If you asked me what my current favourite music is then I could answer what 6 Music plays. If you ask me what other music I investigate then I say what rates highly in Uncut and Mojo magazine. And for the good work that 6 Music and the magazines put in there are some major holes and a lot of music that goes unlistened to by me.

I have not listened to one of the current top 10. Despite liking songs from these genres - pop, jazz, classical, show tunes, rock/heavy metal, reggae and rap to name a few I don't know much of what is new amongst them and very little from the past.

Taking a theme from Adam Curtis' latest documentary are we being walled off to listening to only stuff we know we like rather investigating stuff we know will challenge our tastes?

Radio has got more genre specific. It is unlikely I would hear today's equivalent of Swing Out Sisters - Breakout, on 6 Music. There is a track from Agnes Obel, Familiar, which would have been a top ten single in the Eighties which has not really been noticed today. I wonder whether the dividing nature of genre radio has narrowed our tastes and lessened our chances to be truly eclectic. Surely being eclectic means liking stuff from all genres. Today it seems people seem to listen to one or possibly two genres outside the mainstream and consider themselves eclectic.

Where are the stations that would cheerfully play pop alongside classical alongside jazz alongside reggae alongside something from a musical.... and so on.

Are there people who will have those differences in their own musical collection?

I've always been eclectic when it comes to music, i mean the first two artists in my iTunes library are ABBA and AC/DC.

Not really. If you have genuine enthusiasm for music- you will search it out.

I've never been a radio listener, apart from local radio or R4 because i prefer people talking on the radio. Yet I search stuff out regularly from 'tinternet'. I'm sure many of us have started on someones blog, checked out other sites they rate & ...5 hours later... By legal or nonlegal ways we've discovered some interesting nuggets/niches of musique out there.

That's not just music, that's anything. However, it can be lonely - I would love to discuss the merits/intricacies of Roisin Murphys material rather than sticking in a Madonna/Rihanna/Britney safe zone rattling off sales targets as my defencezzzz and deluding myself that appearing virtually naked to sell my product is pushing the agenda for female empowerment/equality.

How can you compare Familiar by Agnes Obel to Breakout by Swing Out Sister?

They're two completely different styles altogether. That said, I get where you're coming from. Speaking of Agnes Obel, I'm still surprised that her song Riverside went unnoticed in the UK.

Riverside is one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs I've discovered in the last 5/6 years and it does seem that modern day DJ's are too quick to follow trends, rather than creating their own buzz singles.

In 1988, Simon Mayo was partly responsible for Enya's single Orinoco Flow becoming a #1 hit. He championed the song and played it on his Radio 1 show.

In 1983, Tommy Vance was partly responsible for making Down Under by Men At Work a hit single. He discovered the song and used the instrumental parts of the song to countdown the UK chart months before the single was released as a single.

Chris Tarrant on Radio 2 raised the profile of Passenger and his single Let Her Go. Likewise, Neil Fox championed How You Remind Me by Nickelback before the song was released and became a big hit.

My point being that once upon a time, DJ's would be going out seeking new music and if there was one song they truly loved, they would play it on their shows.

Radio DJ's now don't do that. They're restricted to playlists set by TPTB and I suspect don't even have any interest in discovering new music from other countries. Might explain why the charts are so stagnant because commercial DJ's are too busy playing the same 10-12 songs every hour to even consider thinking outside the box and playing something completely different.

LOL. What's wrong with listening to stuff we know we'll like??? Music is just recreation. Despite what all these starving "artists" tell themselves.

It was called The Light Programme, the split in musical listening tastes began with Radio 1 and has continued ever since then. I don't think there is a demand for a return to those days, even then we would listen to the atrocious sound quality of Radio Luxembourg to hear the music we wanted.

I would say yes, when i was a teen( a long long time ago) i had to watch the music video channel all day long to see the videos i wanted so i was exposed to lots of stuff i never would have listen to.

Our local Music video station played everything you could have a Paula Abdul video followed by one from Iron maiden and then one from Run DMC, now you go to YouTube only watch what you want and dont get exposed to stuff you dont know

I have the free Spotify account and follow the 'new music on friday' list. I have discovered a lot of new stuff of different genres that way. There's a new song called Nothin' by a new indie band called North Downs which is a favourite at the moment, i have recently found that I love soulful house music and love Lisa Shaw's stuff. So no, I am not walled in and will continue to seek out new stuff even though I'm in my fifties!

Use Spotify, Pandora, youtube or just google and you find tons of music

In the past many of those genres would have been covered by 6 Music. Sadly the radio station today is a poor representation of how it used to be.

