Tuesday, 13 April 2004

Given Ed doesn’t have a blog

... yet! He has become prone to leaving HUGE comments in my box. So instead I'll publish it here for the world's pleasure and probably so I can answer it easily without everyone wondering what I'm going on about....

"Tal,
I think youve missed the point a bit.
While I agree whole heartedly with the 'friend of yours'(actually, is that me?!), it seems that the significance of yesterday was that the variety of music they played was far better than ever. In my mind, the problem with radio one is that its daytime playlist represents such a tiny number of musical genres. While Radio 1 is charged with playing 'pop' music, the variety of music they play (during the day) doesnt even represent what is actually in the charts (which is still quite varied). Im going to refrain from whinging about 'RnB', but instead leave you with two thoughts:

1) I think the BBC should
a) assume their listeners are intelligent and open minded enough to want to listen to a much wider variety of music,
and b) assume their daytime DJs are intelligent enough to play what the listeners want to hear (and maybe even what they themselves want to hear) - I cant shake the feeling that the daytime DJs are not in fact 'disc jockeys' but 'mic jockeys' - as they get told what to play (I assume by people who are old. and not cool. and think RnB is the answer to everything. argh!) Also, if the DJs were playing what they wanted to hear, they would stop taking the piss out of the music they're playing (often - especially Moyles and (the wonderful) Mark and Lard). It doesnt exactly inspire confidence in the station's 'mission statement'.

2) In the classical world, Commercial stations (ie Classic FM) play a far smaller variety of music than the BBC equivalent (ie Radio 3). This is because they have to have a hardcore listenership in order to guarantee advertising deals keep coming their way. The BBC dont have to worry about this, so their stations (like radio 1 in the pop world) should be a bit more adventurous with their music - they are after all providing a 'public service'. Educate us for fucks sake.

I think Radio 1 in the eveings and early mornings, Blue room, Gilles Peterson, Lamaq Live, John Peel (god) is fantastic. Why not have a bit more of this variety during the day? - I personally cant bear to listen to Radio 1 for more than an hour or so during the day because you soon realise they only have about 20 trackis on their playlist. SO if they ever bring Mark and Lard back, come find my mixing between their hugely amusing links and mp3s from my own collection, in order to avoid the drivel that is the daytime playlist.

Politically correct hat off:

The kind of mindless wankers that enjoy RnB and Scooter 24/7 dont have the brain capacity to object to more variety during the day (so would probably still listen), and even if they dont, there are a million crappy yokal stations playing this shit everyday (plus they can save some money off their next tacky faux-leather three piece suite by listening out for the DFS adverts, and singing along to the abomination against music that is 'follow the leader' while bouncing along the coventry ring road on the way to their bail hearing in their hyundai coupe (the worst car on the road))...

And even if Radio1 do lose their listenership - it shouldn't matter. Theyre the BBC. THEY DONT NEED LISTENERS. WE PAY WHATEVER THEY PLAY. educate us. go crazy fools.

ahhh - rant over."

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