Music Station", The Point really pisses me off.  In fact, most stations like that do.  I try to avoid them as much as I can, but at work, that is pretty much the only station that comes in (besides country, which I have to listen to all day if someone else is there).  Anyway, the fact that their playlist is so open is really frustrating to me.  One second, you'll get Eminem, the next, Celine Dion.  Frustrating.

 

Another thing about them that also pisses me off is the bandwagon jumping that takes place.  For example, Sum 41.  Never did I hear Makes No Difference or Fat Lip on there, but as soon as they began to get popular, bam, In Too Deep is on their playlist.  Same goes for Nickelback, Linkin Park, Our Lady Peace, the list goes on and on.

 

Anyway, that's just me venting my frustration towards these types of stations, they just piss me off sometimes.

[Guest thevertex]

deleted

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

yeah i have one like that. They still constantly play "where the party at?" like its brand spaknin new. Thats why i never listen to it.

[Guest Karnage]

Yeah I also got a station over here similar to yours called Z95.3.

 

The damn station plays Green Day's "Time Of Your Life", but will never ever play any other Green Day song.

And they'd never play any Nickelback song before "How You Remind Me".

[Guest JHawk]

Qute honestly, we have plenty of stations up here that do that.  I shit you not, a week ago the one soft rock station played "Follow Me" by Uncle Kracker and called it "the new smash hit from Uncle Kracker".  It's been a fucking year and the only other one of his I ever heard was X-Pac's theme song for chrissakes!

 

Plus there's a country station up here that does shit like that.  My friend in Tennessee will tell me about such and such a song and "You've got to hear this song!" and the only time that station plays it is in the national top 40 show until it's gotten to about number 12 on that countdown.

[Guest treble charged]

One more thing on this, I hate the "pop re-mixes" for popular songs that normally wouldn't be on that type of radio station.

 

For example, Default's Wasting My Time is played on the radio station that I mentioned previously, but the background music has been changed slightly to make it seem like a church choir is singing in the background.  Pisses me right off.

[Guest]

Plus there's a country station up here that does shit like that.  My friend in Tennessee will tell me about such and such a song and "You've got to hear this song!" and the only time that station plays it is in the national top 40 show until it's gotten to about number 12 on that countdown.

What is wrong with that?

[Guest starvenger]

One more thing on this, I hate the "pop re-mixes" for popular songs that normally wouldn't be on that type of radio station.

 

For example, Default's Wasting My Time is played on the radio station that I mentioned previously, but the background music has been changed slightly to make it seem like a church choir is singing in the background.  Pisses me right off.

Yeah, I remember that they did that (pop remixes) of Joydrop's "Sometimes Wanna Die", Bif Naked's "Spaceman" and Econoline Crush's "All That You Are" as well.  It's like they don't want the guitars in there or something.

 

I've noticed, though, that the Toronto "hit music" (is "Top 40" a verboten phrase now?) stations have been playing the original versions more now.  And they've added older OLP songs and Sum 41's "Fat Lip" to their playlists.  Well, it's a start...

 

What I find even funnier is the Adult Contemporary stations, which cut out the rap/ragga out of just about any song, except, of course, for Shaggy's stuff.

[Guest]

I'm at the point I just listen to one station so that way I have a good idea of what I will listen too.  I don't want to here rock, rap, rock, pop, pop, rap, rock, rock.  Its fucking irritating.  Of course I don't really listen to pop radio that much as well because it is full of teeny-bopping music.  I HATE TEENY-BOPPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest Karnage]

I also have heard a pop remix of P.O.D.'s Alive where its instrumental instead of guitars in the background on Z95.3.

 

Its kinda useless making a pop remix, there isn't a big difference.

[Guest starvenger]

>Its kinda useless making a pop remix, there isn't a big difference.

 

Well, the pop remix enables the song to get more play across more stations, so it's not really useless.  It's more LOGICAL to just push the original song to all stations - but these are record companies that we're talking about, so logic isn't the most important thing here.

[Guest treble charged]

I don't see why they'd have to do pop remixes of songs like Wasting My Time and Sometimes Wanna Die when it's not like they are exactly "heavy" to begin with.

 

Luckily, a new radio station, K-ROCK, has started coming in on the radio at work.  I haven't heard a treble charger song on their yet, but maybe their new song from the FUBAR soundtrack will start getting play on there soon.

