USA: Bland Of Opportunity?

I was lucky enough to be in New York last week and ended up chatting to someone who works in local radio. A point they made stuck with me which basically boiled down to the fact that new and up and coming talent in the USA stands little chance of breaking through due to commercial pressures. No one wants to be first to play new track in case its fails, all is about money and advertiser satisfaction.

It makes me so glad that we have the likes of the BBC in the UK. With no advertisers to please and the funding from the British public through the license fee, DJs have infinitely more freedom it seems. Yes, daytime radio on Radio One can seem commercial or cheesy at times but look at the wealth of alternative music peppered throughout the daytime schedule and the likes of Zane Lowe who has the freedom to pride himself on breaking new music during every evening show.

Yes, there is also XFM to champion new and alternative music but, aside from that, precious few radio stations break new music, or indeed can afford to. Just look at what has happened to Kiss FM over the past 15 years, the only trace of its original pirate roots can be found during the early hours, if at all.

So whatever you think of public service broadcasting, and it is by no means perfect, it may well just form the lifeblood of the UK music scene. Its ability to take those risks away from the commercial line means our ears are exposed to far more cutting edge, exciting music compared to other radio outlets where no music makes it on air unless it makes financial sense. We are lucky to live somewhere where creativity has more sway than cash.

Having said all of this, the internet may well serve a similar purpose but with the web you have to know where to look in the first place to be able to find anything whereas radio is there as a constant, easily located and ready for mass consumption.

Useless music fact #6: In 1983, Clubhouse released 'Do It Again / Billie Jean' which was a mash-up between Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' and Steely Dan's 'Do It Again'. Frankly it was sacrilegious musical murder but reached the loft heights of number 11 all the same. More amazing things could have been done with that 'Billie Jean' bassline by my Nan than was managed by Clubhouse.

Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 7 July 2009.

Pitching

Hello and welcome to a blog that only I am following at the moment. Exciting eh? I've spent the past two evenings pitching. Once for features and once for albums. A good pitch involves having a decent sales technique as well as a good idea, because a great idea poorly outlined to an editor will simply appear to be a poor idea. I keep pitching funny feature ideas, ie not chin-strokingly academic articles on the nature of electronic music and its role in forming popular culture, rather ones along the lines of 'Bodily Functions That Sound Like Dance Tunes' as a made up for-instance. This makes for a lot of fun when I'm writing but I feel the need to get a feature about something a bit more weighty under my belt again soon. Two of my feature pitches were ideas for humourous pieces and one was based around DJ Food whose 'One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World' EP is bloody amazing. Really traditional Ninja Tune cut and paste stuff with loads of samples but heavy on quality throughout. Can't wait for the album that's due out later this year following a couple more EPs.

Anyway, my first proper blog entry draws to a close and what have we learned? Well, not a great deal but I never said it was my job to inform! I will leave you with this though as I need to clear some of the old clutter out from my brain by revealing some of the music trivia I carry around in my head. Useless music fact #1 then: Bryan Adams' 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' spent 16 weeks at number one in 1991 before being knocked off the top spot by a new entry at number one, U2's 'Desire'. Wet Wet Wet fell just short of equalling the lumberjack shirted, gravel-gulletted crooner's record by spending 15 weeks at the top with 'Love Is All Around'. That too was knocked off the top spot by a new entry at number one, Whigfield's novelty-dance tune 'Saturday Night'. I wonder who was the happiest about conceding the throne?! I don't think Wet Wet Wet ever recovered from that kick in the teeth did they?

Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 30 May 2009.