Hmm, The reason you probably think Radio 1 is crap is you are probably too old for it. The reason DLT & the rest were sacked is they were too old for it, the exception being dear old John Peel who even as he got older still strived to find groundbreaking new acts.
If you think Radio 1 is crap now but it was great 15-20 years ago, then tune into Radio 2. Radio 1 is for young people!
Chris Moyles on the whole is very good and quite funny, there are moments when I want to kill him slowly one day someone will.
I've listened to Whiley in ages but I used to think she was quite good for bringing new music to the day time lineups and talking about Glastonbury and other events like that.
Colin and Edith go from genius to irrariting with consumate ease with far too much of the later
Scott Mills is great and clearly is the future of radio 1
After 7pm Radio 1 eclipses just about everything the enthusiasm for new music is incredible, screw personality radio leave that to local radio, radio 1 should be like this all of the time. The more obscure the better.
I am 22 years of age, so am actually within Radio 1's target age group. So saying people who don't like it are to old for it is a bit daft, also the people I worked with who insisted on putting it on are all in their 30's.
I'm a Canadian, and can receive both American and Canadia radio. Before you go dissing Radio 1, take a look at our continent. I listen to alot of online radio, and I personally think Radio 1 is excellent. I'm 35, I like the announcers who have personality, and I like the fact they actually talk on the radio.
Would you care for the radio here? If you like dance, forget it, stations playing dance on this side of the pond can be counted on the fingers of both hands. Would you care to hear personalitiless announcers who break up the music with the song name, time, and weather? Stations that are programmed by consultants that live 1000kms away? Radio that is often on automation half the day? During a huge storm in the Southern USA, the weather was voice tracked, and while it was snowing outside, nothign was said. Just the other day, a local station was on automation, the announcer talking about what a lovely day it was. It was -26C.
I wouldn't complain about Radio 1, you're lucky to have it. If you ever wanna do a trade, send us Radio 1, we'll send you our radio and some hockey helmuts, so you can bang your head after listening to it for a few hours.
Radio 1 may not be the station it once was as it was the only main modern pop music station going until the 1980's. Once commercial radio got going, Radio 1 realised it could no longer be as broad as it had been and had to focus on a target audience.
In the 90's hundreds of stations opened, all playing commercial pop music almost born out of the hands of the record industry. Radio 1, being publicly financed, can get away with a greater degree of freedom as it doesn't have to keep the advertisers happy with the same churn-out of safe chart music, many stations are now automated with each other as record companies have bought them out. As a result, although I personally feel a little too old for Radio 1 and actually listen to Radio 2 these days, the increasing commercial stations we have, the less choice has resulted, so long hail the freedom (however small) that BBC radio can offer!
No they don't. I listen to a great deal of online radio, and I find that UK commercial radio is good. BBC Radio 1, 1 Xtra and 6 are even better.
Here the word is safe, they play nothing unless it's safe. American hit radio is all about urban music (hiphop). Every station is completely formatted to death, so that you when you listen to an "alternative" station, every song sounds like Sum 41 or Green Day. Listen to a rap station, and it's rap, night and day.
While I personally don't like every Radio 1 DJ, I do have respect for them all. It's a craft that few in this land could do, create a pop radio program and talk about more than the weather. Actually have personality.
I've a dusty old British Citizenship granted to me thanks to my mum, and on a daily basis, I think that maybe the grass would be greener on the other side. Maybe I'm wrong, but from listening, I think not.
Having suffered the sheer tedium of Canadian radio, I can only agree with renegade - we are extremely lucky to have Radio 1, and the general choice we have in this country.
You can have the best presenters in the world, but the output of the music industry today is so very poor that more and more people are switching off from those stations who use contemporary pop as their music source. Its that simple.
I think you mean the output of certain parts of the music industry is very poor. There's plenty of decent new music out there if you look for it.
Fair point, there are a fair few decents acts. But I used to work in the music industry and believe me its in a worse state than its ever been in terms of creativity and songwriting. Thats the problem.
