Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "Thrift Store" - Alternative, really?!?!?

[Saladressing]

I don't know what KROQ or 91X played in the late '80s

Grandmaster Flash was #27 in the 1988 KROQ Top 106.7. (Tone Loc, although with more of a rap/pop sound, was #9). Note the reggae in the countdown (Ziggy Marley #69, #105), the punk rock (such as Social D at #14, Killing Joke #39), the novelty tracks, all the female acts, etc. This is an example of the kind of diversity needed in today's alt. format.

1. Route 66 - Depeche Mode
2. Harley David - Bollock Brothers
3. Peek-A-Boo - Siouxsie and the Banshees
4. Desire - U2
5. Every Day is Like Sunday - Morrissey
6. Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
7. Chains of Love - Erasure
8. Touched by the Hand of God - New Order
9. Wild Thing - Tone Loc
10. Kick - INXS
11. Wild World - Maxi Priest
12. Crash - Primitives
13. Tears Run Rings - Marc Almond
14. Prison Bound - Social Distortion
15. Stop This Car - Woodentops
16. Reach - Martini Ranch
17. Christine - House of Love
18. Always on My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
19. Suspicion - Gene Loves Jezebel
20. (Nothing But) Flowers - Talking Heads
21. The Dead Heart - Midnight Oil
22. The Great Commandment - Camouflage
23. Balloon Man - Robyn Hitchcock
24. Cinderella Undercover - Oingo Boingo
25. Bedbugs and Ballyhoo - Echo and the Bunnymen
26. The Killing Jar - Siouxsie and the Banshees
27. Magic Carpet Ride - Grandmaster Flash
28. What I Am - Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
29. There Is No Love Between Us Anymore - Pop Will Eat Itself
30. Stand - REM
31. Wild Wild West - Escape Club
32. Only a Memory - Smithereens
33. Heart - Pet Shop Boys
34. Heart of Stone - Erasure
35. Big Hollow Man - Danielle Dax
36. Motorcrash - Sugarcubes
37. All That Money Wants - Psychedelic Furs
38. Breakfast in Bed - UB40/Chrissie Hynde
39. America - Killing Joke
40. Rev It Up - Jerry Harrison
41. I’ve Got a Feeling - The Screaming Tribesmen
42. Devil Inside - INXS
43. Dreaming - OMD
44. In Your Room - Bangles
45. This Corrosion - Sisters of Mercy
46. Charlotte Anne - Julian Cope
47. So Important - Sparks
48. Suede Head - Morrissey
49. Airhead - Thomas Dolby
50. Take My Heart Away - Johnny Clegg
51. I Need a Man - Eurythmics
52. There’s a Barbarian in the Back of My Car - Voice of the Beehive
53. I Don’t Want Your Love - Duran Duran
54. Just Play Music - Big Audio Dynamite
55. Another Kind of Love - Hugh Cornwell
56. Presence of Love - The Alarm
57. Boom There She Was - Scritti Politti
58. What’s the Matter Here? - 10,000 Maniacs
59. What’s on Your Mind? - Information Society
60. Trash City - Joe Strummer
61. Electric Blue - Icehouse
62. Shame - Eurythmics
63. So Excited - Ranking Roger
64. Doctorin’ the Tardis - The Timelords
65. Carolyn’s Fingers - Cocteau Twins
66. Angel of Harlem - U2
67. I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
68. Been There, Done That - Jon Astley
69. Tomorrow People - Ziggy Marley
70. Jane Says - Jane’s Addiction
71. Dad I’m in Jail - Was (Not Was)
72. Situations - Cetu Javu
73. Baby Doll - Devo
74. Broken Heart - Red Flag
75. Mirror People - Love and Rockets
76. I Want Your (Hands On Me) - Sinead O’Connor
77. Inside Out - Mighty Lemon Drops
78. Orange Crush - REM
79. A Little Respect - Erasure
80. Cat House - Danielle Dax
81. Winning Side - Oingo Boingo
82. Fiesta - Pogues
83. All Night Long - Peter Murphy
84. Man With a Gun - Jerry Harrison
85. Glad I’m Not a Kennedy - Shona Laing
86. Glamour Boys - Living Colour
87. Hairdresser on Fire - Morrissey
88. Def Con One - Pop Will Eat Itself
89. Disco Dancer - Devo
90. I’m an Adult Now - Pursuit of Happiness
91. Delicious Demon - Sugarcubes
92. Tubular Bells - Book of Love
93. Kidney Bingos - Wire
94. Don’t Turn Around - Aswad
95. Turquoise Jewelry - Camper van Beethoven
96. Kill Eye - Crowded House
97. Call Me Blue - A House
98. Bone Machine - Pixies
99. Sister I’m a Poet - Morrissey
100. Ornaments of Gold - Siouxsie and the Banshees
101. Tell That Girl to Shutup - Transvision Vamp
102. Surfin’ USA - Jesus and the Mary Chain
103. Turn Around and Count to Ten - Dead or Alive
104. Come Out to Play - UB40
105. Tumblin’ Down - Ziggy Marley
106. Dreamworld - Midnight Oil
106.7 Mother’s Day - Boy John Frost

 

[awp69]

^^ This playlist reminds me of the old WFHS in Washington, DC. Those were the good old days.