[Guest JHawk]

Somebody brought up pop remixes of songs that otherwise wouldn't play there.  I'd like to know why in the hell they do pop remixes of country songs.  There's a reason some people don't listen to country music, after all.  Hell, a group named Lonestar has no business being on a "pop" station.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I loved Mo Money Mo Problems when Life After Death came out. When I starting hearing the song on the PA at school, I knew the end was near. They were playing it on stations that the secretaries in the office listened to. That's a song that was ruined for me. I have disliked the song for years now, and I think it originated that day.

[Guest starvenger]

Hell, a group named Lonestar has no business being on a "pop" station.

Yeah, well, due to Shania Twain, Shawn Colvin, Leann Rimes et al, that barrier was broken down and trampled some time ago.  

 

Speaking of Leann Rimes, how is her current single "new"??  Coyote Ugly came out TWO freaking years ago!!

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Yeah I also got a station over here similar to yours called Z95.3.

 

The damn station plays Green Day's "Time Of Your Life", but will never ever play any other Green Day song.

And they'd never play any Nickelback song before "How You Remind Me".

I HATE Z 95!! I HATE ITI HATE IT I HATE IT.

 

AHHHH venting is good

[Guest Will Scarlet]

I know I cannot stand "hit music" radio nowadays.  Especially since it seems to be the only kind of radio station I can find anymore.  It seems like all the stations basically play the same song with something unique genre peppered in to make them seem different, usually bubble gum pop, hip hop, local bands, or what have you.  

 

I miss the days when the radio stations seemed to all have their own unique little kind of music that was the main stuff they played.  Like the dance station would play dance music, the alternative station would play alternative, the adult contemporary station would play contemporary, etc.  Sure there would be the occasional crossover hit that would play on every station, but now it seems to be every song that is popular will, most likely, show up on each station.  I guess it is just a phase though, like a few years back when all the radio stations decided to go back to the 80s and played primarily 80s music, devoting an hour a night, weekends, etc., to pure 80s music.  I just hope this phase ends soon.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Well here in Sacramento, we are lucky enough to have a university station run out of UC Davis.  If you like Metal, they play Metal, not Nickelback, but real Metal like Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral...etc.....They also play rap, but not the rap you hear on any commercial station. The station mostly consists of a bunch of people with their own show where they get to play what THEY want to play, not what a record label tells them they have to play.  There is a wide variety of music on there, from Metal, to Rap, to Mandarin Chinese instrumentals.....hahaha, no joke.  Other than that station, all the rest are just like the ones you guys have already discussed.  most radio stations hardly have an identity anymore because they all play almost all the same songs...

 

-Mike

[Guest]

Radio stations are never bandwagon jumpers, because that's their job. They play what is popular or is becoming popular so as to make it more popular.

 

I, for one, can listen to ANY station on the dial save the Christian stations. For me, the best, and, at the same time, worst part of rap stations(here at least) is that you can't tell if they're playing commericals or songs. They're both backed up by some sweet instrumental or something.

 

Pop remix? I like remixes of any kind, especially if it's something I'm really familiar with. Example: I have 13 remixes of "L'Amour Toujours(I'll Fly With You)" by Gigi D'Agostino on my computer.

 

And in regards to "Where the Party At," I LOVE that song, no matter how much it's played, mostly because it came on the radio IMMEDIATELY as I started my car leaving my girlfriend's house after I dumped her psycho ass.

 

Lay off the Pop.

That's my piece.

[Guest treble charged]

You can say what you like about pop remixes, and how you like them, but it is very frustrating when you like a song, and then pop radio jumps all over it, but changes it a little bit to make it better for themselves.

 

And yes, they are DEFINITELY bandwagon jumpers, without a doubt.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

In all honesty, what's wrong with being a bandwagon jumper? All of us have been, at once point or another, some of us still have, and some of us have just stayed on the bandwagon, even after everyone else jumped off.  Granted, when you stop jumping it seems really dumb and bad, but everyone eventually comes around, even if that means sticking with Britney Spears until she gets old and crusty, like 25 or something...