Fair point, there are a fair few decents acts. But I used to work in the music industry and believe me its in a worse state than its ever been in terms of creativity and songwriting. Thats the problem.
I'm not entirely convinced by the idea of problems rooted in the music. It's not that 'pop' music has particularly faded from fashion, more that there are far more opportunities to hear and watch it these days. The music industry is happily killing itself from inside by obsessing over price wars and 'digital pirates' and refusing to accept any blame itself. If the big labels hadn't shed so many acts a few years back when they were convinced that it mattered if you didn't have two consecutive top ten hits then maybe the mess wouldn't be as bad. However, the songwriting seems absoutely fine for most music from my position. Pop writers are still delivering the goods across the board and strong album sales suggest that there's plenty of life left in things there. I certainly don't think music is in crisis, nor that the music available is a particulary strong factor in assessing stations such as Radio 1, which is doing pretty well for itself now anyway.
I haven't noticed a decline in songwriting across the board, there are still knock-out songs in whatever genre you care to name, and it's not as if music has a great history of a much higher watermark. There has been throwaway pop for decades which has happily existed alongside more substantial earnest sorts throughout.
Radio 1 is getting to grips with its music policy and has recently mixed in a wider variety of songs from the last ten years of varying genres. That is to be applauded, but it stems from a sales shift towards more guitar/band based music again. Out of many radio stations I'd say Radio 1 reflects young tastes as well as anyone can hope to.
I think what's happened is that the music business has tapped out every corner of the biz. There isn't a mainstream anymore, it's been fragmented into Hiphop and Rock music, and on radio, the two no longer mix. They've commercialized alternative rock, commercialized and burned out dance music, and now hiphop is in that latter stages of burnout (at least from an American perspective). Each genre is homogenized......
I read an article a while back in the Register, and they noted that in an average year, the music business was pushing out 34000 new titles a year, but lately it was 27000. Less new music, less sales, but they blame kids and a copy of Kazaa.
The UK business has caught on better than the North American business. I buy about 3000 Canadian dollars of music a year. 95% of that from HMV in the UK. Why? Because Canadian artist Avril Lavigne's single is 199 pence in the UK, and 12 dollars over here. Can't say I've visted a record store lately in the UK, but I recall them having a MUCH better single selection than we do here. Our Record Stores don't sell music now, they sell DVD's, but then again, our Music Channels don't play music anymore, they play television programming.
I think what's happened is that the music business has tapped out every corner of the biz. There isn't a mainstream anymore, it's been fragmented into Hiphop and Rock music, and on radio, the two no longer mix. They've commercialized alternative rock, commercialized and burned out dance music, and now hiphop is in that latter stages of burnout (at least from an American perspective). Each genre is homogenized.......
Absolutely right.
But, as far as the UK industry is concerned, there was the worrying fact that one week last year there were no UK acts in the Billboard Top 200 albums for the first time since it began. That speaks volumes.
But, as far as the UK industry is concerned, there was the worrying fact that one week last year there were no UK acts in the Billboard Top 200 albums for the first time since it began. That speaks volumes.
The crap taste of Americans? Or of American label bosses?
Yes, but American's tend to be very inward looking with music. The entire focus of American music today is hiphop (not the forte of the Brits) or "mall punk", like Sum 41/Good Charlotte, etc. Figure that Lemar, Dizzee Rascal, and Jamelia got little to no airplay in the United States.
Because Hiphop is the powerhouse of American music at this moment, the Brits don't have a hope. Not because the urban music from the UK is bad, but because the "hiphop" set over here are very protective and inward. They are in it for the money, and protect themselves. You must have noticed how most of the rap music in the USA is create by less than 20 different artists? I think it's rubbish.
It begs the question, was the Band Aid 20 single a flop in America because the Yanks couldn't get beyond the Dizzee Rascal set in the song?
