Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2014 16:34:25 GMT -5
On his WCBS-FM morning broadcast this Friday, Scott Shannon was discussing what he believes was the "golden age of AM radio", and argued that its peak year was 1969, possibly spilling over into early 1970. Shannon cited the peak of the Beatles' career, the start of solo careers of the individual Beatles, the comeback of Elvis Presley, the continued success of both American and British rock bands and vocalists (Paul Simon and Tom Jones for vocals, and the Monkees and the Rolling Stones for bands), plus the peak of the Motown label (as it evolved into a genre in itself), all at a time when pop dominated radio, before the advent of the "album rock" that characterized the early to mid-70's.
This raises the question, of course....what was the "golden age" of FM radio? What was the modern equivalent of the musical phenomenon that took place in the late 60's?
I'm interested to hear others' opinions on this, but I have to say 1999. I highly doubt, for the rest of our lives, we will ever see another year in music that will even remotely compare. We had the breakout of the "teen pop" performers, male and female ('N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera), the first hardcore urban songs to make mainstream (Jay-Z), at the same time as R&B (Blaque, TLC) and hard rock (Blink-182). Aside from the handful of early 90's freestyle hits, it was the first time electronic dance became mainstream (Fatboy Slim, Amber, Deborah Cox). There was also a wave of Latin performers making their way onto the pop format (Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and the return of Santana). Not to mention, any of the above could all be heard in the same day.....no, the same hour....on any pop station! Finally, it was before the start of the availability of digital music, and therefore, FM radio was still quite popular. The variety and quality of the music of 1999 was truly unparalleled, both before and since.
|
|
|
Post by Jason on Jul 28, 2014 0:46:09 GMT -5
Interesting question, Sebastian. I think you've picked a pretty good year in 1999. There really was such variety in that year, musically speaking. I also think depending on your age and what genre(s) of music you like, the answer is a different one for different people. People who are teens now will almost certainly have a different perspective on this question when they're our age too. If we're just narrowing the focus of this question to the Mainstream Pop radio format rather than including all formats on FM radio, I don't have a particular year in mind, but I'd like to throw into the ring the idea that the golden age of FM radio didn't occur after after 1991. This idea doesn't really have anything to do with radio content or variety of music, as Sebastian talked about in his reasoning above. Many of us use or have used the American Top 40 as a touchstone of our love of music. In November 1991, when AT40 stopped using the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and began using a varying array of radio airplay charts over the years to determine its weekly rankings, things gradually began to change on radio. Though the idea of radio PDs and DJs controlling what their audience heard by deciding what songs to add to their station's playlist was certainly not new, a nationally - and internationally - popular radio show that millions of people listened to every week using airplay data only, rather than airplay and sales, to determine what the hottest songs were was a huge deal. Sure, sales can be manipulated to a certain extent. But it's even easier to manipulate radio airplay to get a song or a musical act a spot on the country's hottest radio show and exposure to people across the nation and around the world. I think with any year from 1992 until the internet and digital music sales began to make radio less relevant, you have to consider that what FM radio was used for and HOW it was used began to change. In terms of variety of content, I definitely agree with Sebastian that 1999 was a great year for FM radio. Without pinning-down an exact year, I think a similar amount of variety can be found in the late 80s/very early 90s. There were a lot of "Hair Metal" acts with both rockers and power ballads on the radio (Def Leppard, Guns 'N Roses, Bon Jovi, Poison) during that time, as well as non-metal Rock acts (INXS, Foreigner, Chicago, Genesis, R.E.M.). There was the rise of the "New Jack Swing" fusion of of R&B and Pop (Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, New Edition, Keith Sweat, Color Me Badd). Additionally, there were straight-up R&B acts having success (Luther Vandross, Jody Watley, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men). You had Pop crooners (George Michael, Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Rick Astley, Michael Bolton) and reliable Pop staples (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Prince, as well as emerging artists Mariah Carey and Celine Dion). Dance/Pop was very big at the time too (Paula Abdul, Expose, Taylor Dayne, Technotronic, C+C Music Factory, Cathy Dennis) along with teen acts (Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, New Kids On The Block). A few Rap acts even managed to get airplay on Mainstream Pop radio (LL Cool J, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Naughty By Nature, Heavy D). In the event someone would say that you wouldn't necessarily hear all of these artists on the same radio station back then, I point out that this was before the consolidation of radio stations into ownership by four or five large companies. It was less likely back then for one company to own radio stations in 120 markets nationwide, thereby dictating that specific songs or artists be played on all of its radio stations. Regional and metropolitan appeal for artists and songs often differed from market to market. Sorry for the long post. But you know...it's me. What can I say? Thanks again for the thought-provoking question, Sebastian.
|
|