Whilst I still listen to Planet Rock at the weekends I mostly get my new music from a combination of Classic Rock and Prog Magazine coupled with Spotify and YouTube.

Planet Rock are now starting to push new bands, and promote tours featuring those bands, but I still find most of my new music online these days.

no

i've not seen the documentary but the answer is a simple no

some people may, other people won't


a lot has changed since the days of swing out sister's breakout. that came out in 1986. at that time disco was dead and house/dance/techno was in the early stages and hip hop was still in relatively early stages in regards to commercial radio, seen more as a novelty with the beastie boys and run DMC and doug e fresh and something that wouldn't last. the so called second summer of love was a couple of years away, the indie scene had limited radio play and commercial success, so since then there have been more genres of music, plus the popularisation of dance music and hip hop and modern RNB, of which those 3 genres are currently 3 of the most successful commercial genres today

in the UK in 1986 we had only relatively recently gained our fourth TV channel at the end of 1982, we had no multi channel tv, no cable or satellite, no internet, computers in homes were typically low powered devices for playing games for relatively short periods on the family living room tv. pirate radio stations with limited range were still limited at that time, gaining more popularity towards the end of the 80s and start of the 90s when dance music became more popular. video recorders were still expensive and not commonplace as they would be towards the end of the decade

now multichannel tv is commonplace with freeview, freesat, sky and virgin, with a number of music tv channels and a lot more radio channels. we have the internet where there's a huge number of streaming and download sites like youtube and spotify and soundcloud, pirate sites where people can download almost anything, social media sites like facebook. if someone is intersted in a particular genre they can often find a site where they can experience what they like. in turn the old school commercial stations have to compete with the huge variety and the way they do it is by sticking to programming that a committe has considered as the best choice for the demographic they want to appeal to in order to maximise audience share and profit. few people really want to hear a very eclectic mix of music from a variety of styles, played without their control of choice. of those who do, sites like spotify and tidal can perhaps do this in a better way by "learning" what the listener likes and dislikes and making suggestions based on what other listeners have liked and disliked. so radio 1/2/6 etc will play safe in regards to trying to retain an audience whilst those who aren't interested in those offerings have alternatives that weren't available in 1986

if you want variety there's far more available today than 30 years ago



yes. there's more people alive today, more music, more genres, more options to get it. you don't need to hunt record stores, you can just google or go on amazon or ebay and buy and get stuff shipped from pretty much anywhere in the world to your home. you can find out about way more variety in music than you ever would by sticking to radio alone in 1986

Things like TOTP, Smash Hits and The Chart Show, which treated all genres (relatively) equally so long as they had sufficient chart headwind, were quite big when I was growing up, and as such I've been exposed to quite a variety of music - from rock and indie to dance to rap and RnB - and today my collection ranges from Girls Aloud, Lady Leshurr and Little Mix right through to Enter Shikari, Funeral for a Friend and Deftones, albeit with a very large bloc of Hurricane #1, Warm Jets, Terris, Electrasy and Rialto in the middle.

Things have definitely narrowed in recent years, though. Go look at the list of tracks that got to number one during the 90s - you'll see novelty stuff, mainstream pop, crooning MOR, heavy rock, Britpop, faceless dance, heavy rap, smooth RnB, and even a few old songs rebooted back up the grid thanks to ads or events. Now look at a similar list for the last ten years and you'll see how moribund the charts have become - anything curious (heavier, older-skewing, even the novelty nonsense) swept away by a tidal wave of bland irrelevance (featuring Drake and/or Rihanna). I think the period around 'Umbrella' was the turning point for everything becoming very samey, friendlier to the big commercial FM groups: a year after 'Umbrella', Global merged with GCap and within a further year, many of the CHR stations which had once played a mix of current and hit music to their area had become Heart. Yes, the same Global now bring us Radio X for rockier heads, but I doubt that's got as big of a sway over the charts as the likes of Capital... I don't even recall what the last rock track to top the UK chart was - maybe 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' or 'Sex on Fire'?

That's not my experience. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I find trying to track stuff down online increasingly frustrating. I get the impression that Spotify etc are great ways for record companies and PR firms to market music to listeners (as is this forum, unfortunately) but not nearly as good for listeners who want to find new and exciting - or old and exciting - music.

Don't feel too bad about it; there are thousands upon thousands of new tracks released every week; it would be impossible to hear them all


I'm not sure they exist anymore; technology means I haven't listened to music radio for years. As a new music lover my generic streaming service has been an absolute godsend to me; playlist makers are now compiling and curating the sort of content that DJs of yesteryear did.

