Kind of a bourgeois question but whatever. People do actually listen to these radio stations. They will actively seek out radio stations that really do just play the same five or ten rock hits from the seventies, maybe mixed with some modern garbage. Why do they do this? What is going through their minds on the conscious and unconscious levels?
Music sound good
They’re not looking for any kind of taste or distinction or novelty, they’re looking to listen to what’s familiar, what they’ve heard a thousand times before already.
They are basic.
I drive an old shit box with a busted CD player so I listen to my small town’s golden oldies station. Yeah, it plays a beach boys song every 30 minutes, but it also plays load of Tommy James, original Cher, and also local news. I listen to a wide selection of music, but you are also neglecting fact that the 70’s was the best decade for music. Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad, Cher, Jackson 5, disco, funk, prog rock, and even punk. What gets airtime on classic rock stations are the songs that have stood the rest of time.
boomer tier ossification of culture take
Are you saying that Going to California isn’t an amazing song? Or Carry On My Wayward Son? I’m 30 years old and most of my record collection is from the 70’s because there was great and interesting music coming from then as opposed to the 80’s which is just over synthed music someone wrote in 20 minutes after cleaning their nose in the bathroom, or the 90’s when everyone was just trying to rip off Nirvana. I then wrap back around and like loads of dance bangers and indie music from then I was in grade school. Good music is good music man. It’s no different than any other art or even athletes. There is a reason everyone knows Babe Ruth but no one remembers his team mate Samuel Byrd.
edit: I’m coming back in for more here. So I have loved Lady Gaga for the past 16 years. I know all her songs. And so now whenever I listen to David Bowie, all I hear is how he influenced her. “Classic rock” as in the wider rock and roll movement from the post war west is the foundation of modern pop music regardless of genre (excluding stuff like classical and jazz). Songs that capture a moment/era/feeling that everyone is experiencing at the time do well and inspire the next generation of artists. The major hits/acts are what everyone gets exposed to, and those who want more will dive deeper. Those who just want background music won’t care, and can never be brought to care.
Another way of saying this is that they could play more songs less frequently, but they choose to play less songs more frequently. This increases the common familiarity/overlap that people have, and it makes it easier for dullards to follow along at the same rate, but it makes everything less distinctive, and more competitive.
Each of these well-known bands wrote more than their greatest hits. Any artist will make scores if not hundreds of songs, and they’ll be lucky to have as much as 3 make it high on the charts. The other songs are rarely outclassed, they’re just not picked. When you say “I’ve loved Lady Gaga for 16 years”, I presume you aren’t just talking about her 5 biggest hits.
What we have going on is a familiarity/conformity process shaping what gets played. It translates the subjectivity of what is good music into a positive feedback loop of popularity. Most people end up not listening to all that much besides what is selected for by these stations.
In my experience, if you hear a song frequently enough, you get bored of it and it diminishes how much you like it (the exception is if you’re practicing singing/playing it as a musician).
ah sorry, my read was all wrong. This is actually a navel gazing “i was born in the wrong era” take
Alrighty, so then what do you like to listen to so I can tell you all about how you are wrong and have no taste then.
i refuse to engage with this nonsense. You’re trying to flatten all of the human experience of music into a single bucket of “good music” based on a laughably narrow standard.
It’s naive and juvenile, and I’m not going to encourage your ego by getting pulled into a “which Beatle is the cute one” debate
That’s not at all what I am doing. I’m saying that classic rock has plenty of shit music. The Monkees are just a Beatles rip off that had some hits, but contributed little to the wider movement. But the greatest hits are what built the foundation of modern music, and you can hear it’s echoes in modern music. There would be no techno or modern EDM without funk and disco icons from the 70’s, no metal without Rainbow and Black Sabbath. All music is a reaction to what the creator has heard before. Classic rock stations playing the same 50 songs from the 60’s-80’s is no different than orchestras playing the same rotation of classical music, no different to why everyone recognizes Beethoven’s Vth symphony, but only nerds like me recognize his Pastoral symphony.
the songs that have stood the rest of time.
There is no “test of time”, there is only a self-reinforcing availability bias. Ones that get played more are most familiar, these stations only play what’s familiar, and with each passing year any band or even era becomes a smaller fraction of what is available.
Sure, but there are plenty of Billboard top 10’s from 1960-1980 that no one has ever heard of. Same with stuff from when I was a kid 20 years ago.
I’m one of these people. I’m 40 yo.
The reason is simple: they’re the ones I like the most given the constraints.
First: There are plenty of online radios, but radios on the FM frequencies not so many, so the choice is limited. At home I wouldn’t pick them.
