I know this is a battered and worn discussion over the years but I am still perplexed at why some fantastic, high energy, cool bands are not even getting a whiff at success over the radio airwaves. I know, I know, some bands want to keep their "cool underground" rep and don't want to be seen as "sell outs" but you would think that at least "some" would surface mainstream. Is our society so lame and bland that Coldplay and Bruno Mars dominate the air waves? I know back in the 50's and early 60's, radio DJ's (Alan Freed, Wolfman Jack etc)  could spin their own records, before the payola scandal. I really wish new DJ's could be given that choice again and depending on the music format, I am sure the general public would be welcome to discovering new music. But alas, that is just a dream. I know that alot of college and pirate radio stations (not to mention this website's GREAT podcasts) that try to get the music buzz out there, but it makes up a very small percentage of the casual music fans who are subjected to the same homogenized radio all the time because they don't know any better.

In recent history I would say that the White Stripes are the closest that a band has come to reaching the mainstream charts. I also know that with satellite radio we are given a bigger choice of radio stations that are not driven by commercials but they are also getting paid by subscribers.  So my question is this.....is it the music/radio industry promoters, the bands/artists themselves or the fans that are to blame?

Like the "Da Bruddahs" once sang..."Do you remember Rn'R Radio?"

.....Radio , for the most part , has been pathetic since at least the early to mid 70's. I was'nt around in the 50's or the early to mid 60's , but , when you could still hear music from those eras on a regular basis , it was  exciting.  AM was exciting when I was a kid , because people still knew how to write songs. Catchy tunes that still hold up , today. The conditions we're seeing , today , are nothing new. Sure , you have manufactured Pop stars like Lady Gaga , but , Madonna and 80's - era  Michael Jackson approached their careers and "Music " the same way. In the mid to late 70's , you could feel the onslaught of Disco coming on , but , also ,  very bad Rock and Pop ruled the airwaves.You had The Bee Gees in decline , Fleetwood Mac already past it , and a lot of weak stuff in between, There was the occasional Hard Rock hit that did'nt suck , like "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy , or genre - defying killers like "I'm on Fire " by Dwight Twilley , but , the writing was on the wall. 

Radio is'nt the answer. The answer is getting out there and finding the bands that are for you , past and present. Internet Radio can be a good tool for finding out about new things , but , if you're willing to get your hands dirty , there are still plenty of good records , CDs , AND CASSETTES WITH YOUR NAME ON THEM. GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN.

definately.... I have a show on Thursday nites 10-midnite and play all garage and its awesome...I remember The black lips in atlanta when like 10 people used to show up for a show...now look...if the music could get to the people they would dig it...the problem is getting it out there publicly and internationally...on the radio...I refuse to listen to commercial music...you can be successful and still not be a jerk...a prancer...cool then

kopper said:

In recent history I would say that the White Stripes are the closest that a band has come to reaching the mainstream charts.

I think you're forgetting the mainstream successes of bands like the Hives, Black Keys and Black Lips. The Detroit Cobras, Dirtbombs, Reigning Sound and various other bands have had some success, too. Maybe not "mainstream" or household names, but they've definitely sold a lot of records.

regards the threads topic I feel the same. Boring soft rock and lady gaga channels all over. 

Exception http://www.radiorockroma.it/ a Italian station. Try at diverent times, I am sure you'll agree - even if not Garage  specialized.

They have a cool DJ there, from the pre Gaga age, who knows about all the stories and things about bands. Mature guy, I appreciate his somewhat 'goolish explanations', because elaborate at times. For people who listen too. Great owl, I like him ;-)

Peace w/o dilutions.

yeah, somewhat true for me too. I mean, if I discover something new, a new thought, i am happy if a intelligent person tells me that my thought is original,  innovative or hitting the point. If any number of silly guygals now came along to mindlessly repeat that approval w/o having understood a thing, that only killed the spirit of it.. Oh well, don't tell anybody ;-)

The Really Rottens said:

I like it the way it is - we got our music and they got theirs. I don't want any part of their world and I don't want to hear (place your favorite band here) on a commercial for cell phones, ipads, viagra or new cars. The first thing I think when I hear something that sneaks in is "Fuck, now every asshole in the world is gonna be in on this." I know, I know its immature, but fuck it.

i gotta say....i kinda remember when the bruddahs sang....do you remember r'n'r radio,what was that musta been 'bout 81/82,i was fuckin horrified,ok so we,d had dont come close off of road to ruin,which was an obvious nod to there phil spector pop sensibilities and a not 'arf bad tune i reckons.

but r'n'r radio was disgusting,it was diet ramones,a blatant prostitution of there raid firing riffola and surely a shameless attempt at gettin there arses on the a.m./f.m.cartels.i was leavin' school at the time and loved the bruddahs,still do (who dont?),but this corporate cash in hurt me (to the core of my very being),still does,never liked that tune.

so i been thinkin....da bruddahs obviously wanted a piece of the pie which everyone else was enjoying at the time,you cant blame 'em for that.but it kinda answers its own question,in that back in the day radio was sooo ham that the bruddahs felt they needed to make such 'moderate rock' in order to get played on the radio.....yes even a band as uncompromising as the bruddahs did this....which has led me to this conclusion.......

radio......as fuckin rubbish today as its always been

peace.

Remember who the mainstream radio is trying to market to... The MAINSTREAM. It's their job to appeal to as many people as possible so that they can get higher Arbitron ratings and sell more commercials to stay alive. Though I personally don't like many mainstream radio stations, I totally understand why they play the music they play. The reason college and pirate stations play whatever they want is because they get their funding from sources other than ad revenue.