 

[dtuba]

Instead of "Thrift Store", alt stations - all formats, really! -should be playing "Same Love" by Macklemore. Great song with a positive message.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

"Numb" is primarily a Linkin Park song, not a Jay-Z song - and, again, sorry to keep bring this up, but if "Numb/Encore" had been performed by Jay-Z WITHOUT Linkin Park, no Alternative station wouldn't have touched it

Late to the game on this, but according to Mediabase, Jay-Z's original version of "99 Problems" (distinguished because of Hugo's semi-cover) got airplay at 38 Alternative stations back in 2003-2005 when it first came out. A bunch of them also played the Danger Mouse Jay-Z/Beatles mashup version of the track.

 

[puddingpop]

Try this link, and see if you can find any black rappers that have EVER charted on Alternative - I can't find any - not even one (and neither Wu-Tung Clan, De La Soul, nor Public Enemy ever charted on Alternative, and that database goes back into the 80s)

http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/index.htm

Didn't take me long to come up with a few.

Gnarls Barkley - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/GnarlsBarkley.htm
N.E.R.D. - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/NERD.htm
OutKast - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/OutKast.htm
P.M. Dawn - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/PMDawn.htm
Rage Against The Machine - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/RageAgainst.htm

Don't start arguing that Rage Against The Machine shouldn't count because the band plays rock music. You wanted a list of black rappers, and Zack De La Rocha is a black man who raps, full-time.

And this doesn't even include black hip hop artists guesting on alternative songs that charted (Del The Funky Homosapien with Gorillaz on "Clint Eastwood", De La Soul with Gorillaz on "Feel Good Inc.", Chuck D with Sonic Youth on "Kool Thing", etc.).

Neither "Numb/Encore" nor anything by The Roots ever charted on Alternative, BTW

"Numb/Encore" did indeed chart on Billboard's Modern Rock chart (albeit, barely, reaching #40): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numb/Encore#Charts

 

[atlantaboy]

Try this link, and see if you can find any black rappers that have EVER charted on Alternative - I can't find any - not even one (and neither Wu-Tung Clan, De La Soul, nor Public Enemy ever charted on Alternative, and that database goes back into the 80s)

http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/index.htm

Didn't take me long to come up with a few.

Gnarls Barkley - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/GnarlsBarkley.htm
N.E.R.D. - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/NERD.htm
OutKast - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/OutKast.htm
P.M. Dawn - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/PMDawn.htm
Rage Against The Machine - http://www.popradiotop20.com/Modern-Rock/RageAgainst.htm

Lol that took 3 months ;D I guess I should've said "black rappers that have charted on Alternative with a rap track"

Outkast "Hey Ya" and P. M. Dawn "Downtown Venus" aren't rap - neither is Gnarls Barkley, and Rage Against The Machine is obviously rock, as much as Limp Bizkit or early Linkin Park

The only one of those that might qualify at all is NERD, and since I've never heard it I can't tell...

 

[FightingIrish]

My local altrock station, WLUM, does occasionally throw in a Run DMC or Public Enemy track. They also played "Hey Ya" by Outkast when it was new (and they were more of a stuffy active/alt rock station then). They aren't playing the Macklemore track, but then again, there are three CHR stations banging the hell out of it. I don't really see it working on FM102/1.

However, as of late I've noticed that they've been playing poppier stuff like fun. Also some tamer dance/EDM crossover tracks, though I imagine that's where the format is right now.

 

[Dkampy]

My local altrock station, WLUM, does occasionally throw in a Run DMC or Public Enemy track. They also played "Hey Ya" by Outkast when it was new (and they were more of a stuffy active/alt rock station then). They aren't playing the Macklemore track, but then again, there are three CHR stations banging the hell out of it. I don't really see it working on FM102/1.

However, as of late I've noticed that they've been playing poppier stuff like fun. Also some tamer dance/EDM crossover tracks, though I imagine that's where the format is right now.

