War Of The Worlds!! Why people believed it 75 years ago. And STILL keep believing it!

This hour of Radiolab: an examination of the power of mass media to create panic.

In our very first live hour, we take a deep dive into one of the most controversial moments in broadcasting history: Orson Welles' 1938 radio play about Martians invading New Jersey. "The War of the Worlds" is believed to have fooled over a million people when it originally aired, and it's continued to fool people since--from Santiago, Chile to Buffalo, New York to a particularly disastrous evening in Quito, Ecuador.

http://www.radiolab.org/2008/mar/24/

MUSIC: Hundreds of John Peel shows for streaming!

For fans disappointed that the online debut of the late John Peel’s record collection didn’t feature actual music off those platters or broadcasts by the legendary British DJ, here’s the real deal: a streaming collection of 458 episodes of Peel’s show, presumably digitized off cassettes, that totals 846 hours and spans the years 1967 to 2004.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/09/11/john-peel-archive-stream-458-shows/

MUSIC: IOWA UNSIGNED JUNE 3RD, 2012

IOWA UNSIGNED JUNE 3RD, 2012: "THIS MUSIC IS SO GAY" SHOW, MOONRABBIT, DEAD HORSE TRAUMA, MYSTR N, KID CURRY, THIS SUDDEN DARKNESS

MUSIC: Country Music Ain't What It Used To Be

My friend, Ernest T Spoon, sent this to me. It's from discgolf.com. - OlderMusicGeek

In Iowa there are two types of AM radio. Republican Radio and Country Music (which is basically Republican radio).

While listening to a couple of those stupid country songs I got pissed. Today's country music is a big formula. They sing every song about, being a good daddy, going to church, they love freedom, they love the flag, they came home from the war with one leg but they still love their country, then some more church references and they finish it up with I love my wife blah, blah, blah.

This p***ed me off. When I was a kid and I heard country music I wanted to grow up and live one of those songs. The old songs used to be about drinkin' beer, drinkin' whiskey, you're wife left you because you were drinkin', you got into a fight at the bar because you were drinkin', you called you boss after a night of drinkin' and said "take this job and shove it." Country music used to be about being p***ed off and if they weren't p***ed off they would sing about banging their buddies wife.

Ol' Johnny Rocket was an impressionable kid. It sounded pretty cool to do a bunch of drinkin' then banging your buddies wife as long as she was worth it.

But NOOOOOO today's country is about being a big sappy boring loser.

Today's singers of these songs are down right stupid. One of the biggest southern drawl singers is from the South, South Australia that is. Keith Urban, there is no way his real last name is Urban. The song we heard was about how he was in love with his wife. Well big whoopty doo. You wouldn't have heard George Jones singing about that stuff. He was singing about Drinking White Lightnin', His biggest song was "He stopped lovin' her today." He stopped lovin' her because the Ol' Possum was out drinkin' and started eyeing up his buddies wife.

Even the chick singers used to sing about banging. Barbara Mandrell had a song called "Sleepin' single in a double bed." She was sleepin' single because her husband was probably out drinkin' and trying to bang his buddies wife.

Another guy who is real popular today is a five foot nothin' midget named Kenny Chesney. This guy sings about drinkin' which you think is cool but it's about sippin' Pina Coladas on the beach. Johnnny Cash never sipped a freakin' Pina Colada. When Merle Hagard was sittin' in prison he wasn't dreamin' about the beach, flip flops and pina coladas. They were all thinkin' about liquor, beer and what their buddies wife was doing.

Kenny Chesney is blind as a bat without his glasses. So what do they do for his publicity posters? They take his glasses off, he squints like he just smoked a monster bowl and his fans think, "Oooh that Kenny Chesney probable smokes a lot of weed when he's at the beach."

Willie Nelson never have to take his glasses off to look cooked. About ten years ago I heard Willie Nelson on Howard Stern. Willie who is about eighty years old beat Howard in a contest to see who could roll a joint faster.

