Not his hits but standards radio plays a lot of his standards recordings.
Good Time Oldies.
The Weeknd's biggest hit and the biggest hit of the year it was released sounded just like it. I'm not the only one who thinks so.
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Great songs that test poorly
- Thread starter Mike Stark
- Start date
The Monkees were one of my favorite rock bands. It helped that I liked their show.
"Soft" AC WEZV, Myrtle Beach.
"New York, New York" has only been the Belmont Stakes' theme for a relatively short time. Its longest-lasting predecessor was "The Sidewalks of New York."
I played “Number 9 Dream” today on our local LPFM. I have to laugh, as so many songs here that are deemed as unlistenable are played on our station, whether as part of “themed” shows, or the top 100 songs from a given year, and so on. We love being “No Rules Radio”!
Speaking of controversial music, as we know, this is the time of year when many stations across the country are switching their regular formats to all Christmas. Here is a cautionary article on the most hated songs of the season:
Like with any list, you have to consider the source. "Here’s a look at some of the most disliked Christmas songs, according to opinions shared on Rolling Stone, Yahoo News, The Hill and elsewhere on the web."
According to this list, "Last Christmas" is one of the most hated. It's also one of the most popular, according to Billboard. Same with Wonderful Christmastime.
They would get a completely different list if they asked women. And the all-Christmas stations mainly appeal to women. Most men hate the entire concept, not just certain songs.
Excellent analysis and observation.
When we look at the whole "Christmas Music Phenomenon" we have to realize that it is deeply seated in Anglo-Saxon, Northern and, somewhat, Middle European customs and heritage. Other cultures and racial groups have adopted some of this, but...
... the forrnat's music is more seasonal than religious. It involves snow, sleighs, houses with chimney's and other cultural elements.
If you are from (as most of my family is) Ecuador or Puerto Rico you don't have "any of the above". In Ecuador, we had Christmas music that was almost all based on Spanish "villancicos" or religious themed songs about the birth of Christ, not snowballs. In Puerto Rico, rural folk music was adapted to the season and sung when friends went door to door visiting other friends in their home, singing those songs.
In both places, traditionally, we left hay for the camels under the children's' beds for the camels on the evening before Three King's Day. That is January 6, not December 25.
As Christmas became commercialized, the Christmas tree became an adopted symbol and other products of American marketing seeped in. But to me, Christmas was Mass at Midnight, not a fat guy in a fluffy red suit.
So a movie about a department store Santa in New York has little cultural meaning... although bits and pieces have been adopted.
With the amount of "cultural sensitivity" predominant today, I am surprised that the Christmas Music phenomenon has not been more deeply discussed as an ethnic and cultural artifact. I am not being critical... each group can and should have its own sources of pride and belonging. But it is odd that this, a very culturally tied custom, is not discussed.
And there you have a reason why, over the years, Miami does not have an All Christmas station starting in late November!
David, as near as I've been able to discover, while Christmas music has always been around in some fashion, the roots of it being a cultural phenomenon in the United States are in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn", which featured Bing Crosby's "White Christmas".
The film came out eight months after the beginning of American involvement in World War II, in August of 1942, and "White Christmas" went to number one in Billboard in October and stayed there for 11 weeks.
The whole "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know" hit an emotional chord for people in the country as their sons were spending their first Christmases overseas, in Europe and the South Pacific, at war---even though the song itself was written by an East Coast Jewish songwriter the year before America went to war, and it was purely about the strangeness of Christmas in Los Angeles, where he (Irving Berlin) wrote it.
Usually omitted from recorded versions is the opening:
The sun is shining, the grass is green
The orange and palm trees sway
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A
But it's December the twenty-fourth
And I am longing to be up North
"White Christmas"'s success spawned a bunch of imitators---"Home For The Holidays", "I'll Be Home For Christmas", all of which are just big 'ol tugs-on-the-heartstrings.
Americans are suckers for things as they were (and in some cases things as they never were)...which is why you don't really see our type of Christmas music thing replicated elsewhere in the world.
I thought "cultural sensitivity" is out of style. That's what I hear people say on the radio.
People have really forgotten how bad Boney M's "Mary's Boy Child" is. To me, it's nails on a chalkboard bad. But, what do you expect from the man who created Milli Vanilli.
But a talented DJ knows that instinctively -- no bean counting necessary. Research was the beginning of the end of creative radio, IMO.
You think so? Maybe at one time, when music was a lot simpler. Right now with all of the music being released due to streaming, the selection of music, especially in terms of currents, has become way more complicated. DJs know what THEY like, and that may be good enough at a non-commercial AAA station. That's how a station like WFUV picks its DJs. Not the case in the commercial world.
"Creative radio" depends on a creator. Today, listeners can create their own radio. No need for a translator to get in between the bands and the fans.
Ever heard of "Curated Content"? People don't always know what they like until they get exposed to it. Even you have to admit that Commercial Radio rarely thinks outside the box anymore. Formats are generic by design.
People still go to movies even though they didn't write the script, pick the actors, or direct the film. Someone else did it for them. Non Commercial Radio offers content that gives listeners a chance to "discover" something...
Good point. But also there's no need for research. Listeners can do their own.
And of course there's always AI.
Bingo!
There is a difference between forced diversity and "sensitivity". To me, "sensitivity" is akin to respect and indicates acceptance of diverse beliefs and cultures. Forced diversity is an obligatory requirement, not a feeling.
That's not the trend I'm hearing.
I have gotten so much great input from this thread as we move forward with our plans at KLBP. We're on the air, but currently a "work in progress". A new automation system goes in next week and we're looking at full on promotion of the station (at 99.1 in Long Beach and on the Net at KLBP.org) in January. I am going to propose that our music be promoted as "Music respectable radio people would never program". We'll see how that goes. Lots of label interest already. Thanks again to all who participated in this thread. It's been informative AND, dare I say it, fun!!
The movement is away from curated content. Even at streaming sites. It began with Pandora's "genome" that was designed to suggest new music based on past searches. YouTube has the same thing, and so does Spotify. It's not really where new music comes from. TikTok works better because it comes with a user-generated video. The video catches the person's attention, then they ask about the music secondarily. So they're exposed to it without the expectation of being exposed to something. For that to work, you have to be open to new experiences. If someone is listening to a classic format, then they're telling you by definition they don't want something new.
Only the classic formats. Any format that plays currents is anything but generic. They will throw something new at you because its trending, not because it fits the format. The best example is the country format. It goes from traditional to songs that are completely outside the box. If you watched the CMA Awards Wednesday night, you got a taste of that. Unfortunately, that kind of random presentation of music isn't very popular, as evidenced by the fact that only 6 million people watched.
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