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POP CULTURE(RADIO)RIP

L

lalumia

here's an advance peak at my new column in GOOD TIMES Magazine, which will street next week,including a doomsday look at radio; feel free to discuss..
POP CULTURE RIP:
I guess it's pretty much over,pop culture,which I've been sort of predicting for the past ten years, as the new technology changes the rules and thereby,the landscape itself changes, but into what?The instant access of photos, gossip, music, films, tv shows,nude photos,rumours and hearsay,and the instant gratification that comes with it, has led to a brave new world of...nothingness.
The thrill of the hunt has been taken away; finding that special song,getting a glimpse of a band,an actor, a tv personality,all the effort has been taken away,and it was the effort, the mysticism,the inability to have what you wanted that drove your desire to get it,and made these things seem more important.Now you have everything you want, and now nothing is important,unless you're a 12 year old girl running after Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers,and even that does not get the intensity that Elvis,The Beatles,David Cassidy,Donny Osmond,The Jackson 5, or even New Kids On The Block managed to muster in the golden decades of pop.
It's sad, but the drive and the desire,and thereby, the interest has been removed by internet access;we become the infant who takes the new toy, stares at it for five minutes,and then throws it into the pile,never looking at it ever again.
It's not just music which has been infected by this doomsday virus;all aspects of the economy driving pop culture machine have been taken down.
TV:
Viewing was once a sacred gathering of friends and family, gathered around the tube,for 'events'; a band on Sullivan,a moon landing or a president resigning,war coverage,Kennedy was shot, John Lennon was shot,and these events remained high profile for years after.Now,with the new technology, 9 11 itself drifted from view after a year or two,buried by Britney's bush(not the president).Once upon a time there were TV stars,and this is what made the tv networks the corporate machine they became.
Now there are 'reality stars"; the kids from across the street are on the tube farting, vomiting,passing out in the front yard,yelling like maniacs.Why watch this on tv?All you have to do is look out the window,and the window is commercial free.
TV delivered a big night for the Super Bowl,a no brainer in the dead of winter, when all competing programming was hamstrung with re runs because of the writers strike,a strike which was the final death blow for the movie(and tv awards industry).The writers have guaranteed their own demise;the strike caused the Golden Globes and Peoples Choice Awards to flop harder than they would have anyway,and now that the air is out of those balloons,they'll remain empty.
The end result was the worst viewership numbers in history for the Academy Awards,which will mean less money for the studios to spend on new projects .thereby less writers working,and good,that's what they deserve.They blew up their own machine,and now they can live(and die) with the results.
The viewership numbers were also horrible for the Grammies,and the industry's inability to create/motivate new stars,led to a wax museum parade of Cher, Herbie Hancock,Tina Turner,Cyndi Lauper,,,say what?The record industry deconstructed itself years ago with the elimination of the 'hit single' concept and it's tie-in relationship at radio;the industry also rushed to eliminate the caviar of vinyl/records,replacing it with the easily duplicated/theftable dog food known as the compact disc,and the end result?What's left of the record industry will dine on it's own entrails for a few more years,and then curl into a dementia/fetal position and die.
Radio is another joke; the thrill of hit records being identified individually( here's The Supremes, rising to #8 this week on the Super Hit Survey) has been replaced by twenty songs in a row,a half hour block of commercials,and then the same twenty unidentified play again(go to the website to find out what just played?F*** that! When did listening to the radio suddenly become work?Just open your automated mouth and TELL ME what just played,earn your money,damn it.)
And then they'll tell you that this is how people prefer radio? What people? Listenership at radio is headed for that final Titanic iceberg any second now,replaced by ipods,itunes,and idontcareanymore.
And that's my take on pop culture ,2008; good luck with that!





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Jimmy -

I like your piece, and agree with your points (as I often do). However (and maybe you're saving this for a follow up column) what, in your opinion needs to be done to turn the ship around? You have the attention of market 18. Now tell em what to do! :eek:)

Just some food for thought.

AG
 
AG;
Make the MUsic important again, if it's a music station, as per;

the thrill of hit records being identified individually( here's The Supremes, rising to #8 this week on the Super Hit Survey) has been replaced by twenty songs in a row,a half hour block of commercials,and then the same twenty unidentified play again(go to the website to find out what just played?F*** that! When did listening to the radio suddenly become work?Just open your automated mouth and TELL ME what just played,earn your money,damn it.)

the draw of radio was Music as An Event, not an unidentified log of gunk in between commercials; if it's not a daily event, as music radio once was, it'll be treated as what it's become; WALLPAPER!!!
 
