h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My favorite song would have to be...Truly, Madly, Deeply...favorite band...Savage Garden and my favorite live act...You guessed it, Savage Garden...I'm a fan!
What about everyone else?

Hmmm? Tough one. Depends on my mood. I'm kinda into Californian Punk at the moment, bands like The Offspring. But push comes to shove and a gun to my head fave band would be Barenaked Ladies...fave song would be Aerosmith "Permanent Vacation"...fave album is Iron Maiden "No Prayer For The Dying"...fave live band is KISS or Barenaked Ladies (or possibly Joan Baez)

Still, that late 70's disco always gets me going too!!!

I like Pink by Aerosmith, the Barenakedladies are cool, I like that Hydrofield song, most of the Offsping songs I've heard recently are cool too.
Thanks for posting.

Hmm, favourite song would be Street Spirit by Radiohead...

...fave band used to be Garbage but I'm beginning to rethink that...

...fave live act I'm not sure about. Something dancable but not cheesy.

Thanks for posting
I was a fan of Garbage at one time, I would play "When I grow up" just to annoy my parents, I like Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead...

Hey there,

Actually I just watched a great live set by Green Day on MTV 2...didn't realise before what a great band they are...although the lead singer looks too much like the actor who plays Phoebe's brother in Friends!

Garbage are OK, I used to play them a lot when I was a radio presenter in East England, but they kinda get on my nerves now. Bit too corporate for me (says the guy who likes BNL!)

Radiohead have some defining points but are a tad too whingey for me...like Travis and most Britrock at the moment. Although Lemonjelly are something worth listening too if you don't mind vaguely dance oriented lounge music.

I can agree with you about Britrock, and note I used to be a Garbage fan, the songs lost their lustre after a while. I think I saw Greenday on a programme a few months back- are they the ones that released the "I don't wanna be in the majority..." song?
I've never heard of Lemonjelly though.
Speak to you soon

Hi Jessi

If you haven't heard of Lemonjelly you obviouly haven't been listening to the radio in my neck of the woods recently! They haven't stopped playing The Staunton Lick for weeks now.

Daft rhetorical question - Why is it that when the radio get hold of a good song they play it to death? Is there really that little good stuff around?

Anyway back to the question - I really couldn't say on the song or band - it really does depend on the mood I'm in. Another 'past tense' Radiohead fan here as well (I don't like rubbishing any music but that new album is terrible! - JMHO!)

Best live band - Pink Floyd. Probably the only time I've ever wished I'd spent £25 on tickets for other nights too...

You're right I haven't been listening to the radio recently, I've been spending a lot of time online. I have no idea why radio stations play songs till you're sick of them...It's just one of those things.
The songs you like do depend on what mood you are in, thats why I like Savage Garden so much, there's a song for almost any mood imaginable - from disco to pop, from romance to the bitterness of a broken heart, there's even one song that deals with spousal abuse...Quite a variety.
Jessi.

My favourite song at the moment is 'Unforgiven II' by metallica... but I'll probably have a new one tomorrow... My fovouriye live act would have to be The rock n' Roll Machine. It's just something about a bunch of people who play at a fancy awards ceremony to smash drums, set fire to guitars, and swear at the crowd...

Now, I know it was a rhetorical question but I just can't help myself. As one of "those" poeple who used to be a head of music for several popular large scale radio stations in the UK I can give you a simple answer as to why stations play a song to death.

Ratings!

Simple...they are under the misguided belief (thanks to certain market research companies) that listeners like regularity and repetition of their favourite songs. This means that if a track is popular for any reason, and fits with the station's profile, then it will inevitably be playlisted. If it is a chart hit or heavily requested it will no doubt turn up on the A-list, which usually comprises of 5 songs played in rotation twice an hour. So in theory you should hear an A list song every 2.5 hours or so. try it with Heart FM or Capital (especially Craig David or Robbie Williams). The better stations tend to put the artist on heavy rotation but not the specific song...that way people don't get bored. Take for example Heart 106.2 in London right now. They are running promos featuring actual listeners' complaints. One lady says that she loves Robbie Williams but please be aware that he wrote more than "Angels". A very good point and one that some heads of music have been making for years. However, tighly programmed more music stations allow for low running costs, less chance of listeners leaving and more advertising revenue as you have an obvious style to sell. As most listeners (we are led to believe...falsely?) only listen for half an hour in the morning and maybe an hour in the late afternoon, the repetition of songs shouldn't be a problem...but as we all know...it is!