Those old country guys were the real thing. Not the losers they got now singing like Leo Sayer with a southern accent.

If I want to feel all warm inside I don't listen to Country Music, I buy a pint of blackberry brandy.

A link to the original site

TELEVISION/VIDEOS: An NPR Interview with One of My Favorite TV Stars

Well, I got this off the NPR blog, In Character, which I strongly recommend that you check out. And it showed up on my NetVibes home page. - OlderMusicGeek

On Air: Cookie Monster

» Hear the 'All Things Considered' radio commentary

Elizabeth Blair led off this blog with a post that confessed her fondness for Cookie Monster. Now her magnificent obsession has made it to the radio -- and to the video.

As part of our In Character explorations, we convinced Cookie Monster to come to NPR's New York studios, where Elizabeth talked to him about the boundaries of his appetites -- and got him to answer a version of the Proust Questionnaire. The video is below, as well as on the story page.

Oh, and you'll definitely want to watch through to the end. Check the expression on Blair's face when Cookie pulls that [spoiler deleted] off the desk to eat it. If you're wondering what she's so alarmed about, I'm guessing it's whether she's going to have to pay for the replacement: Those things run thousands of dollars apiece.

--Trey Graham


A link to the original post

MUSIC: Analyzing a Music Pirate's Playlist

Found this article on my home page. It's from The L.A. Times. - OlderMusicGeek

Jammie Thomas, the unlikely saboteur, had an eclectic set of songs collected. Maybe there's a message in her playlist.

By Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2007

Thomas' list has hipsters groaning. It includes some of the most banal Top 40 songs of recent memory: songs by 1980s balladeers Richard Marx and Bryan Adams, quiet-storm beauty queen Vanessa Williams, and the feathered-hair kings in Journey. Teen tastes may be represented by the presence of Green Day and Linkin Park tracks. "In her defense," one respondent posted on the pop-music blog Idolator, "I wouldn't pay for any of these songs either."

But look at the list beyond the prejudices of taste, and another quality surfaces: it's eclectic. A Reba McEntire track represents classic country. There's some Gloria Estefan for that Latin freestyle flavor. It's easy to imagine Thomas chilling out to Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery" after her kids were in bed, or getting out her aggressions after a hard day at the office -- she works for her own tribe, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwa, in the natural resources department -- by turning up "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses.

This is a playlist for a family party, wide-ranging enough for everybody to be satisfied. It has a lived-in feel, with songs spanning four decades, probably marking highlights in the life of Thomas and those she loves. What it isn't, though, is something you'd hear on the radio, or be able to buy on any compilation that's in print.

True, Thomas could have burned a CD of these tracks, from the vast record collection she claims to own. She could have purchased the songs again from iTunes. But what she probably really wanted to do was just hear them occasionally, the way you hear songs on the radio. She wanted a wide array of music, easily available. Radio, split into niche markets and limited by tiny, repetitive playlists, wasn't giving her that.

Pop hits saturate the airwaves, television and the speakers at the mall for a brief time, until they reach obsolescence. Occasionally they'll pop up in a television show or on a film soundtrack. But a pop fan who wants a little country, a little metal and some hip-hop in her life won't easily find it in one environment. Her fingers could get blisters twisting the radio dial.

Popular music has always been a leaky commodity, but the major labels have increasingly narrowed their scope to focus on a few superstars and one-hit wonders. The Internet has made eclectic listening easy again. Thomas' crime (if we must label it that) was in not paying for the tracks she allegedly shared. But in a way, it was an act committed in self-defense, against the numbing effects of an increasingly narrowcast mainstream.

ann.powers@latimes.com

Link to the complete article

Comments from The L.A. Times:

Tell me this, when the U.S. crawls its way up the broadband ladder to where Finland, Hong Kong, or S. Korea are with net speeds of 100Mbps (compared to the U.S.' average 3Mbps), what chance do these media companies have of slowing their inevitable extinction? Other than crippling future technological innovation and lobbying for some Orwellian state with our tax dollars paying law enforcement to defend the 21st century equivalent of the buggy-whip industry.
Submitted by: Plautus
7:28 PM PDT, October 5, 2007