The reason I don't personally listen to R1 as much as I used to has been touched on by recent posters. IMO it plays too much urban music which is not to my taste at all. It seems to be the dominant music force at the mo. I like to think I' ve got pretty eclectic tastes in music but I'm fed up hearing this stuff non stop on R1!
The best thing about R1 used to be that if you did not like a track you knew in 5 mins they would play another you did like. I'm 38 soon and I try to listen to R2 but I find it too easy listening, although being an old fart I do like the oldies they play!
Another point, because of the crap music scene of the mo a lot of kids seem to be getting into older music, such as the heavy metal bands of the 70's & 80's and 80's music in general.
The UK business has caught on better than the North American business. I buy about 3000 Canadian dollars of music a year. 95% of that from HMV in the UK. Why? Because Canadian artist Avril Lavigne's single is 199 pence in the UK, and 12 dollars over here. Can't say I've visted a record store lately in the UK, but I recall them having a MUCH better single selection than we do here. Our Record Stores don't sell music now, they sell DVD's, but then again, our Music Channels don't play music anymore, they play television programming.
I spent a lot of time in Canada and the USA during the summer. The Canadian stores dont sell singles, but they've got the same amount of albums as our stores do. Music DVDs are popular here too.
As for singles, dont be under the impression that they are selling well here. We have the bizarre situation where a lot of our radio stations (including Radio 1) decide their playlists on what singles are being released. But if you look at the actual sales of singles, they are pretty small. I'm sure someone can give you the exact number, but they aint selling well.
To get to number 1 you dont have to sell much, so generally there is not a lot of money to be made. So some record labels dont release singles, which results in their artists not getting airplay, weird huh?
There are a few Canadian music tv stations that still play music, MuchVibe for example. We have an insane amount of music tv stations here, but everyone still complains that the main MTV channel doesnt play enough videos even though you have around 25 other channels that mainly or only play videos.
The reason I don't personally listen to R1 as much as I used to has been touched on by recent posters. IMO it plays too much urban music which is not to my taste at all. It seems to be the dominant music force at the mo. I like to think I' ve got pretty eclectic tastes in music but I'm fed up hearing this stuff non stop on R1!
So annoying isn't it. Shame that DAB isn't so much more popular when this could be primarly left to 1 Extra!
It's just as hard to listen to Galaxy 105 for the same reason, but Radio 1 is easier as the DJs are more entertaining and there arn't the same damn ads every 10 minutes!
I rarely listen to the any radio these days, as I have yet to find a station that consistently plays music I like (and I like to think my taste is fairly eclectic, though like an earlier poster "urban" leaves me cold). Most seem to play the same old pap.
I'm far more likely to find "new" music on a TV/movie soundtrack or even an advert than radio - in fact, my last compilation CD for the car was nothing but music found in that fashion, and I haven't heard any of it played on the radio.
Judging by the amount of questions on various forums about "what's that song in...?" I'm not alone in finding music this way. It seems a pretty poor show that many people have to rely on soundtracks for interesting music, and then hope that they can find out what the track is on the net.
well MuchVibe and such are pay per use channels. To view these, you must pay 2.50 per month, and also rent the equipment from your cable company. They are digital channels. Same if you use a Dish for Television. You still end up paying. MTV or Much Music were always "free", or part of basic cable.
Mike, to give you an idea how twisted the record store business is here. I buy about 3000 bucks in singles a year. I get almost all of them from HMV UK, which takes about 1 week for delivery. I went to my local HMV, and I showed them some of the reciepts, and asked, could you order these songs, and I pay you instead? I'd prefer to support someone local.
Their answer? Well, Pretty Green Eyes, a song I could buy (and did buy) from the UK was a 6 week wait. It was 18 dollars. I paid 299 pence from the UK. The wait was the usual 7 days (including the weekend). That's just one example. Years ago, I bought SASH, the record was 40 dollars. I bought the soundtrack to Bend it Like Beckham, and half the songs were missing so I had to order it from the UK.
