This is my theory: At any given point in time on some radio station Foo Fighters is playing. If I had access to every radio station I'm sure I could prove this. It's a perfect example of why I can't stand FM radio. Just about everything that's played there feels like it's been packaged for some focus group. Nothing too loud. Nothing too long. Nothing too new. Yes there are "new" songs being released all the time. The latest from Green Day. The latest from Linkin Park. The latest by some band who couldn't think of a name and instead just started randomly throwing words together. I'm not saying those songs are bad. Those songs are just safe and are really just variations on whatever they released before. It makes me wonder who they're playing for. In today's age you can have an iPod with 10,000 of your favorite songs. There's XM radio that has over 70 different music channels. If you're near a computer there are dozens of streaming radio stations playing songs from bands you've probably never heard of. At least not if you've been listening to FM radio. So what's the target audience when it comes to FM radio? People with a lack of options?
Radio should be where you hear music not muzak. Whenever I get in my car, which has a bitchin tape deck and is the main reason I'm forced to listen to FM radio in the first place, I feel like I'm riding in an elevator about seven years in the future. The music playing today is going to end up being played softly in a grocery store where people hear it, smile softly as they remember the first time they heard it, and then pick out the fabric softener than really fits into their lifestyle. And who's deciding what gets to be on the radio anyway? Is it the listener? Is there some number I should be calling to say that I really haven't heard enough Nickelback today and I'd appreciate it if we could have a four song super set from them? Someone has to be deciding what's popular and what's not. I heard the Rob Zombie song from The Punisher soundtrack just once (it sucked) and never heard it again. Obviously someone somewhere is keeping track of these things. Who decides what's a hit song?
The term One-hit Wonder is used a lot in FM radio. There are some bands out there who managed to only come up with a single song that didn't sound like drywall screws in a blender. While others actually had several songs and even albums that are well known, outside of the mainstream. Warren Zevon was a respected musician outside of his Werewolves of London song. Jimi Hendrix only appeared on the Billboard Top 40 once. Using the Top 40 as the standard then he's just another One-hit Wonder. If you've ever been to Seattle's Experience Music Project then you know that's not true. So how many bands have been labeled as One-hit wonders and actually weren't? On the flip side how many bands have you heard where you think to yourself that you only liked the one song so how is it that they're still being played?
There is a radio station here that does this thing called 90 Minutes of the 90s. Because after only ten years it's really time we revisit all the great music from that decade. Really it's just an excuse to fill the air with more recycled music. The 90s lasted ten years. Why is it whenever I tune to that station on those horrible days when I'm driving between 12:00 and 1:30 that I only hear Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, The Offspring, and that one song by Seven Mary Three? With an entire decade's worth of music I shouldn't be hearing the same twelve songs on a loop. It's like a TV station playing episodes of Seinfeld and Friends in prime time and saying it's the best of the 90s. Sure those shows were great in their time, but with ten years worth of stuff, it's pretty limited to say it's the only thing. Then of course you've got radio stations out there who are playing the equivalent of The Jeffersons.
So it comes back to who is FM radio really for these days? Is there anyone out there that's listening happily to the fast food-ish music that's being broadcast?
If you weren't tired of listening, you just haven't been paying attention.