How absurd is it to call what she did piracy. Piracy is an act committed by one who plunders at sea, killing or maiming the victim. To call this piracy is an insult to pirates. This definition was created She shared music with strangers. Sharing, what society teaches kids to do starting in pre-school. Call it what it is, she's guilty of sharing.
Submitted by: blackbeard
7:26 PM PDT, October 5, 2007

Please follow up after the judgment is paid to find out how much of it the labels have paid out in royalties to the artists -- then we'll find out how much it is really about compensating them.
Submitted by: AB
3:25 PM PDT, October 5, 2007

Those who can't innovate and adapt to a changing marketplace call their lawyers. Digital music has made the market more efficient and more porous-- deal with it, or perish. I think it's time to short-sell recording industry stock.
Submitted by: Chris
7:37 PM PDT, October 4, 2007

MUSIC: An Interesting Conversation about Radio That I Had with My Daughter

This is an incident that happened between my daughter and I, and I thought some of you might find it amusing.

We were in the car. My daughter and I have negotiated a deal on the music. She gets to listen to her station when we are going to somewhere, and I get to pick the music when are coming from somewhere. And if we are going to a number of places, we switch back and forth between places.

Well, we were on a way to McDonald's and actually turned down the radio.

"That song is boring," was her response when I looked at her surprised.

"I have to admit, Jen, I find most of the songs on this station boring." - Jen isn't her real name, just an alias I'm using to hide our identities on the web. :) -

To which Jen replied in a huffy manner, "That's because it's not one of your stations playing old people's music!"

"Old people's music?! My stations are ran by high schools and colleges! It's not old people's music!"

"It may not be popular young people's music," I continued, "but it is young people's music."

I, of course, ignored the fact that the people running the stations were high school and college staff members that were probably closer to my age than Jen's.

"And you know who runs your young people's station?" I asked.

Her station was originally an alternative rock station that failed and got bought out by the corporation, Clear Channel.

"No," Jen said. "Who?"

"People my age in business suits!"

And my daughter, taking after her father, showed great reserve and dignity, and yelled, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

God, I love when irony is in my favor!

MUSIC: Save Internet Radio

Call your senators today!



SAVE INTERNET RADIO



SAVE INTERNET RADIO



YOU LIKE MUSIC DIVERSITY?



SAVE INTERNET RADIO!



PLEASE SAVE INTERNET RADIO!!

MUSIC: Future Uncertain for Internet Radio

This is a piece from Radio Paradise's home page. - OlderMusicGeek
p.s. sorry for not blogging for so long - my life's been hectic!

The US Copyright Office has released their new set of rates for the payment of royalties by Internet Radio, and they ignored all of the facts presented by webcasters (including RP) and gave the record industry exactly what they asked for: royalty rates so high that they will put RP and every other independent webcaster out of business. See Kurt Hanson's newsletter for 3/2/07 for the details on how the rates work and what they will mean to stations like RP. You can participate in the discussion about this issue in our Listener Forum.

For some time, we've suffered with a system where we pay a large chunk (10%-12%) of our income to the Big 5 record companies - while FM stations and radio conglomerates like Clear Channel pay nothing. Now they want even more. In our case, an amount equal to 125% of our income. Our only hope is to create as much public awareness and outrage about this staggeringly unfair situation as possible. Neither the record industry nor Congress are ready to listen to us at this point. But members of the media may well be, and we need to get their attention.

If you have a blog, write about it. Feel free to quote anything I've written in the Listener Forum. If you find a good blog post about the subject, Digg it or Slashdot it. If you work for a media outlet, look over the facts of the situation and see if you don't feel the same sense of outrage that we do. Write a letter to the editor of your favorite magazine or newspaper. Let everyone you can know what a loss it would be to you personally if your favorite Internet radio stations, including RP, were no longer available.

