Looking back, it's been quite a while since I last made a blog, and even longer since I made one of these Music Rants ("Hey guys it's Crono I'm going to make a big series of music rants even though I'm really only making 2 in July then never doing any again hahahaha"). I figured it's about time I got started on these rants again, and I figured there's no better way to begin than with an issue that I've been thinking about a lot lately: the radio.

Now, let me make one thing clear: I don't flat-out hate listening to the radio, and I actually do tune in to some local rock stations when I'm in the car or sometimes when I'm just sitting around at home and want to listen to something different. But whether it's some clas-sic rock station or a country station or a "today's best music" station, all radio stations have one big problem: they all focus entirely on playing very mainstream music to their target audiences, and this in turn has warped the music industry into the mess that it has become.

I think the biggest contributors to this problem are all these new, trendy stations that promise to play "the best mix of everything" or "today's best music." Now, you guys probably know my musical tastes pretty well by now and can tell that I object to all the talentless garbage that plays on the public air waves. But that's not the only problem that I see here. The bigger issue is that all of these radio DJs are really just taking these brand-new musicians who seem the most likely to fit in with the modern age demographic (in other words, your Justin Biebers, your Rebecca Blacks, or your Lady Gagas) and playing their music constantly because the DJs feel that this is what will get their station more attention.

Now, I can understand that this is the easiest way for a radio station to become popular with the in-crowd. But let's stray away from the posers with the number-one singles and the multi-million iTunes downloads to take a look at the newer musicians who weren't so lucky with the record companies. The music industry is a competitive place, and every day there are probably thousands of new bands and music groups forming all around the world trying to score a record deal or get their new songs on the radio. But it's pretty clear that only a select few of these musicians will get any airplay on the radio, and these will be the ones with the shallow love songs, the eternally young-looking faces, and the trademark haircuts. The music industry gets more and more cliché by the day, doesn't it? And so the story ends with all the talented, original performers being forever hidden in the shadows of some teenage money-magnets with incredible luck.

But even with all of these trendy radio stations that get the most attention from the today's generation of youth, all of the rock n' roll radio stations, or any radio stations that play music several decades beyond their time, are also large contributors to the problem. Every time I tune in to one of my local rock stations, I hear something along the lines of "Rock n' Roll's greatest hits" or "the best of old-school rock n' roll." Now, don't these slogans sound awfully familiar? If they do, it's because these stations are no better than their newer counterparts; they have the exact same strategy of playing mainstream music to captivate their audience. The only difference here is that the music played is several years older, because most of it is used to appeal to a different age group (well, unless you're a rare exception like me, a teenager who listens to music that my parents grew up listening to).

The thing is, this problem on the radio has been going on for decades now. Just ask Frank Zappa, who's actually a lot better at explaining the situation than I am. But we basically have the same issue of record companies selecting what music should be seen as good and hip by that generation and then radio DJs secretly conveying that the quality of all music is determined by its popularity. Fast-forward to the present, and we'll see that only a select percentage of the bands to exist during that time period get any airplay on the radio, and even those bands will only get their most popular songs featured. For example, I can hardly remember any time where I've heard a Pink Floyd song on the radio that isn't "Money" or "Comfortably Numb".

It's really quite sad to think about, but if the music industry doesn't change its stance soon, not only is rock n' roll going to die (and I dread the day that happens), but decades from now we're going to have "old-school" radio stations playing the cliché, corrupted pop garbage we have to deal with now while all the cool, new radio stations continue to play whatever other cliché fad dominates the music industry in the future.

Do you remember lying in bed
With your covers pulled up over your head?
Radio playin' so no one can see
We need change, we need it fast
Before rock's just part of the past
'Cause lately it all sounds the same to me
Oh oh oh oh, oh oh

See you guys next blog.

-Crono