Jimmy,
I have often silently endured your posts in the past. You speak out on subjects as if you are the only person who really knows whats going on. You speak about music that while important to you the majority of the world ignored. I am sure you are a nice guy in person but you come off quite abrasive on this board. It is so easy these days to point out obvious problems with radio and TV. Tell me whats right with it. I see and hear these things out there. Music is still important. Hit singles is where the music business must return, its own past. The single these days though is downloadable. Artists need to get better and have more of a craft. Since "record companies" won't develop artists anymore, producers and managers with knowledge and experience must. The shot you take at the writers who went on strike is unjustified. They want to be compensated for the use of their art even if it played on the web. Would you tell a songwriter he was at fault for wanting his royalties when his song was used ? There are many indie artists for radio (podcasts), films and music. The true artists are out there and if you really cared you'd try and tell us about them and how to find them instead of claiming that pop culture is dead. Wake up the culture lives all around you !!!!!!!
 
Jimmy,
Me a "hippy" ? You obviously didn't read my post closely enough. It is about business. Those of us in broadcast know that there is a way to still succeed in it in 2008. If you actually worked and made your living in this field maybe you'd get it. Every time a company puts limits on what you can do on the air you rely on CREATIVITY to still be you and be entertaining and relevant. Or as the Marines say you "Adapt and overcome". You can run around saying the sky is falling yet those of us who make our living know that although the sky isn't as high as it used to be it hasn't fallen and isn't going to. Jimmy send me a PM and I will gladly meet you in person and discuss this intelligently. Be forewarned though that just because you thinking there should be an all Long Island punk station and that because you like the music you think it will be successful isn't a researched fact it is strictly an opinion and does not belong in a business conversation. Ok balls in your court. Hope to hear from ya and seriously I do !!!
 
You know what? I've had disagreements with Lalumia in the past, but I have to admit...I think he's onto something here.

Feel free to add onto this, but the point I think he's trying to make, and I'll say...it's valid...is radio has turned itself into, basically, a background music service. The DJ's talk as little as possible, so as not to interrupt the music...when they do, it's to basically tell you what you heard...and what's coming up next. And, of course, get into the all-important 9 unit commercial set as quickly as possible, so the listener won't know they've heard 9 commercials in a row and will be back in the music (hopefully) before they figure it out.

There's little difference between this type of radio...and Muzak. And, if it continues, it won't be long before the powers that be figure out the DJ is little more than an annoyance to the listener. And you know what that will lead to...

What's missing here? The "show" part of show business. OK, I admit, "Super Hit Surveys" are a thing of the past. How 'bout online voting of the top hits through the station website and a daily countdown from it? A feature of the "Top 5 downloaded songs from i-Tunes"? (or some other download site?). It could be relevant in not just CHR...but other formats as well. And, what can something like this do? Tie radio into the what's happening now. And, help radio be relevant in a digital world.

And this is just scratching the surface of what "could be". Even voicetracking can sound very live and very local if...(and that's the operative word here)..."if" it's done right. If all young jocks are taught is how to do "that was/this is/coming up we have" radio, you're right. We're dead. (Or else we'll all be doing talk shows.)

I'm not saying all of the above are perfect ideas. But, the point is: it's time to start thinking outside the box on how to make our business relevant. And, consider re-inventing ideas that made radio work in the past, with new showmanship and try to integrate it with today's technology-driven culture.

Re-invention is just around the corner...if we believe and work to make it happen.

You can be negative about it if you want, I choose the opposite. Just one broadcaster's opinion.
 
Jason,
You start out your post saying Jimmy is on to something and then you make MY point. I choose to look at it positively. I work as a broadcaster and I know radio is not dead..... YET. It is up to us in the business to do what is within our power to stay relevant and interesting in a new landscape. We can blame it on the corporations all we want but if we give up then we gave up. As for you Jimmy you mention at the end of your initial post to discuss. I have tried to have an inteligent discussion with you here on the board and all you did was make to ridiculous responses. I guess based on any post of yours I ever read I should not have expected to get a response that showed you had an inteligent point of view.
 
All good points...When I said I agreed with Lalumia, I meant that there is a decided lack of "show business" in radio today. It's becoming all "that was/this is/I'm (name)/coming up we have" radio. It's not just one company, or one station. I monitor stations all over my local market...and that's all I hear out of most of the jocks. That needs to change.

You're right that it doesn't make sense to blame everything solely on corporations. I work for one, and it's a whole different ballgame where I work. Ideas are solicited, welcomed and, in some cases, even implemented. I think the tendency in this business is to look at the handful of corporations who seem to be forever screwing it up...then using a broad brush to paint every corporation with it.

I also think it's time for radio to get totally away from the current method of determining the charts. When only 200 or so stations determine what everyone plays, it's easy for the whole thing to become "monkey see, monkey do", and that's where you get homogenized, every-station-plays-the-same-stack-of-records radio. It should be more important for a station to determine, through whatever means of research it wants to use, the songs the listeners want to hear at the local level, than to know (or even care) what Z-100 and the handpicked "toasty 200" play. (No offense to Z-100 here, which is a great station...but I used to work for a guy who lived and died by their playlist. If they added it, we did...if not, we didn't.)

I think the current method also causes radio to ignore (or miss) some of those songs young people say they want to hear, but radio never plays.
 
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