The RIAA can, at any time, agree to strike a deal with independent webcasters to allow us to pay a more realistic royalty, one based on a percentage of our income. We're hoping that if all of you make enough noise they'll be more inclined to do so. We'd also like to hope that at least one member of Congress will take a look at this situation and become willing to propose ammendments to the deeply flawed 1990s pieces of legislation that are responsible for the unfair treatment of Internet radio.

Thanks a lot for reading this, and for considering the idea of taking some action on it. We'll be posting new information and links here as they become available.

MUSIC: : In This Digital Music Age, The Listener is King

Here's some excerpts from an article in The Chicago Tribune that gives some hope for the future of the music industry. ("Some" being the key word.) - OlderMusicGeek

In this digital music age, the listener is king
By Greg Kot
Tribune music critic
Published October 15, 2006

MONTREAL -- For six years at its annual policy summit, the Future of Music Coalition has tried to navigate a path through uncertainty. Now, with the music industry in the midst of its most profound transition since the invention of the phonograph more than a century ago, some solutions are finally coming into focus.

The big labels continue to lose money; record sales are down for the fifth consecutive year. Commercial radio has been publicly embarrassed by payola investigations conducted by the New York State attorney general's office, in which record companies admitted that they've been paying off radio stations to play songs for decades. And retail stores are losing business; more than 1,200 closed in the last year, and last week the bankrupt Tower Records chain announced it was closing its 89 stores in 20 states and laying off 3,000 employees.

But the summit was hardly a wake. Instead, a roll-up-the-sleeves optimism prevailed, especially for artists and consumers.

"More people are experiencing music than ever before in the history of mankind," said Paul Spurgeon, general counsel for SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. "The great question is how do we get paid for it?"

Panelists agreed that record companies are now at a do-or-die crossroads. Their prognosis: The labels that survive will do so by spreading sales across a wider range of talent, rather than concentrating on a handful of megasellers to ensure profitable quarterly statements to satisfy anxious shareholders. The new marketplace isn't being built for the 10-million selling act. It'll be about building a foundation for artists that sell less than 100,000 albums.

It makes sense. More than 80 percent of the music that is released in America is made by independent artists who don't sell big enough numbers to attract major-label interest. Yet a handful of corporations continue to haul in the bulk of the shrinking industry's revenue. That's because they concentrate their marketing efforts on a few dozen mega-selling artists, while more than 90 percent of the artists who record for a major label never see a penny in royalties. That business model looks particularly rickety in the Internet era.

System of sharing

A new Internet-savvy music hierarchy is being created. Commercial radio, MTV, retails stores and even record companies are losing their tastemaking status, while consumers are becoming de facto music programmers who share information and music via message boards, Web pages, e-zines and MP3 blogs.

In the process, more people than ever are making and consuming music. Without a physical product to sell, costs for recording and distributing music are sinking. At the same time, opportunities to be heard are increasing. In this world, the narrowest music tastes are being served, and a musical planet encompassing thousands of subcultures is being created.

The debate about the future of music is going back to the past

In a sense, it brought the debate about the future of music back to the past, and the oldest marketing concept of all: playing in front of an audience. It's one thing to hear an MP3 file of a new band like Montreal's Lovely Feathers, quite another to hear that band perform that same song on stage. The breathtaking intensity of the quintet's live performance at Pop Montreal made the songs on their latest album sound quaint in comparison.

"It's hard to quantify how we got noticed," said the Arcade Fire's Win Butler. "No doubt Pitchfork had an impact. But who really cares reading an article? It's the music ultimately. You listen, and you either like it or you don't. For us, we've been so much about playing live and making that connection that I don't know any other way."

"Live music," said former Talking Heads singer David Byrne, "is an experience you can't digitize."

Link to the complete article

ENTERTAINMENT: A Couple of Bizarre Audiofiles

I found these at a site for awards on Australian radio when I was looking for something else, but they're too good not to share.

Surreal FM

The Dangers of Toenail Clippings