Radio and tastes in popular music--how the former influenced the latter.

Cafe Society
1

For the sake of argument, I’m going to state that–for better or worse–the force that played the biggest role in shaping one’s tastes in popular music since the 50’s was radio (or, more specifically, radio programmers). Granted, most of us here no longer rely on radio playlists to determine what we like (or even listen to the radio that much for music anymore), but I believe that a lot of our first independent personal decisions on what was good music and bad music was based on what kind of radio station we listened to. For example, the tastes of a typical testosterone-laden teenage boy would usually gravitate toward whatever loud hard rock/heavy metal that was being played on your typical FM hard rock/heavy metal station and away from any music that was acoustic, country, or :eek: dance/disco/pop.

So tell me, how did the format of the radio stations you listened to shape your early musical tastes?

2

Actually, MTV replaced radio in the 80s. And by now, I’d say the biggest influence was American Idol.

I actually got into music because we sold records. One of the clerks would keep pointing out albums and saying, “These guys are great,” which got me into people like the Bonzo Dog Band and Soft Machine.

Once I got to college, it was our college radio station, though since I worked there, I found out the music I liked because I would review albums (for instance, I discovered Bruce Springsteen and put him on the playlist).

I also was influenced by my college roommate. He worked at the Ludow Garage in Cincinnati, a major venue at the time, and had tapes of the Allman Brothers (though I had seen them in concert before, I hadn’t much cared for them until I heard the tape, which was later released as a CD in the early 90s), plus groups like Kak, Renaissance, and many more.

3

I grew up listening to Top 40 AM pop radio on my own, but my mom was a huge country music fan, and my uncle was only 13 years older than I and a big rock-n-roll guy. In all honesty, I think those three influences had equal impact. But you have a good point - my tastes have changed pretty dramatically over the years, and I’ve gotten into loads of different kinds of music, but I still have a particular fondness for crappy pop music from the mid-70s.

4

I’ve always been attracted to pop music. Not because it’s a genre, but the way the songs are executed, performed, recorded, processed, and the feel they were going for. The first 10 years of my life were filled with the pop music of the 1930s to the mid-'50s, and then the worst of the pap they’d play on MOR AM stations that my mom listened to. Around 1968, I started hearing the songs that the other kids were listening to. “Wow, I like this music!” It was the top 40 stations in our area, playing all those pop, rock, soul, country and even novelty records (before there was a format for each kind) that just grabbed me by the lapels and pulled me in. I started wanting to buy records I liked. The more radio I listened to, the more songs I learned and the more records I had to buy.

I feel fortunate to have been around when musical forms were being transferred from Tin Pan Alley to the Brill Building. It seems strange now that young men and women would sit in an office and write songs all day, every day, some of which were almost carbon copies of the last, weed through them for the best ones, get somebody to record them, and fling 'em out into the world. But it encouraged competition and upping the standards. Pop music went from being composed and performed by amateurs, or session musicians “slumming”, to being real works of art, written, performed and recorded by craftsmen who established a new state of the art - seemingly every few months! It was a record I heard on the radio that made me want to become a musician and take up the guitar.

When I started listening, it seemed as though each song on the radio was as good as, or better than, the last one. Everything was new, it hadn’t been done before. I was there for the pop music explosion that happened from 1969 to 1975, and the vast majority of my singles are from that period. I listened to the radio constantly, and made lists of records I had to buy. Another thing that happened, was that I received my calling: I wanted to be a DJ and be part of playing that great music on the radio. Then, disco happened. When it became the prevalent musical form, I started getting into other musics. I delved into the origins of the music I liked, going back to the blues and '50s rock and roll, and became an oldies DJ. By the time that phase was over, I turned on the radio again in 1982 and was largely repulsed by what I heard. I changed the station to all-news and talk, and have never listened to the radio for music since.

Now I can’t listen to the radio at all. I don’t like a genre of music or want to hear songs that all sound roughly alike, all day. I’m a song person. I like songs that appeal to whatever it is in me - I dunno what it is… I like to refer to it as songs that give me a psychic hard-on. It can be in any style, but there will be something about it that makes me take notice. That’s what songs were like when I first took notice of them, and I heard them all on the radio, when it used to be run by people and entertainers instead of corporations and bean counters. It’s narrowcasting now, not broadcasting. But it used to be different. And I loved it.

5

By and large, the music I like is stuff that I was never exposed to until 2-3 years ago. Some of the stuff I heard on the radio growing up is decent, but those styles don’t really do a whole lot for me.

6

I was 13 in 1964 when the Beatles and the rest of The English Invasion hit American soil. Radio, as we knew it, was turned upsidedown. Almost overnight, gone were The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Elvis and Bobby Darin. The Righteous brothers were hanging on but soon the american bands Like The Byrds and The Seeds began to emerge. San Francisco brought us a new sound with Janis Joplin, Country Joe and Jefferson Airplane. The Folk Scene hung on, however, there was descention when Dylan picked-up his Electric Guitar and began a new genre Folk/Rock. Radio never had it so good…The music was changing and even Radio needed a new format (FM). Survivors emerged, Elvis began making movies and his soundtrack records were hot. Surf music evolved. The East Coast had the Boston sound. Rock truly was here too stay!

7

My progression: taping sitcom themes onto my cassette recorder and listening to those; listening to records my parents played on the stereo; listening to records my brother played; listening to the radio; then came MTV and music in videos; then alternative music videos on local music video program Saturday mornings; then “120 Minutes” on MTV and “Night Flight” and the “Some Bizarre Show” and so forth; then independent record stores (Wax Trax, Denver) where I could pick and choose from things I’d heard of and never heard of before; then assorted music magazines; then the cross-pollination of the music my friends listened to; live shows; then a short stint in an awful corporate record store; then years later music promos (as per my job); then file sharing. So, radio played a small part – albeit a larger part when I was around 10-13, but the older I got the less it played until these days I barely pay attention to it. (And when I try, if I try to get beyond college radio stations and a classic rock station, it’s just endless commercials and I give up and stop listening to it again.)

8

The radio station in Fredonia NY played basically pop music (but from anywhere from 1-5 years old) in the late 70s-early 80s, with one exception: they played the Beatles in heavy rotation (as much as most 60’s stations do now.) So I grew up liking most of the Beatles’ hits. The problem was that their early stuff never stopped being played. So I now have a fondness for their middle stuff (after they stopped being pop but before they stopped releasing coherent albums.)

Then came the mid-80s thru early 90s, during which I still listened to the radio, but had a vague feeling that I was missing something: could these songs actually be what people liked? (despite the fact I still listened.)

Then I got into college and discovered college radio. I listened to it obsessively for six months, but then December 1991 happened (i.e. Nirvana). Amazingly, that particular station didn’t change their playlist: still the same indie punk with just a bit more more “popular alternative” thrown in. But those 6 months let me know I didn’t have to have anything shoved down my throat anymore.

As far as how it influences me currently, I’d say that the if a new (to me) artist sounds like the stuff they played in the early 80s on pop radio (especially new wave) and early 90s on indie rock stations, I’d be more likely to appreciate it.

But I like some artists of almost all genres, and even more than %50 of New Wave and Hardcore Punk are still crap (but that’s less than the %95 average for genres overall.)