Another interesting point is that mainstream radio is different depending on where you might be. I live in Miami and the biggest station plays techno, house, and reggaeton on the weekends to appeal to the gigantic audience that exists in Miami for that stuff. When I visited my brother in San Diego though, I was blown away when I heard Phoenix and the Gorillaz on a mainstream station. A good way to test this theory is to check out Clear Channel's IHeartRadio app and tune in to a station from a hip city like Portland or something.

Basically, the lesson to learn is that the internet makes a lot of mainstream things look completely idiotic (tv, radio, newspapers...) because it allows people to find EXACTLY what they're into and people who are into it too.

I really don't even feel it has to do if you're on radio anymore like it use to be since there are so many choices but whether or not you can get on television.  The majority of teenage girls want cute boys and most teenage boys want crappy rap metal and that's all that seems to make it on the airwaves (or dish or cables, whatever).

this past summer there were a good number of alternative bands being played on stations like Sirius XMU (their alt pop channel) that dj would constantly bring up being garage influenced.  I liked the recurring reference and you could hear it in their sound.  But that is as close as it comes to the point Lastofmykind was getting at when he started this thread.

But what comes first ? Are the medias/music industries making people dumb at first ? Or is people don't care about quality ?

If people don't want to search for music that's ok, but how can they don't heard the quality of music ?

Month ago, i was djing with a friend of mine, puting soul/rnb/rnr/punk 7" , everybody was dancing, but even then some people came to us asking for some Shakira or "real music" !

For them the music was ok (pretty things or sonics for example) but it was just not enough something...

Mainstream music is always going to suck, especially now that the corporate music industry has crumbled.  They have to champion flamboyant Entertainers like Lady Gaga and TV contest winners instead of actual musicians in order to make money.  A few fluke "indie" bands make get through every now and then by virtue of a movie soundtrack or a commercial but your average Top 40 will continue to be made up of Disney boybots and fembots. 

However, I think the internet has made it easier for young people to access music outside of the mainstream than ever before, making radio irrelevant, and creating niche audiences to support even the most esoteric of musical genres.  You can no longer hope to form a band, sign the big contract, and become a wealthy superstar, but bands who are interested in that kind of success are always crap anyway.

In recent history I would say that the White Stripes are the closest that a band has come to reaching the mainstream charts.

I think you're forgetting the mainstream successes of bands like the Hives, Black Keys and Black Lips. The Detroit Cobras, Dirtbombs, Reigning Sound and various other bands have had some success, too. Maybe not "mainstream" or household names, but they've definitely sold a lot of records.

I like it the way it is - we got our music and they got theirs. I don't want any part of their world and I don't want to hear (place your favorite band here) on a commercial for cell phones, ipads, viagra or new cars. The first thing I think when I hear something that sneaks in is "Fuck, now every asshole in the world is gonna be in on this." I know, I know its immature, but fuck it.

It's a sad state of affairs. The plebs need to wake up and start listening to bands that are in it to make music instead of being spoon fed crap that just makes money.

Good points! A few random thoughts:

I don't really think the music (movie, etc.) industry gives a shit about what sells as long as it sells. It's not an "entertainment-provider" so much as a $ machine. If people still want to buy shit music, they don't have a problem with providing it.

I don't really think that the masses of top-40 types think about what they could be listening to. As an example, I grew up listening to the Beatles and disco mainly, I didn't even hear oldies 'til after high-school graduation. Someone once told me, "If there are only 3 channels on TV, and 2 of 'em go off the air, you know what people will be watching."

Also, um, hip music is for the hip, the masses will always be a bit clueless.

Demographics are changing too, the kids in the future will likely prefer various types of dance music.

Once in a while, something will pop up in the square world that's like a pale, washed-out version of some type of punk, i.e the Strokes (not saying that 1st lp wasn't fun, but it's not punk) or the White Stripes, etc. That's about as good as they can hope for 'til they wake up (as we did) and realize there's better music out there. I can't see most people I've known rockin' out to the Oblivions or Watchband.

The public has blinders on.

I would have to say that it is a combination of all of those things. The music industry is focused on what sells. For some reason the masses are suckers for really shitty, talentless, music without substance. If you even want to call it music that is. It seems that they target very young teenagers that are very impressionable...between the ages of 12-15, because they know those kids are going to listen to anything.. if the airwaves suggest that its cool to like it or television advertises it as so...it isn't about putting good music out there anymore...it's about making money and not the quality of the music. So basically the cycle goes like this...radio plays shitty music, younger kids are told its cool to like shit music, they listen to it to fit in, those kids that are musically inclined immitate the shitty music they are told is cool on the radio, which exposes the shitty music to other people, and it spreads like a wild fire, until its all over the place, so the record industry makes their money, the promoters promote the shitty music that the record industry puts out, and the kids play this shitty music out at the clubs. the cycle repeats...and its going to keep going that way...until the people at the top are removed and replaced by people that give a damn about good music.

The choice is there and so much better than it has ever been. 

People might be goods at reminising on the 50s and 60s especially those who haven't lived through them but unless they were giving away records in well stocked shops my guess is that both decades sucked compared to now. I mean if I want to listen to a Russian ska band, African jazz, Bolivian garage punk it's possible with the internet in seconds. Neglecting the fact that much of the music we enjoy today wasn't even in existence back then, you would have needed a phd in music studies to find you the choice you now have with the net.

Those that listen to mainstream radio probably treat music in the same way as I treat cars. I couldn't give a crap as long as they do their job. You can't be a coneseur in everything.