And they wonder why people don't buy music? I only buy the music because I use it professionally, and having actual CD's makes it much easier to sort and carry. But if I was just a typical music listener, would I go through the hassle? Not a chance. I'd download it.
When you say MTV is part of basic cable, surely you have to pay the cable company SOMETHING per month to receive it?
Nearly all of our music tv channels are pay, but they are all part of the basic family package on digital cable or satellite.
18 dollars for a single? Thats rediculous, are they being imported from Europe?
To everyone moaning about 'urban' music as its called in the UK being played on Radio 1. Wouldnt it make more sense for us to go the American way and have different genres of different stations? Its not as rediculous as it sounds, and it works. I like hip hop, so in America (and Canada) I could turn on a hip hop station and just listen to that, without being annoyed by any other type of music (which is what happens when Galaxy play a dance song). If you feel like a different genre, turn to another station. In a lot of American cities there were tonnes of stations for nearly every type of music.
The music mix on Radio 1 is miles better than it used to be. There was a time a year or so ago when around the same time in the morning and afternoon when they ALWAYS played Coldplays Clocks as I was at the same place walking to and from work. It peed me off no end.
The stupid calls by Scott Mills are the main thing that annoys the hell out of me, I just turn off my radio when thats on. I wonder how many people just tell him to F off?
I enjoy Chris Moyles in the morning, the mix of personalities is great and entertaining to listen to walking to work. I've bought myself an mp3 player with FM radio now so I have more choice but I'm still going to be listening to R1 on the way in.
As for Christmas song I heard Scott Mills playing Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls. If thats not different then I don't know what is.
Comments
If you think Radio 1 is crap now but it was great 15-20 years ago, then tune into Radio 2. Radio 1 is for young people!
Quite correct!
Chris Moyles on the whole is very good and quite funny, there are moments when I want to kill him slowly one day someone will.
I've listened to Whiley in ages but I used to think she was quite good for bringing new music to the day time lineups and talking about Glastonbury and other events like that.
Colin and Edith go from genius to irrariting with consumate ease with far too much of the later
Scott Mills is great and clearly is the future of radio 1
After 7pm Radio 1 eclipses just about everything the enthusiasm for new music is incredible, screw personality radio leave that to local radio, radio 1 should be like this all of the time. The more obscure the better.
Because its the BBC!!
whats that got to do with anything?
I'm a Canadian, and can receive both American and Canadia radio. Before you go dissing Radio 1, take a look at our continent. I listen to alot of online radio, and I personally think Radio 1 is excellent. I'm 35, I like the announcers who have personality, and I like the fact they actually talk on the radio.
Would you care for the radio here? If you like dance, forget it, stations playing dance on this side of the pond can be counted on the fingers of both hands. Would you care to hear personalitiless announcers who break up the music with the song name, time, and weather? Stations that are programmed by consultants that live 1000kms away? Radio that is often on automation half the day? During a huge storm in the Southern USA, the weather was voice tracked, and while it was snowing outside, nothign was said. Just the other day, a local station was on automation, the announcer talking about what a lovely day it was. It was -26C.
I wouldn't complain about Radio 1, you're lucky to have it. If you ever wanna do a trade, send us Radio 1, we'll send you our radio and some hockey helmuts, so you can bang your head after listening to it for a few hours.
Most here don't a good thing when they've got it!
Radio 1 may not be the station it once was as it was the only main modern pop music station going until the 1980's. Once commercial radio got going, Radio 1 realised it could no longer be as broad as it had been and had to focus on a target audience.
In the 90's hundreds of stations opened, all playing commercial pop music almost born out of the hands of the record industry. Radio 1, being publicly financed, can get away with a greater degree of freedom as it doesn't have to keep the advertisers happy with the same churn-out of safe chart music, many stations are now automated with each other as record companies have bought them out. As a result, although I personally feel a little too old for Radio 1 and actually listen to Radio 2 these days, the increasing commercial stations we have, the less choice has resulted, so long hail the freedom (however small) that BBC radio can offer!
