Black Sabbath, both established artists
that I am sure you have heard of, recently released
new albums. The chosen lead singles from the albums were “Headlong Flight” (Rush), and “God Is
Dead” (Black Sabbath).
I heard “Headlong Flight” on our local radio
station only twice, and the new Black Sabbath song
got no airplay that I was ever fortunate enough to
hear. So where is the medium to spread the word
that one of the greats have a new album out? And
why is the promotion for these albums strictly on the
internet?
.
Is FM Radio
Dying?
By Rob “ViaMental” Mallory
.In 1979, Neil Peart wrote the lyrics for a Rush
song called “The Spirit of Radio”. The song,
becoming somewhat of a radio hit ironically
enough, told the story of the declining power
that FM radio had for the less mainstream
artists. What was once an amazing medium
for promotion for the less popular acts, and a
place where listeners could tune in and hear
their favorite songs alongside the deeper album cuts, had sadly become yet another medium ruled by the almighty dollar. Unfortunately this situation has not only seen no improvement, but it has gotten much worse as the
years have gone by.
Popular radio has become a sad state of
affairs in this day and age. Back in the distant
90’s, when I was growing up, you would be
able to turn on the radio and hear a variety of
music, and on a variety of radio stations. Stations did not seem afraid to follow up a heavier
song with a lighter one, and they definitely
weren’t afraid to hit the request lines and play
something a bit out of their usual play lists.
This is no longer the case, it would seem.
Now, what the FM dial gets you are a
few classic rock stations, that stick to the older, more popular tunes of older bands. It’s rare
that you hear any new cuts from older bands.
Just to use an example, Rush and
On a different type of station, listeners also
get the new music from newer acts. These are the
stations that I find myself listening to the most when
I have no choice but to tune in on the FM band.
Bands like Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed regularly get their new music played on the radio in my
neck of the woods. But these stations will not play
older bands, be it new, or old music from these
bands. So once again, it seems that the established
bands are only wanted for their classics. Who cares
that ZZ Top had a new album out recently, when
“Legs” can still be played several times every day?
Besides the classic rock stations, and the
one modern one (again, in my area) the FM dial is
home to three top forty radio stations. Putting aside
the fact that I don’t care for the music burning up
the charts, even if I did I would be unable to listen to
one of these stations. The reason being, the same
songs are in heavy rotation, and it is not uncommon
to hear the same song more than a couple of times
in a two hour time span. For the life of me I don’t
understand why these programmers don’t play a
wider variety of songs, staying within their chosen
format, of course. Maybe more acts would sell if
these radio stations would give some of the acts
that aren’t “the big thing” a few minutes on their
airwaves.
Finally, you have the independent artists,
the ones without any big label backing them, and
making sure everything that they record in the studio is watched over and picked apart before a fan
hears a single note. The independent artists, who
could use the support of big radio more than any
other band, are virtually unheard of over the FM
airwaves. In the Omaha area there is an hour devoted to this music every week, but to be honest, I
think a lot more time needs to devoted to the bands
that work so hard, and fund their own albums. The
bands that are hitting the internet and using it for
the tool that it really is. Promoting themselves, and
marketing every note of their music on their own
time, and their own dime.
I’ve read several artists say that internet
radio and streaming music are killing the music
business, but I disagree with this. It seems to me
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