Americans have pioneered stunningly innovative music for over 100 years. Canadians and Brits have been copying our music for decades. Therefore, there are literally tens of thousands of songs that could potentially get airplay on the radio waves across this land. Why, then, do the majority of radio stations play the same songs over and over?
Sure, some of the music on 'alternative' stations and classic rock and R&B stations is truly classic, but there's also plenty of corporate garbage. I just don't understand the logic behind playing the same songs every day. Being a DJ at a station like that would be horrible. For example, everyone agrees that Hendrix made great music, but it's always the same few songs of his that are played over the airwaves. Instead of hearing 'Machine Gun' we have to keep hearing 'All Along the Watchtower', 'Hey Joe' or 'Purple Haze'. He didn't even write two of those songs.
This kind of repetition takes the power out of a song like Purple Haze and traps the power of a song like 'Machine Gun' in the black hole of the past. It forces true fans to discover the music on their own. This, of course, is fine for someone like me, however the average person doesn't have the drive. The result is thousands of unheralded bands and musicians forgotten by time. Therefore, countless would-be anthems are ignored as people are distracted by temporary "hits" that never end up on the aforementioned radio stations...
In a country with this much talent, it's a shame that groups like Uncle Tupelo, Digable Planets and Television are "nobody's" and Creed, 50 cent and Ke$ha are "huge stars".
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