Second: I must choose between either rock radio stations, modern pop music which I loathe - I do enjoy modern indie music, but that’s not what they play on the radio - or news / talk channels.
Therefore, my pick is clear whenever limited by the choices. I like rock music, I know it’s going to be a loop of like 40 songs, but at least it doesn’t suck and it’s not reminding me of the sad status of world affairs.
Edit: I’m European btw, so my guess is that rock music radios aren’t playing rancid country nostalgia as american ones? I honestly don’t know. The ones I listen to are pretty decent
Work truck, no Bluetooth, no better options
So I’m in a work vehicle with someone I don’t know very well. The local top 40 pop and country stations suck. He doesn’t want to listen to a foreign language, so the Spanish station that plays mariachi bangers is out. I don’t really want to listen to classical music. So we put on the dad rock station, not because it excites either of us but because it is tolerable to both of us. We can both kinda recognize the melodies. I think the classic rock stations just are bland in a manner that makes them in offensive at times
Before you turn on the radio: I wanna Rock
When its on: hahaha I’m rockin’
“thank fuck this isn’t top 40, country, or NPR”
they’re specifically thinking nothing. it’s noise they put on to not be alone with their thoughts. the automobile equivalent of turning on but not watching friends or the office for the 9th time
I know a lot of people that largely stopped seeking out new music past high school or their early 20s at the latest.
If it was an age-based thing, I’d expect the stations to slowly move forward in time, as whatever age the average person was in high school creeps forward in time. Instead it’s been the 70s and 80s for decades.
This is a measurable thing. There have been studies that show folks think the best music was made during their late teens to early 30s and generally stop seeking out more stuff after that. But this only shows most people are fools.
I think hitting your thirties and having more responsibility (especially for people who have kids) leaves less time for finding new music.
At least I know there’s cool music being made, but I’m just too tired to spend time finding and listening to it lol
You also don’t have new music marketed at you nearly as aggressively
You are also no longer the target audience. Pop music is especially bad at this. It becomes instantly unrelatable once you’re in your 30s. Songs about partying, songs about tfw no bf/gf, songs about pursuing dreams, songs about being yourself. How about songs about lower back pain or songs about extended family fighting in probate court over some dead uncle’s McMansion?
I hit 30 and all of a sudden Spotify won’t play anything newer than 2017
I feel like that’s sort of what it is for me, I used to hang out with friends after school or my siblings and listen to music, we’d share stuff and get into new things that way. We aren’t able to all get together like that anymore with everyone’s responsibilities and living different places. And I don’t trust youtube or bloggers to tell me what’s good.
I used to go any old cheap show at this tiny venue when I was in my 20s. The venue totally didn’t survive 2020, so I can’t just blame getting old and busy lol
Internet radio stations can be quite good for discovering new music.
I discovered that, contrary to my one experience at a club I was there to listen to minimalist techno, math rock actually fucking slaps via some random station that kept playing it
I have a handful of solid university radio stations in my area, so that’s what I usually listen to in the car (the rare moments where I get to choose).
Remembering all the “huh, that was cool” stuff to check later is a separate problem that I’m ok with lmao
AFAIK it has something to do with establishing your in-group/clique and makes everything not part of that sound like complete ass. I think I’m in this category, because a lot of country and pop sounds like nails on chalkboard to me.
But I still listen to the new stuff being made in the genres I do like. There’s stuff I used to listen to that I can’t stand anymore (JFC what was in the water back in the 2000s that made anyone think numetal was a good idea?).
Nu metal was a CIA psyop to discredit rage against the machine.
I will not elaborate.
I wonder if the means of discovery has changed significantly too. Most of the stuff I discovered in my teens and 20s was via the radio, attending music festivals, or recommendations from people in my circle of friends at the time.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve listened to less and less radio. Listen to mostly Spotify out of convince. My circle has shrank and changes. I go to less music festivals as my time and money is dedicated elsewhere.
I can’t imagine I’m that unique in my experience.
Radio is also dying as a music discovery tool since most stations are owned by one company now
There are some songs I’ve been listening to for decades. But there are a lot of them. And I’m always looking for new music, too.
Yeah I still listen to music that’s decades old too but it seems like a lot of people stagnate and decide everything worth listening to has already been made.
idk, thank god for the local public jazz station
sometimes I just feel in the mood for some steely dan and how dare you criticize my listening habits
I’m thinking, "Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Biiiiiiirrrrrrrrrd, yeah!🤘"😎
There’s a meme that goes something like “The music back then wasn’t better, it just reminds you of a time when you had more hair, less responsibilities, and a smaller waistband.”