Ho hum...radio, it's a strange business, whether it be music oriented or features based.

Rhetorical question...wasn't Richard O'Brien better than Ed Tudor Pole as presenter of the Crystal Maze?!

Sorry to broe you all

Dr Neil
(Resident Radio anorak!)

Dr Neil, something I've always wondered, (as I know nothing at all about music radio); can a station play any music it likes without worrying about copyrights, or do they have to pay the record company for the use of a particular song, or how does it work?

I say bring Richard back...I miss him, I loved his leopard print jacket!!!

To bore you even sillier, Peregrin, here's the answer :

When you apply for a license to run a radio station in the UK you have to tell the authorities (in this case the radio Authority) what sort of station you are gonna run. So if it's a pop station, you have to specify core artists, percentage of music to chat, percentage of local info against national and so on. Once you get the go ahead to have the station on-air, you then apply to an organisation called PRS, or the Performing Rights Society. They ask you a lot of questions about the artists you play, the regulairty of the songs, the repetition of artists/songs, the likelihood of new bands being played etc... You are then issued with a license that represents these issues, also taking into account the geographic location of the statio, the number of potential listeners, the competition from other stations and 101 other factors. These licenses can cost from a few hundreds of pounds (for charity or short term stations) to thousands upon thousands of pounds (for Capital and Virgin). The stations are regularly put into a PRS survey (usually twice a year for a month) and the station is expectecd to report back to PRS with EVERYTHING that they played, the durations, artists, composers, publishers, etc... This is a job I used to do for several stations and it is hell, as usually the breakfast show morons forgot to write down the details of smalls snippets of music they use in their comedy spots, or some advert producer didn't keep a note of the music he/she used on a particular advert, etc... Eventually you send in the report and PRS cross check it with their own report that they have been compiling over the same period (yes, they actually pay people to sit there listening with stop watches!) You are allowed to make a certain percentage of mistakes (usually up to 10%) without too much trouble. However, if you get it too wrong PRS tend to increase your license fee and put you into survey more often (there are some stations in permanent survey!) If you do a good job they give you a discount...which is nice.

PRS then tally (approximately) what is played and what is paid and every six months composers (not necessarily the artists or bands) get a nice check for x amount of money. It is an imperct science but one most people seem happy with.

So in theory you can get away with playing anything you like, as long as it isn't within a survey period or if it is, that you report it's useage. Adverts have another rule that means you need to get an MCPS license (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) This protects the record companies' right to own the mechanical source e.g. CD or tape If you want to copy it to another format (in this case a radio commercial) you have to pay a flat rate (between £8 per 30 seconds per station per three months up to hundreds of thousands in some cases.) Try using a "real" song like a Beatles track and watch that cost sky rocket. That's why we generally use library music, especially composed for adverts.

There are tons fo rules and regs but it's quite basic in theory. In the US there is a similar organisation called ASCAP (American Society for Copmosers and Publishers) which does what PRS does in the UK. There are several more around the world, and they all collaborate to ensure the composers/publishers get their rightful share of broadcast revenues. It doesn't pay to avoid your PRS/ASCAP license fee I can promise you (instant revoke of broadcast license in some cases!!!)

Hope that answers the question for you. Needlessly complicated as usual knowing me.

Groove on young warriors of Asgard (or something!)

Dr Neil
(Radio nerd)

Ah... thanks for answering... I never realised it was all done that carefully! I can see now why the concept of pirate radio was so alluring in the last few decades...

Still, it provides plenty of jobs

Best song? Depends on the day. Probably Thomas Tallis' "why fum'th in fight" from Archbishop Parker's Psalter. Best non-classical song, I would rather go blind by Christine Perfect. Oh yes indeedy.

Best live act? In the history of the world, ever? Freddie and his queens. No contest.

Best band? Impossible. Maybe Pink Floyd, possibly the Pretenders.