Instant classic or instant karma? http://www.examiner.com/x-12332-Classic-Rock-Music-Examiner~y2009m6d12-Instant-classic-or-instant-karma
June 12, 2009 by Dawn Roberts For a Buddhist, Karma is something to be avoided. Without launching into a lengthy explanation which will lure readers to an alternate scribe's scribblings, I'll say that Karma is baggage of sorts which locks you into a set of lifetimes, until you work it off. Kind of like that student loan which follows you way past your 28th birthday. Little Feat, Joni Mitchell, The Allman Brothers and Neil Young. These artists became part of my personal rock lexicon by listening to the free-form FM station to top all free-form FM stations on the dial; WNEW in New York City. I was part of the congregation that worshipped at the altar of NEW. I learned more about the world beyond me there than any other place I knew. The DJ's became gurus and professors, larger than life icons. After all this time I can still recall their vocal timbres and mannerisms. There was Alison Steele "The Nightbird" who lulled me to sleep each night. The rock-steady Dennis Elsas, and Jonathan Schwartz, my personal favorite, a prolific writer with an encyclopedic knowledge of music. I was a sponge for knowledge in those years, reading books I barely understood, but gleaned enough to know that there was a universe of lifestyles and experiences far more interesting than the upper middle class suburb which imprisoned me. The tome which began this journey was Robert Heinlein's "Stranger In a Strange Land". Immediately, the word Grok made complete sense to me. There were ideas out there, world views which I longed to share. I desperately wanted someone to Grok me. To deeply understand the curiosity in my young soul. Soon to follow were what I later realized was the required reading list for those who shared my wanderlust. Kerouac's "On the Road held a particular fascination for me. "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test"and Hunter Thompson's "Hells Angels" had profound and lasting imprints on my mind. Thompson in particular informed and fueled my desire to experience life in real time, to feel the wind in my hair and taste freedom. Even then I knew that the paradox of freedom and security drew a shaky line in the sand that I would tread, sometimes carefully and others with abandon. I stayed on the straight and narrow enough to get my BA in Journalism and begin my professional life in the music business. It's said that luck is the place where opportunity and preparedness meet. I've been lucky to have jobs which I excelled at because I loved what I was doing. Even that first job, reading TV scripts and choosing music for every line in a show which suggested music as a background. Words such as radio, dancing, even aerobic exercise were my "eurekas". At the time publishing companies and record labels had yet to pay attention to the artist exposure or revenue streams which accumulated in meager increments for 30 second clips, so I was left to pick songs which were current and time honored favorites of mine. It's mind boggling to consider the changes a decade can make. So how does this tale lead us to Classic Rock? Over the past ten years traffic gridlock in Los Angeles transformed me into a dedicated student of Classic Rock radio. Play lists have been scrawled on every scrap of paper in my car. The interior resembles the cave of an Archaeologist trying to understand what influences programmers of stations both corporate and independent. There are not many indie pirate radio relics, but they do exist. If they're on the dial I find them. In New York the journey from Woodstock to Manhattan takes from 2 to 3 hours. I scan stations while I'm driving with the restlessness of a distracted man jamming on his remote after a long day at work. I listen for patterns and differences, the elements that help define what radio listeners today consider a Classic. What I have surmised is a theory some readers may not like. Yes, ignorance is bliss. The play lists of Classic Rock radio stations are not determined by listeners of that particular station. They're based on a combination of Arbitron ratings, and a complex research equations about what inspires people to linger in a department store, buy tech gadgets they don't need or most importantly, what makes listeners hold steady and sit still through 10 minutes of commercials in a row. Whether it's an oldies station (to my dismay some 80's hits are now classified as oldies) or a Hair-Bands-Rule show, certain songs always seem to make the cut. The Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper" is one of them, Guns and Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine" and John Mellencamp's "Little Pink Houses" are songs you can count on hearing in any classic rock radio show. Just as I am enjoying a sweet reverie seeing Neil Young, The Pretenders or The Police, a song like 'Because I Got High" by Afroman or Rick Dee's "Disco Duck" startles me back into realty. There is a difference between true classics radio hits, and those which dominated the charts for a few weeks in a given time period (at least 15 years ago). There are certain artists which on the basis of reputation are added to classic rock play lists as soon as they are released. These include Bob Dylan, the Dave Matthews Band" and more questionable choices like Train or Kid Rock. Instant karma indeed. When the song "Mambo #5 " hit the charts I imagined Lou Bega in 20 years, still depositing fat royalty checks for a lively, but hardly original song, which began to annoy me terribly by the second time I heard it.. I actually have nothing against the Mungo Jerry's and Andrea True's of the world. I do admit, however, to a small modicum of satisfaction thinking about the many lives as a Koi Fish they will live for having been firmly embedded onto radio play lists; the payback for achieving Instant Karma rather than earning the Instant Classic label, in my book at least. . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