I also live in the Milwaukee metro area where WLUM is my local station. I agree with everything you said...I just wanted to add I also have heard "MS. Jackson" by Outkast a couple of times. Even though he is not currently on their roster...I remember back in the day even hearing an Eminem track or two...most notably "Lose Yourself" and "The Way I Am"

 

[evolve991]

It's more like some of the oddball novelty tunes local bands would send to a Free Form or Alternative station. Well...if it doesn't quite fit a narrow niche then Alternative is just the right word.

 

[Reeves Army]

That big list someone posted reminded me of when I was in Dayton a few years ago, and was listening to "Fly 92-9" "We Play Anything".

 

[evolve991]

^^ This playlist reminds me of the old WFHS in Washington, DC. Those were the good old days.

YEAH! Pre CBS/Infinity whfs! When you could hear Mojo Nixon and The Shrunken Headbangers on RADIO!

 

[hubcity]

Mojo Nixon? He don't work here.

/No, in fact, my station don't need no fixin'.

 

[CalebC]

Weird. KMYZ has, quite a few times, kind of made their way out of their format at times but i've never heard them play thrift shop. Hmm.

 

[radiorenegade]

I do not approve of this hybrid rap/rock nonsense! I have not heard this song. Nor do I want to. Alternative is dead. I am home listening to Fables OF the Reconstruction! Bah Humbug to all of you!

 

[awp69]

^^ This playlist reminds me of the old WFHS in Washington, DC. Those were the good old days.

YEAH! Pre CBS/Infinity whfs! When you could hear Mojo Nixon and The Shrunken Headbangers on RADIO!

I absolutely adored WHFS in my college days in the late '80s/early '90s. Ashame there's few stations that sound as independent and truly alternative as they were.

 

[atlantaboy]

^^ This playlist reminds me of the old WFHS in Washington, DC. Those were the good old days.

YEAH! Pre CBS/Infinity whfs! When you could hear Mojo Nixon and The Shrunken Headbangers on RADIO!

I absolutely adored WHFS in my college days in the late '80s/early '90s. Ashame there's few stations that sound as independent and truly alternative as they were.

WHFS was pretty much mainstream Alternative by the time I lived in DC in the mid-90s

 

[chrocket87]

^^ This playlist reminds me of the old WFHS in Washington, DC. Those were the good old days.

YEAH! Pre CBS/Infinity whfs! When you could hear Mojo Nixon and The Shrunken Headbangers on RADIO!

I absolutely adored WHFS in my college days in the late '80s/early '90s. Ashame there's few stations that sound as independent and truly alternative as they were.

Personally, I enjoy the current incarnation of HFS (I never heard the old HFS). They play a good mix of familiar and less-played gold material and they play a nice mix of new Alternative with some Active-leaning stuff sprinkled in.

 

[awp69]

^^ This playlist reminds me of the old WFHS in Washington, DC. Those were the good old days.

YEAH! Pre CBS/Infinity whfs! When you could hear Mojo Nixon and The Shrunken Headbangers on RADIO!

I absolutely adored WHFS in my college days in the late '80s/early '90s. Ashame there's few stations that sound as independent and truly alternative as they were.

WHFS was pretty much mainstream Alternative by the time I lived in DC in the mid-90s

I was curious about WHFS' history after I left DC (was there from '87 to '91). And it looks like it did indeed get more commercialized in the mid-90s.

"Though becoming famous as a cutting-edge station playing the latest underground music (and often beating the mainstream to the punch by months and even years), the station, under Infinity Broadcasting's ownership, became the local modern alternative station in the mid-1990s" from Wikipedia, which also noted that they dropped the non-mainstream acts and picked up more of the MTV alternative variety.

Kind of sad. I really did like how they were almost like a commercial version of college radio at the time -- breaking lots of artists. Haven't listened to the current incarnation though.

What's interesting is that I moved to Atlanta in 1991 and was miserable without any alternative until '92 when 99X started up ....and while definately more commercialized than WHFS was, they were still pretty lose and have also been known for that time period as being a station that broke a lot of bands.

Then I was in Greenville and was again miserable until 103X popped up and, again, they were fairly broad in their playlist, but didn't last very long.

Guess the moral of the story is that there just aren't many alternative stations anymore that go out on a limb, mostly because they don't survive. Radio 105.7 (Atlanta) and X98.5 (Greenville) are decent stations, but neither are particularly adventurous. I know there are a few alt stations that still go further out in their playlists, but they're few and far between.

 

[tjolsen]

I've been hearing Same Love on plenty of Alternative stations and enjoying it--also checked out the album, and it as a whole is much more of an alternative album with plenty of live instrumentation, horn parts etc. Thrift shop is probably the most straight ahead rap sounding track on the record