i listen to just about anything except for gangsta rap bullshite, really whiney country western garbage and bubblegum pop girly or boy band shit.
Right now, I have Noel Coward singing Would You Please Oblige us With a Bren Gun, just finished the new Rammstein single Pussy, and next on the play list is some Vivaldi.
I was stunned to see in a recent “classic rock” station ad:
Rolling Stones (ok) The Doors (ok) Santana (ok) The Who (ok) etc etc then U2. WHAT? U2 is a classic rock band? WTF?!?! (grabs my walker)
Also woe to those of us who are Pet Shop Boys fans. In the rest of the world they are a force to be reckoned with who produce groundbreaking album after album. In the US they are "That band that sings the theme to “Beauty and the Geek.” Bizarre.
They can have my “Gary Lewis and the Playboys” albums when they pry them from my cold dead hand.
Just sayin’
I had a conversation with my mom yesterday about the song Major Tom (Coming Home) by Shiny Toy Guns. She asked if it was a cover of an old song. I said “Yes, but not of an old song.”
We kept going round and round about how it’s not a cover of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, but of Peter Schilling’s song from the 80s. But that song was his “retelling” of “Space Oddity.”
“Yes, you’re right, but it is still a cover of an old song,” she said. Because the original “Major Tom (Coming Home)” is nearly 30 years old.
1980 was 30 years ago. I just figured this out last night. It blew my mind. My mom found it hilarious.
Not to top others, but I am an Oldie…the music I listen to comes from the 30’s (some great Mills Brothers) all the way through groups like the Beach Boys to singers like Michael Buble and Diana Krall and Jimmy Buffett. Mostly I like to be able to understand the lyrics and want my music to be mellow.
Of course I’m ignoring the true Oldies like Mozart…
Did “Oldies” as a radio brand really take off before the mid-80s? I think that many people’s, including mine, conception of it is still that the “oldies” are confined to the 50’s thru the mid-60s because that’s what the first oldies stations played (if lighter on the mid-60s at first.) Classic Rock didn’t take off till the early 90s and they played very late 60s-early 80s so my conception of that music is also stuck in that era.
So in a sense the radio marketing was too successful. I won’t listen to their attempts to rebrand “classic” and “oldies” by a time differential rather than a strict time period because their first definition stuck.
Near as I can tell, popular music is largely driven by appealing to an intrinsic value people seem to find in newness. Well, I can’t complain about people wanting to broaden their experiences, or musicians innovating the art form. But it’s not as though the transformations of music are an arc of progress toward some ideal of perfection. It’s just different, and may be good or bad. I think the newness people crave is really new-to-me-ness.
If that’s the case, just recorded music represents a rich treasure of music that is new to you. A whole century’s worth.
I rented Back To The Future last night. It is now 25 years old and coming up on the ‘future’ they traveled to. That makes me feel old…
I remember when oldies from the '50s were played on the radio. I haven’t heard those particular oldies in forever. I would love to hear the second string “British Invasion” from the 60’s - there was other talent than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
“Oldies”, huh?
Mäng!
Green Day???
Dude!!!
Eddie Cochran!!!
Here’s yer oldies, Johnny! 
[To himself] Man, if they didn’t have ME to jerk a knot in their young tails!..[/To himself]
Jeeeez, do I have to do EVERYTHING concerning oldies around here???
J/K John and everyone!
Just saw that my pal Johnny L.A. posted something about “oldies” and thought I’d better “step up to the plate”, as it were.
Thanks
Q
As a father of a teen-aged girl, I can assure you that everything popular this instant is now the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll. Their Time-Life collections on late-night TV started last night.
But I bet it was pretty rare to see a teenage boy in 1970 sporting a bitchin Benny Goodman t-shirt 
Now there’s an idea for a t-shirt market. Images of:
CROSBY (Bing)
CLOONEY (Rosemary)
ARNOLD (Eddy)
And/or anyone who may have been popular back in the 40’s who isn’t already on a t-shirt.
Wonder if I could find a backer for something like this? Probably be a copyright nightmare, huh?
Might oughta file that one away along with my idea for flesh-tone running shorts.:rolleyes:
Quas’
Weird. I live in the U.S., but I had an album of theirs and used to know quite a few of their songs…haven’t listened to them in years but I really should dig out my old CD, I liked it a lot.
I’m going to assume the song is Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)…
make me up a Duke Ellington t-shirt…
listen to first wave on satellite… realized when my co-workers had no idea who any of the artist were exactly how old i was… lol
We just got an oldies station here in the atl on traditional radio… zombies hollies… etc… but whats funny is that they play disco and some listeners really hate that…
Kc and the sunshine band anyone??
We’ll call 'em r-shirts, Chicagojeff. (For “retro”)
When I had satellite, I used to like to listen to “stations” which featured “deep album cuts”, those songs put on a record which weren’t pushed as hits, but still worth a listen?
Jefferson Airplane/Starship was one of those, and there were numerous others.
One could really get a “feel” for a writer’s creativity, and I have always wondered how a song’s writer felt when their work got “passed over” for the more catchy tune?
Quasi
I remember when “deep album cuts” used to be standard procedure on album-oriented FM rock stations. Then radio programmers came in and started culling song lists during the late 70s and early 80s. However, the most damage to the practice was done by the record companies themselves when they began demanding that stations only play designated cuts. This was done to counter the practice many stations had of playing entire albums which enabled people with tape decks in their stereos to record them off the air and thus get a new album for the cost of a blank tape cassette. The recording industry was in a recession from about 1979 to 1982 and it was looking for a convenient scapegoat to blame for its slumping sales. (Sound familiar?)
First album in 1980, most hits between then and 1993. (I couldn’t name a single song post-Zooropa.)
Seems to fit a logical, relative-time definition of Classic Rock - 20 to 30 years ago.
Sure does, NDP! I remember getting calls during my album program (“Kaleidoscope”) asking me to please “pause” for three seconds before starting a particular album track.
Meaning, of course, they didn’t want my voice on their recording.
Did I accomodate them?
Yeah, if they asked nicely.
Sometimes, I would even give my listeners a “cue” that I was about to play a particular album all the way through.
I may have mentioned in another thread that I was a “whore” for my listeners?
Q
I think Nirvana is now an oldie. Soon you’ll hear them at Chuck E. Cheeses on the animatronic band.