Virgin Radio in the UK plays this awful song all the time (like about 476 times per hour, 24 hours a day,no make that 29 hours a day) which goes “I’m just a teenage dirtbag baby” and is sung by some annoying screechy girl who sounds a bit like Alannis Morrisette (get out the garlic and the crucifix! aggh!)but she isn’t her, but she went to the same School of Annoying evidently.
Anyway it just goes on and on, and there is no escape.
Also ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’ by some dull band that I never caught the name of, they play that for the approximate 2.4 seconds per day that they are not playing the teenage dirtbag song.
With the way Clear Channel http://www.clearchannel.com/radio/index.html and Infinity http://www.infinityradio.com/station/ own the majority of the nation’s radio stations, I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.
As far as a dj having a thing for a certain group or song, unless it’s in an extremely minor market, that’s not the case. Everything they play on commercial staions is dictated by research and whatever consultants are hired. The djs have a log of what they have to play and when they have to play it. No leeway.
When a station starts to dip in the ratings, that signals the PD (program director) they need to tighten up. Using call outs and focus groups where they play perhaps 10 seconds of a song, they measure whether the snippet garners a favorable reaction or not. They take this info and go back and tighten up their playlist.
Let’s do the math. Say a station like one of the Alices has a current playlist of 100 songs (believe me, some of the major stations playlists are that tight.) After about 10 hours, they conceivably go through their entire playlist. And the current hits will run more often than the older library cuts.
Remember, the business of radio is not selling the music to you, but selling targeted audiences to advertisers. They just play what their research tells them will deliver whatever demographic they are selling to their advertisers.
“Been a While,” by Staind. The worst thing is, it’s both “hard rock” and a top40 song, so they play it on * every station in the state!* My favorite station, the alternative/modern/new rock one plays it; the harder rock/classic rock station plays it; the pop station plays it; and the top40 station plays it!! Oh, and MTV plays it too! ARGH! The only stations that DON’T play it are country & rap stations which I can’t stand.
Grrrrr. And I actually liked the friggin’ song the first time I heard it. I’d rather listen to Mudshovel though!
But I love “Ride Wit’ Me” by Nelly no matter how much I listen to it. I bought the cd just so I can dance along in my house whenever I want. :eek:
I like Schism too - but it doesn’t get played enough around here to be annoying. It IS long, but I like the song a lot. But that new single they have out - is it Lateralus? - is soooo long and I don’t even like it that much! Grr!
And Infectious Lass I hated that song too (and his voice makes me want to shoot the radio), but the singer doesn’t sound at all like Alanis Morisette to me. I love Alanis Morisette.
While Fibonacci has crunched the numbers (oh look at me go. How witty), lemmie explain as well.
This is a somewhat simplified version of what goes on but, in reality, it sometimes truly is just this simple.
The radio stations have no idea what to play. They base their decisions on what the public likes.
The public has no idea what they like. They base their decisions on what the radio plays.
Seems like an endless circle with no begining. That’s where the record companies step in. They graciously explain to everyone involved that their songs are what’s popular so you should play those.
How kind of them to sort it out. Radio stations know what to play. Public knows what to like. And no one’s given a chance to learn to like anything else because they never hear it. Why should they? It’s not popular.
For the longest time, whenever I’d get in the car (the only time I listen to radio) they’d be playing Frampton’s Do You Feel Like We Do? I must have heard that song a hundred times in about a three month period. Seems to have abated lately. One time I stopped the car while Hotel California was playing, and the next day when I got in, Hotel California was playing. It wasn’t at the exact spot, but it was close.
Creed - Arms Wide Open - not so much anymore, but for the first 6 to 10 months after it was released, I heard it 7 times a day.
Ditto that for Three Doors Down - Kryptonite
Now it’s Nickel Back - How You Remind Me. I love the song, but if they play it much more, I’m going to end up hating it like I ended up hating Arms Wide Open.
Where I used to work, I could hear the radio of the girl next to me, and I’d hear Dido’s Thank You at least once an hour every day. Gah! I ended up hating that one too!
They overplayed that one so much here in Cleveland, I started listening too closely to the chords of the song; Guess what? It’s Hey Jude by the Beatles!!! Seriously, when they’re playing the chords of the verses, start singing the “Na,na,na, na-na-Nah-na” part of Hey, Jude. Same Key, Same tempo, same chords.
Down here in Oz we don’t generally have something played constantly unless it’s new, but every so often all the radio stations will simultaneously pick up some piece of crap from the late 80s or early 90s and play it ad infinitum.
At the moment Alien Ant Farm’s version of Smooth Criminal is all over the airwaves, but I’m not complaining. :Plays air bass:
Although its died down now a little bit, I’ve heard that damn “Smooth” by Santana about three thousand times. Ye gods!
Off topic, said station has a very obnoxious style of station-id. They play about 5 seconds from several songs, and then give their id. All this accomplishes is piss you off, since chances are you’d like to hear one of the songs that they teased you with, right then and now. What is this supposed to accomplish? Are we supposed to be impressed with the vast array of songs you might play, sometime in the future? Its a damn rock station, we know what kinda music you play!