I had a look at the number ones since 2010. Things vaguely labelled as rock that reached number one would be..

Scouting for Girls - This Ain't a Love Song. (April 2010)
Coldplay - Paradise (Jan 2012)
Fun Ft Janelle Monae - We Are Young (June 2012)
Maroon 5 - Payphone (June/July 2012)
Florence & the Machine - Spectrum (Jul 2012)
One Republic - Counting Stars (October 2013)
Magic! - Rude! (Aug 2014)

Not really a great selection is it!?!

the charts is just a reflection on what is popular at a particular point in a particular area, not a reflection on variety. the more variety there is, the more sales will be spread over the varieties. so individual tracks from certain genres may not chart, but the most popular commercial stuff will chart instead.

people often talk about the 80s or 70s being more eclectic but it's simply not true. it's just there were fewer outlets and fewer competition and fewer genres, so more genres were packed into the smaller number of outlets

today many genres are less commercial sounding. people will mention how rock and rap and whatever was mixed together on radio 1 but it was mainly choice cuts that had a commercial appeal. today there is alot of music that would completly alienate a radio 1 audience, so radio 1 don't play it. they don't need to play it. they need listeners so they play what the consider the listeners to want to hear, and if you don't like what they play you have other outlets to listen to instead

as for the idea that certain dj's championed certain songs, how do you know they weren't given kickbacks for promoting them? it used to be very common

Yes some did but having been a DJ and a music lover myself, If I discover something new I would want to rave about it on my show, I don't believe that all these Heart DJs etc have no love for new music and are just happy playing the same 10-12 songs every day , it would drive me mad. I don't see why radio DJs cant pick a song of the week to play that isn't on their playlist as long as its not to different, eg dont expect the new Metallica on Heart for example.

Some of my favourite songs of the late 80s, were songs that Radio 1 DJs played and raved about that weren't even hits but I fed off their enthusiasm. You still have this in evening shows but cant everyone be allowed to be a little bit like Zane Lowe for example. Beats 1 is the best radio station right now but its so hard to hear, it needs timeshifting and then I wouldn't listen to Radio 1 again.

I think the OP's original question only applies to people who start most of the threads on this forum.

the dj's may have a love for music and want to play list, but they are usually employees or contractors to the station and ultimately they are paid to play what the station wants them to play. so the dj may be restricted in that they can't just pick a track to play and play it without going through a playlist process, moreso today on more commercial stations than before, but other stations may allow it, but they are perhaps less likely to have the same type of influence that would make a plugger want to push it so hard to that station/dj

basically it's the same as any other job, you do a particular line of work, you have an interest in it, you want to do something specific or new, but depending on procedures you may need to get approval to do it, and may not always get it. if the dj's are unhappy about what they are told to play, and always knocked back for their choices then one way or another they may end up moving to another timeslot or station, just like anyone else doing a job they don't like and want to change. so your older dj's moving to radio 2 or Norfolk FM. in saying that, think how old grandmaster flash and terminator x are now. or that ali g guy from radio one, tim westwood is about 83 years old if he's still alive. dunno if he's still on the radio or what

I'm certainly not being walled off from anything. I love music in all it's forms and will actively seek out new music from anyone.

With the exception of Justin Bieber of course, but then that's just plain common sense

Well, all three of them are in their 50s.

Nowadays that's considered quite young, unless you're in your 20s, in which case it's like they should be on their way to Dignitas innit.

Thats why Beats One is the exception as the DJs have been brought in to curate, they pick all the music they play on their shows,with producer assistance probably, yes i am sure they are encouraged to play certain songs or told they cant play certain songs but if the DJ doesn't like them that DJ wont play it.

People wear music eclecticism as a badge of honour, but usually that just means having a few different genres on their Spotify playlist.

I'd actually find a single genre obsession that went really deep into its history and obscurities more impressive at his point.

An excellent post; I agree with it all. My music tastes are varied from classical to jazz; pop to progressive rock and in the last 15 years the choice has exploded with online stores selling cds and mp3 downloads available online. I have completed my music collection and dip into new music here and there and hunt other stuff out- very easy online

6 Music can still be a great listen especially at weekends with the likes of Tom Robinson, Guy Garvey and Cerys Matthews playing numerous different genres. Also now I have DAB in the car I find Chris Hawkins show a great listen with a good balance of the new and classics across different genres. The rest of the weekday output can be a little disappointing with far too much emphasis on Indie rock with the odd bit of dance and rap thrown in. A far cry from the 6 Music I remember when it first started.