Here the word is safe, they play nothing unless it's safe. American hit radio is all about urban music (hiphop). Every station is completely formatted to death, so that you when you listen to an "alternative" station, every song sounds like Sum 41 or Green Day. Listen to a rap station, and it's rap, night and day.
While I personally don't like every Radio 1 DJ, I do have respect for them all. It's a craft that few in this land could do, create a pop radio program and talk about more than the weather. Actually have personality.
I've a dusty old British Citizenship granted to me thanks to my mum, and on a daily basis, I think that maybe the grass would be greener on the other side. Maybe I'm wrong, but from listening, I think not.
I think you mean the output of certain parts of the music industry is very poor. There's plenty of decent new music out there if you look for it.
Fair point, there are a fair few decents acts. But I used to work in the music industry and believe me its in a worse state than its ever been in terms of creativity and songwriting. Thats the problem.
I'm not entirely convinced by the idea of problems rooted in the music. It's not that 'pop' music has particularly faded from fashion, more that there are far more opportunities to hear and watch it these days. The music industry is happily killing itself from inside by obsessing over price wars and 'digital pirates' and refusing to accept any blame itself. If the big labels hadn't shed so many acts a few years back when they were convinced that it mattered if you didn't have two consecutive top ten hits then maybe the mess wouldn't be as bad. However, the songwriting seems absoutely fine for most music from my position. Pop writers are still delivering the goods across the board and strong album sales suggest that there's plenty of life left in things there. I certainly don't think music is in crisis, nor that the music available is a particulary strong factor in assessing stations such as Radio 1, which is doing pretty well for itself now anyway.
I haven't noticed a decline in songwriting across the board, there are still knock-out songs in whatever genre you care to name, and it's not as if music has a great history of a much higher watermark. There has been throwaway pop for decades which has happily existed alongside more substantial earnest sorts throughout.
Radio 1 is getting to grips with its music policy and has recently mixed in a wider variety of songs from the last ten years of varying genres. That is to be applauded, but it stems from a sales shift towards more guitar/band based music again. Out of many radio stations I'd say Radio 1 reflects young tastes as well as anyone can hope to.
I read an article a while back in the Register, and they noted that in an average year, the music business was pushing out 34000 new titles a year, but lately it was 27000. Less new music, less sales, but they blame kids and a copy of Kazaa.
The UK business has caught on better than the North American business. I buy about 3000 Canadian dollars of music a year. 95% of that from HMV in the UK. Why? Because Canadian artist Avril Lavigne's single is 199 pence in the UK, and 12 dollars over here. Can't say I've visted a record store lately in the UK, but I recall them having a MUCH better single selection than we do here. Our Record Stores don't sell music now, they sell DVD's, but then again, our Music Channels don't play music anymore, they play television programming.
Absolutely right.
But, as far as the UK industry is concerned, there was the worrying fact that one week last year there were no UK acts in the Billboard Top 200 albums for the first time since it began. That speaks volumes.
The crap taste of Americans? Or of American label bosses?
Because Hiphop is the powerhouse of American music at this moment, the Brits don't have a hope. Not because the urban music from the UK is bad, but because the "hiphop" set over here are very protective and inward. They are in it for the money, and protect themselves. You must have noticed how most of the rap music in the USA is create by less than 20 different artists? I think it's rubbish.
It begs the question, was the Band Aid 20 single a flop in America because the Yanks couldn't get beyond the Dizzee Rascal set in the song?
The best thing about R1 used to be that if you did not like a track you knew in 5 mins they would play another you did like. I'm 38 soon and I try to listen to R2 but I find it too easy listening, although being an old fart I do like the oldies they play!
Another point, because of the crap music scene of the mo a lot of kids seem to be getting into older music, such as the heavy metal bands of the 70's & 80's and 80's music in general.
I spent a lot of time in Canada and the USA during the summer. The Canadian stores dont sell singles, but they've got the same amount of albums as our stores do. Music DVDs are popular here too.
