Spectropop - Digest Number 591

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002

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______________        S  P  E  C  T  R  O  P  O  P        ______________
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                        Jamie LePage (1953-2002)
                  http://www.spectropop.com/Jamie.htm
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There are 4 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

      1. The Mystery of Jackie Wilson's Peaches
           From: Phil Milstein
      2. Fw: tight playlists
           From: Ken Levine 
      3. Re: Commercial radio - robbing our collective memory?
           From: Dee 
      4. Re: Commercial radio - robbing our collective memory?
           From: Robert Beason 


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Message: 1
   Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 22:35:37 +0000
   From: Phil Milstein
Subject: The Mystery of Jackie Wilson's Peaches

Can any of y'all offer any insight into the meaning of 
Jackie Wilson's plaintive cry of "Peaches" in his great song 
"Whisper's Getting Louder"? As far as I can tell it's 
unrelated to anything else in the entire lyric, and yet it's 
a part of the chorus, and so is no tossaway. Did he have a 
thing for Etta James?

--Phil Milstein





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Message: 2
   Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 00:07:05 -0700
   From: Ken Levine 
Subject: Fw: tight playlists

The sad truth is Oldies stations do thrive when offering tight 
playlists because the audience turn over is so great and when 
a listener tunes in to say KRTH in Los Angeles, they want to 
instantly hear a song they like.  The danger of course is the 
burn out factor.  Also the aging of the audience.   Certainly 
a station like WCBS-FM in New York is unique, but for the most 
part the KRTH's of the world set the standard.  

What bothers me even more than the music (because you can find 
a variety of music in other places including this website) is 
the lack of any creativity in Oldie stations' presentations.  
Boring, plastic, with the same tag lines "Good times and great 
oldies!"   Jocks, personality, great jingles, promotions made 
Top 40 radio great, not just playing "Pretty Woman" every two 
hours.   

Ken



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Message: 3
   Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 00:39:40 -0700 (PDT)
   From: Dee 
Subject: Re: Commercial radio - robbing our collective memory?

Phil Milstein:
> Why do you suppose it is that the non-fanatic 
> music-listening 
> public prefers such a limited rotation of songs?

Gee Phil, as a man of your expansive taste must
already know (and I say this kindly because I know it
to be true), it's because most people only like things
they're familiar with - and that's how these stations
(or rather, the polling places they hire) calculate
this stuff.  Random listener #1 gets a phone call,
they play him 5-10 second snippets of various oldies
and ask him the questions:

1) Do you know this song?
2) Do you like or dislike it?
3) Would you like to her it more or less?

I don't know anyone who's spent time with, say, the
first Velvet Underground album, who hasn't had an
appreciation for it on some level.  But a random
person hearing the first 8 seconds of "I'll Be Your
Mirror" is not likely to know the song and is
therefore less likely to respond positively to it -
even if it would have ended up their favorite if
they'd heard the whole thing twice.  But play them the
first 8 seconds of "I'm Henry The 8th, I Am" by
Herman's Hermits and they respond positively.  Not
because it's a great song - but because they like the
fact they know it.  It's like they're smart!

Ultimately, all they really measure is people's
familiarity with hits.  Thus begins a cycle wherein
the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter.  The
oldies station in Chicago used to play "Morning Girl"
and "Mendocino" and any other number of now-sadly
unplayed tunes.  Someday soon there will be a station
which only plays that Herman's Hermits' tune. And
it'll do okay in the ratings, probably!

I'm blown away by the knowledge of the people on this
list.  I'm on a similar Western Swing / Hillbilly /
Country list, and the depth of knowledge there is
similarly incredible.  I've met some of the people on
that list, and they tend to have better than average
(subjective I know, so let's just say 'widely
expansive') taste in food / cinema / literature as well
as their musical jones.  Lots of them, like myself,
spoke several languages and had lived in a variety of
places.  I'm sure it's no different with the people on
this list ultimately.  But the average guy out there
likes to keep it simple and not have too many choices
or too many "new" things going on.  That's why
freeform station have low ratings usually.  I'd like
to see more oldies on the oldies stations - I think
the situation there is abnormally dismal, I'm never
surprised by what I hear - but hey, I'm a freak and
I'm sure I'll never get it.

Thank God for the 4000-song capacity iPod!

Dee



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Message: 4
   Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 10:24:09 +0000
   From: Robert Beason 
Subject: Re: Commercial radio - robbing our collective memory?

While we're all dumping on oldies radio--I'm surprised no one 
has mentioned the marathon commercial breaks (in major markets, 
anyway) or the curious fact that certain acts--Gary Puckett 
and the Union Gap come to mind--seem to be about 10 times more 
popular with oldies radio listeners now than I remember them 
being back in the day...

Bob Beason



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