[Guest treble charged]

evenflow, when your station doesn't play any song by a certain band until one of them starts getting major play on radio stations of a specific genre, and you only start playing it to make as much money as possible, there's something wrong with that.  Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with making money, but, for example, take Nickelback.  Their previous albums got heavy play on Rock stations all over Canada, but when Silver Side Up and How You Remind Me came out, all pop stations started creaming themselves.  Now, they've overplayed both of their singles, that I can't stand to listen to them anymore, which is too bad (no pun intended), since I enjoyed both of the songs when they were first released.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I agree with you that it's a travesty, but you have to understand that modern radio has never been about the music.  It's even worse in America, where there are a few companies that own ALL the radio stations and control the line-up.  Since all are conservatives, for example, on sports radio we have to put up with right-wing propaganda instead of live sports because an election is coming up and those corporate bastards have to brainwash as many people as they can.  They probably do the same thing at music stations somewhere else in the country.

 

I just want to emphasize that you are right though.  I remember when Staind's "It's Been A While" came out, I heard it played on three stations: "modern rock", "top 40", and "adult modern rock" at the same time! If anyone's in the Bay Area, to elaborate, they played it on Live 105, KFOG, and Z95.7 (back before it became "The Drive" or whatever it is now) at the same time! It was so weird, I swore if I turned it to Wild 94.9 they would've been playing it too

[Guest Kinetic]

I couldn't possibly care less about bandwagon jumping or anything like that.  That sort of mentality..."Well, I liked this band first, so anyone who happened to hear them after me is an inferior fan"...that's a completely foreign concept to any rational person.  If a good band is successful in the mainstream environment, and they didn't have to compromise their music to do it, then I say more power to them.  I'm delighted every time I see the White Stripes on MTV.  Sure, I've liked them for a long time, but why should I be upset that more people are getting the opportunity to hear a great band?  It just doesn't make any sense.  If any station is playing music that you like, consider yourself lucky and commend them for doing so.  The only beef anyone should have with mainstream radio is the offensively low quality of the music they play.

[Guest treble charged]

I'm not talking about new fans, I think it's great for a band to get play on other stations and reach people who normally wouldn't get to hear their music.  However, everytime I hear "Too Bad" come on the radio, I have to turn it off, as overplay has killed it for me.  Now, I was never the biggest Nickelback fan in the world, but the other day I was listening to the "Breathe" mp3 that I have, and I enjoyed the song.  The main reason for that is that I haven't heard it 30 times already this week.

[Guest Kinetic]

And, really, do you think Nickelback is all that upset that their songs are getting more airplay?  Do you think Creed is mortified by the crossover success of their adult contemporary hits?  I'd suggest not, despite the fact that both bands hit big on rock radio long before they became Top 40 artists.  So, good for them.

 

Overexposure is just a fact of life for a successful music act.  That's a different topic than what I was addressing, but it's a valid point.  Bear in mind, however, that the function of radio is to make money by selling ad space AND to pander to record companies by getting people to buy albums of featured bands.  That's it, more or less.  They've obviously done research that indicates that repetition accomplishes both of these goals.

[Guest treble charged]

Well, sure, they're rolling around in the cash, but you run the risk of alienating your true fans, who have been with you from the start, but start getting sick of hearing your songs over and over again on the radio.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Personally, I know if I was in a band and was able to get a ton of exposure while making the same music I love, I'd jump at the opportunity as long as it didn't compromise my creativity (me? creativity? I know... shudder to think...).

 

treble, have you ever considered just buying a discman so you can bring your own music into work? I know if I had a desk job (which I'm assuming you have, or something similar) I wouldn't be able to live without one.

[Guest treble charged]

Well, I'm able to get a new radio station at work now, one that still plays a lot of Nickelback, but one that I can live with (still no treble charger though, hmmmph).

 

I could bring in a tape though, since I definitely do not have a desk job, but I am usually by myself for a few hours at least.  Honestly though, I know it sounds weird considering all the bitching I've done in this thread, but I like listening to the radio, as it gives me a chance to hear new songs and remember older ones that I like.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Well, sure, they're rolling around in the cash, but you run the risk of alienating your true fans, who have been with you from the start, but start getting sick of hearing your songs over and over again on the radio.

I'd argue that a "true fan" is someone who is so into your music they could hear it a million times and not get sick of it, but as a "true fan" of Green Day I know this isn't the case.  If I've been hearing too much Green Day, I'll just turn it off, and put on something else.  Actually, even though they're my favorite band, I rarely listen to Green Day anymore for that very reason, that the cracks in their material is becoming more and more apparent to me; I still enjoy it, but it's nowhere near the pop perfection I once thought it was.

 

Uhh... I mean I hope you have the time of your life... doo doo doo... feel the violins!