As for singles, dont be under the impression that they are selling well here. We have the bizarre situation where a lot of our radio stations (including Radio 1) decide their playlists on what singles are being released. But if you look at the actual sales of singles, they are pretty small. I'm sure someone can give you the exact number, but they aint selling well.
To get to number 1 you dont have to sell much, so generally there is not a lot of money to be made. So some record labels dont release singles, which results in their artists not getting airplay, weird huh?
There are a few Canadian music tv stations that still play music, MuchVibe for example. We have an insane amount of music tv stations here, but everyone still complains that the main MTV channel doesnt play enough videos even though you have around 25 other channels that mainly or only play videos.
It's just as hard to listen to Galaxy 105 for the same reason, but Radio 1 is easier as the DJs are more entertaining and there arn't the same damn ads every 10 minutes!
I'm far more likely to find "new" music on a TV/movie soundtrack or even an advert than radio - in fact, my last compilation CD for the car was nothing but music found in that fashion, and I haven't heard any of it played on the radio.
Judging by the amount of questions on various forums about "what's that song in...?" I'm not alone in finding music this way. It seems a pretty poor show that many people have to rely on soundtracks for interesting music, and then hope that they can find out what the track is on the net.
Current fave: "Cells" by The Servant, an instrumental version of which features on the "Sin City" trailer (http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/sin_city.html). (Cue loads of people letting me know that it's on the R1 playlist, probably!). If anyone knows the music in the "MirrorMask" trailer (http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mirrormask/index.html), I know a lot of folk online who are trying to track it down!
well MuchVibe and such are pay per use channels. To view these, you must pay 2.50 per month, and also rent the equipment from your cable company. They are digital channels. Same if you use a Dish for Television. You still end up paying. MTV or Much Music were always "free", or part of basic cable.
Mike, to give you an idea how twisted the record store business is here. I buy about 3000 bucks in singles a year. I get almost all of them from HMV UK, which takes about 1 week for delivery. I went to my local HMV, and I showed them some of the reciepts, and asked, could you order these songs, and I pay you instead? I'd prefer to support someone local.
Their answer? Well, Pretty Green Eyes, a song I could buy (and did buy) from the UK was a 6 week wait. It was 18 dollars. I paid 299 pence from the UK. The wait was the usual 7 days (including the weekend). That's just one example. Years ago, I bought SASH, the record was 40 dollars. I bought the soundtrack to Bend it Like Beckham, and half the songs were missing so I had to order it from the UK.
And they wonder why people don't buy music? I only buy the music because I use it professionally, and having actual CD's makes it much easier to sort and carry. But if I was just a typical music listener, would I go through the hassle? Not a chance. I'd download it.
Nearly all of our music tv channels are pay, but they are all part of the basic family package on digital cable or satellite.
18 dollars for a single? Thats rediculous, are they being imported from Europe?
To everyone moaning about 'urban' music as its called in the UK being played on Radio 1. Wouldnt it make more sense for us to go the American way and have different genres of different stations? Its not as rediculous as it sounds, and it works. I like hip hop, so in America (and Canada) I could turn on a hip hop station and just listen to that, without being annoyed by any other type of music (which is what happens when Galaxy play a dance song). If you feel like a different genre, turn to another station. In a lot of American cities there were tonnes of stations for nearly every type of music.
Because the Radio 1 DJs think they are more important than the show they are only hosting....
The DJs are full of themselves and think they are fantastic, often appearing in shows to give their (unwanted) opinions
The stupid calls by Scott Mills are the main thing that annoys the hell out of me, I just turn off my radio when thats on. I wonder how many people just tell him to F off?
I enjoy Chris Moyles in the morning, the mix of personalities is great and entertaining to listen to walking to work. I've bought myself an mp3 player with FM radio now so I have more choice but I'm still going to be listening to R1 on the way in.
As for Christmas song I heard Scott Mills playing Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls. If thats not different then I don't know what is.