A random musical musing
Is it just me, or were the alternative rock charts so much better seven years ago than they are now, in terms of variety alone? I was just thinking about this earlier today while listening to the local alt-rock station when they played a few ‘retro’ tracks… some of the songs on the charts now are so repetitive and have just gotten so tired, whereas I could listen to most of the alt-rock chart-toppers from ’97 for hours on end even back then.
Then again, it also doesn’t help that the aforementioned station is owned by Clear Channel…
I noticed that top-40 went pretty much to hell by the early 90s, due to a change Billboard made in the way they ranked sounds: Soundscan.
Soundscan listens to radio stations and each time they play a song, it increases that song’s ranking.
If you think this would result in a positive feedback loop, you’re exactly right.
The songs that got ranked higher got more airplay so they got ranked higher so they got more airplay so we got crap like Mariah Carey songs staying on the charts for 6 months, 2 of them at #1!!!
I have Sirius in my car. I am happy.
Comment by brianl703 — 07-May-2004 @ 8:39 pm
I have an MP3-CD player in my car. I am happy.
I have a question, but let me set it up first. A little more than three years ago — say winter 2000-01 — there was an awesome modern rock station at 92.3 on the FM dial. It rocked. All the kids loved it. I left for spring break rocking out to it, and I returned from spring break to find the classic rock station that recently went under. Now, that classic rock station wasn’t bad, but we already had Q106, so I was pissed.
Anyone know who owned that modern rock station, why it left, and how we can get one back?
Comment by Paul — 26-May-2004 @ 8:21 pm
(in response to Paul…)
And now it’s an urban station!
It was owned by US Broadcasting, which was the same company who owned B95.1, Z93.7, WAYS, and WDEN. It, and all of its US Broadcasting sister stations, are now owned by national conglomerate Cumulus, though they’re still largely under local control.
As for why it went off the air? No clue… pity, though, because I liked that station as well, and was really miffed when it changed formats.
Comment by codeman38 — 26-May-2004 @ 10:20 pm