Marc Virata ([email protected])
Thu, 12 Nov 1998 19:25:35 -0800 (PST)
Overplaying Aerosmith is fine for Aerosmith, they're old and
established and probably want their love songs on heavy rotation. But
hearing Sarah McLachlan, Goo Goo Dolls, or Alanis 3 times in an hour
causes people to grow tired of hearing them. In these cases, it's
unfortunate, as these artists generally aren't that established and
success does become the "big bad wolf" as Bono put it.
When 94.1 first started, they played Jewel, Alanis, and Hootie
literally 3 times an hour. Hootie's follow-up album then didn't fare
well commercially and was considered a flop. Why? The songs styles
weren't much different from debut to follow-up album. One big reason
is that the second album was released not too long after the first
when people grew tired of hearing songs from the first album 3 times
an hour. If Hootie waited 4 years or so, things would have been
different. No one gave the album a chance because they were still
OD'd on the previous.
Alanis and Jewel seem to know that releasing an album without
sufficient time for the previous album to disappear doesn't give
people enough time to rid themselves of the overdosing to their music.
You can have too much of a good thing.
The U2 spin on this is that if "The Joshua Tree" became popular in 97
not 87 and "Rattle and Hum" was released in 98 not 88, I would bet
that there would be a backlash from the media and less commercial
success
than Joshua Tree -- a lot more now than in 87. Stations back then did
not overplay to the extent of today. Hearing WTSHNN, ISHFWILF, & WoWY
one time every hour of every day today -- great songs being shoved
down our throats, isn't going to benefit the success of a follow up
album one year later when the oversaturation is still present.
Media loves to overplay and also criticize the artist for being
overplayed. 94.1 had the audacity to say a few months ago (in so many
words) "We have heard you the listener and because we want to make you
happy, we're making this weekend, a Jewel free weekend! We won't play
any songs by Jewel all weekend long!" Who's responsible for that?
It's the overplaying and the backlash of being overplayed that may be
ruining the younger artists today from ever getting to "superstardom"
and possibly why some groups seem to purposely change their sound
(Dishwalla comes to mind.)
I must admit to my own hypcocrisy as these stations are among the ones
I tend to listen to the few times I ever listen to the radio because
my CDs aren't available. I'm in that trap of wanting to hear music I
like, but at the same time having it bombarded constantly is not doing
anyone any good.
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Nov 12 1998 - 19:25:38 PST