One of the radio stations I listen to the most plays hits from mostly the 70’s and 80’s, a little late 60’s. They claim they are a “MegaOldies” station. I say that’s a misnomer, because actually, “the oldies” is a genre that includes 50’s and early 60’s - songs like “Earth Angel” and “My Boyfriend’s Back”. Music of the 70’s is disco or classic rock, the 80’s is “The 80’s”. My 14- and 16-year-old sons both say I’m wrong- that “old” music- the 70’s and 80’s- is “oldies”.
What do you think?
P.S. I refuse to believe that any song that came out when I was in high school is an “oldie”.
I think of the fifities and sixties for oldies. I grew up listening to a lot of this stuff in the car with my parents (think early 90s). But I do think of the Beach Boys as oldies in a way that I don’t think of the Stones or Beatles.
A good rule of thumb–if they played it in the movie “Goodfellas,” it’s an oldie.
A lot of the girl bands (Crystals, Chiffons, Ronettes). “Earth Angel” is a definite oldie.
I guess I think of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons as oldies music, too.
A lot of one hit wonders. That song, In the Year 2525–I think of that as an oldie. A bad one, but an oldie. I’m blanking on actual songs now…I’ll come back if I think of anything else.
The type of music that fits the category of “oldies” is always changing. Originally, it referred to rock n’ roll and pop from the years 1955 to 1963 (i.e., the year before the “British Invasion” hit which is perhaps the most prominent demarcation line when one reviews the history of popular music in the latter half of the 20th century). Then the “oldies” cut-off point crept past 1964 to include the early British Invasion and Motown and kept gradually moving forward until it covered the rest of the 60’s, the 70’s, and the 80’s. It also divided into numerous sub-categories like “Classic Rock.” I think the general rule used to be that anything more than 12 to 15 years old can be considered an “oldie.”
It’s music from the 1950s excluding rockabilly (nobody except Freeform FM/College Radio stations play rockabilly these days) through the 1970s without any hard rock/hard psychadelia or overly bluesy/rootsy/funky music. Oh, and no disco or other electronic music (space music, ambient, experimental, etc.) either, and certainly no punk. Not even Classic Rock stations recognize punk as a genre, even when they play relatively bland new wave stuff (Duran Duran, Blondie, Devo, etc.).
I suppose you could say it’s the Light Pop from the era between Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson, except Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and the rest of the Early Rock crowd are only “Light” in retrospect.
I remember joking with some co-workers back in 1999 that since we were about to start a new decade, that meant we’d soon be hearing grunge on the oldies stations.
I kid you not: before the end of January, 2000, I heard Nirvana played on the same station as ELO. I think in the same “rock block.”
I’ve somehow known since elementary school that “oldies” was the kind of catchall term that would grow up and old with me. Back then, it was the country station that played rock and roll from the '50s on Sunday night. In high school, it was the one station in Columbia that dared still play disco and other '70s stuff. Since I effectively quit listening to popular music in 1985, I can no longer tell new from old, so it’s all pretty irrelevant to me.
I think anything through the 1960’s is at least debatably an oldie, but around when Led Zeppelin releases its first album is where I’d draw the line. The Zep as an “oldie” just doesn’t seem right to me.
I think it all depends on one’s perspective. To me, anything from about 1955 to 1962 is oldies music–but then, I well remember the craze for oldies music from that time that American Graffiti whipped up in the mid-1970s, when I was in my mid-teens. And that stuff was no more than fifteen or twenty years old then, but it was older than me! So of course it was old.
Now, even though it’s more than thirty years later, the stuff that was current in the mid-1970s still doesn’t qualify as “oldies” music to me. But I can see where it would to someone aged 14 to 16–it came out before they were born, and so they see it just as my 15-year-old self saw the songs from American Graffiti: old.
Like I said, I think it’s a matter of perspective. If it was current when you were in high school, you’ll never see it as old. If it’s from before you were born, it’ll be old to you. The definition of an “oldie” slides depending on where one is on a timeline.
I vote for 50’s and 60’s being Oldies music. It’s a sound or a genre, not a descripter of how long it’s been since the music was first played.
And a more or less off-topic anecdote. I attended a Hymn Sing several years ago. We sang “Amazing Grace” and “A Mighty Fortress is our God” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and a song written in the 1920s or 30s. I don’t remember the name of the hymn, I just remember that we stumbled a bit in singing it, and it sounded like it had been written when it was written. And an apology was issued for picking an oldie. Which was kind of funny, because it was written a heck of a lot more recently than those other threee I mentioned (or a bunch of others). But certain truly classic songs keep being sung, and stuff like the “Oldie” don’t so much.
To me, an oldie is anything from the Elvis/Chuck Berry era of the 50’s right up until the British Invasion. And I remember the pre-Beatles era. Anything from about 1964 through the 80’s is classic.
Oldies to me were recorded before Elvis Presley released “Hound Dog”, or are recorded by artists who were releasing songs before then )such as Frank Sinatra). It’s a vague and pretty fuzzy definition, but it works well enough for me.
A while back I was flipping through the radio dial in my car and came across a Bob Seger tune. I can’t remember which one; I think it was “Katmandu” but may have been “Old Time Rock and Roll.” I sang along with the song, enjoying the memories of hanging out with my friends in high school and so forth, and the people it reminded me of. I was feeling good.
Then right after the song was a station beak: “You’re listening to 102.5, your classic oldies station!” I just about cried. I’m too young to be a contemporary of oldies music! (FTR, I’m 38).
I’m 45. A tough moment in life was when I was listening to an oldies station and they played some music that would have been old *in *my youth - then they played music *from *my youth.
Considering the OP: I first heard an “oldie” station in 1963, and it was basically '50s, with a little very early '60s mixed in. Now, I’d include songs up to the mid-60s, like early Beatles and the Supremes.
