D
Dirty_Harry
Guest
Elephant said:
I'm a realist. It could also be that my ears are 20 years older, too.
People complain about the so-called emptiness of the music and the lyrics these days. Well, if you want to look at things realistically, if you look at the most popular tunes played during the 50's and 60's, I don't think very many of them had much of a deeper meaning. I mean, I don't really see Elvis and the Ronettes as waxing poetic in very many of their songs ... they cranked things out that were catchy and rhymed. It was fun to listen to and that was good enough.
I agree there is more segmentation these days, hence more choice, than there was in the early 80's. I also agree that the music may have changed as well. But I also think there is less personality, and less entertainment in that medium, maybe less interraction with their listeners than there was in the past, less of a sense of immediacy and "being out on the streets" than there used to be.
I was noticing something the other day as I was cleaning out some old papers ....... I used to work at an old discount store back in high school which was part of a big company that went bankrupt, so it was the only store left in Columbus. When they were going out of business, I basically cleaned out the advertising department. I have dozens of full page ad slicks back from the 1970's. Here's a couple from Rink's and Uncle Bill's:
http://groups.msn.com/OhioGrocery/discountanddepartmentstores.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1048
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/hallandoatesrules/forbrian/DSCF3164.jpg
(I'll get to my point in a minute, bear with me.) Anyway, these are poor shots, but compare them to what you see today. Back in the old days when they did paste-up ads, I think these were far more attractive than the computer-generated ones you see today. Pull out any Kroger flyer from the 1970's ... they literally scream at you! The ones today are "prettier" ... in the sense that they are color, glossier, and "near-perfect" ... but I think this is the problem ... they are TOO PERFECT ... they've taken some of the artsiness out of doing these things and it shows. Computers take out all the human variability you had in the past.
I know it took a long time to get here, but that's my point about radio these days. It's just "too perfect" (or trying to be) and that has taken all the fun, life and pizzaz out of it. Just my opinion.
(That said, if you look at the typical local department or appliance store ad from that era, they usually look like crap ... so you can probably analogize that to radio, too. There are plusses and minuses.)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/hallandoatesrules/forbrian/DSCF3167.jpg