do you know how many of the best songs ever written never made it to radio?  and if they did it was a sliced up smaller version of what it was meant to be.

radio plays what the record company pay them to play so you are hearing not whats good, but what sells, and just cause something sells doesnt make it good or the best, and this is true in a lot of places

you cant honestly think that at the majority of the corporate radio stations in this country that there is a group of people deciding what to play based on if its good or not.  its what they are told to play by the people who own the station, own the record companies, or a band somehow related to a band currently popular.  ashlee simpson (may she rot in hell) releases music thats catchy but does that make it better than track 12 off of nirvanas in utero?  no, its just whats shoved down your throats because its catchy and manufactured like the rest of the music on the radio except for a very small amount of bands.  Joss Stone is on her 3rd album and this is the first time she is going to write the lyrics herself, when asked if she was also doing the music, she said god no, i wouldnt want anyone hearing how bad that is.  so shes a singer, not a singer/songwriter, not a singer/performer, just sings.  and now that she acheived fame with crappy covers/songs she didnt write, she is trying the songwriting thing while there are 1,000s of artists out there doing everything (writing, singing, playing instruments) to acheive the success she has without her ever writing a song, but she looks good and thats important i guess (insert vomit here)

if you keep listening to the “catchy” music, the music industry will continue to spiral out of control and lose any quality it has remaining.  listen to what an artist wants you to hear, not the record company.  listen to a track 13 on a cd instead of 2 or 3 (the singles).

ugh, i’m getting sick talking about this

In fact, it seems that after an artist makes their debut, none of the followup songs ever sound as good.  There are exceptions like the megastars that have been around forever, but most artists appear to be one-hit-wonders.

[Edit: Also, I’m not counting compilations or Greatest Hits stuff, obviously]

sux huh. i think its all filler music…they pick the single cuz its better than the other songs, then hope you buy the cd for just that one song….unfortunatly, with song swapping and stuff, its hard to make that kind of sale anymore. hopefully we’ll be seeing less one hit wonders now, and higher quality cds.

i shall be coming out with a cd soon, and it will be ALL good music, impossible to hate.

....

Not even song swapping.  Even plain old music services like allofmp3 sell songs a single at a time.  Someone once told me that back in the day 8-tracks had NO fast-forward feature, so all of the songs had to be good.

Now, I bet things are going to just get worse.  :|

I’ve always just chalked it up to marketing.  Its funny I listen to alot of independent music and find that the ratio of quality songs to filler is considerably less.  Now it could be argued that smaller bands need to produce better CD’s in order to have a better chance at becoming more well known.
I still think popular bands consciously decide to place two quality songs and the rest filler on each of their CD’s all in the name of the almighty buck.

Interesting observation about the independent labels.  I got a friend who’s making a rap cd and even he admits that there’s that one good song, and the rest people have mixed feelings about so far.

I can’t believe that people would put out crap, just to fill a CD.  And here I was thinking maybe they just don’t know a good song when they make one.  I find that hard to believe too.  :think:

I’m sure there will always be one song on an album that stands above the rest.  I didn’t articulate my point well enough, I am not suggesting that bands purposely put out crap, but rather that they may withhold obvious “good” songs if they already have one or two “good” songs on the upcoming CD.  They then have a cache of album anchor songs in which to create new albums with.
This is not to say that all artists do this, Tool for one has a number of albums in which most of the songs on each album are quality.  I’m sure it happens elsewhere as well.  But if you look at bands that come out with one or two very good songs an album and the rest sub par, you realize the band has the ability to create quality music consistently.  It just seems that they spread it out over multiple CDs.

A lot of times, labels find people that can be in a band and put them all together, whether they play instruments or whatnot, sometimes these people arent even really friends and live apart completely, but once every 2 years or so, the label tells them its time to put out a new record and tour, so they work with a producer and go into pre production and write songs.  The producer knows whats going to be popular and a lot of times they put more effort into a certain song to make the chorus bigger and catchier. 

This would be opposed to an [indie] band of friends loving music and writing it with eachother constantly, and practicing constantly.  That is why a lot of times it seems like indie bands put out better music, because they are a real band, have a love for music, and arent just out to make money.

[quote author=“8link”]
This is not to say that all artists do this, Tool for one has a number of albums in which most of the songs on each album are quality.  I’m sure it happens elsewhere as well.

Yeah its like Tool and Radiohead, whose contract with their labels gives them complete artistic/creative freedom.  A lot of times with bands, their labels contracts dont give them that freedom so you get sub-par songs, sometimes the great songs might not sound good to the lowest common denominator of the people, but it is the greatest song on the album and because the record label doesnt approve of it, it doesnt get put out, it gets shelved. Lame huh?  That is why people say MTV ruins music, but in reality its just crappy bands selling their souls to the devil.

This is crazy.  Seriously, everyone should know a great song when they hear it.  It’s instantly catchy, full of great rhythm, and sticks in your head for the rest of the day. 

Filler should be unacceptable.  That’s the reason P2P is so rampant.  No one is paying for all that filler.  👏

Well everyone has different tastes.  I dont think its that simple, because there are trends with genres of music.  A lot of popular music from different time periods, people think sucks today.

yea there are always sucky songs on an album.  The more songs on the album the more sells it will get.

This is why we buy Best Of albums. 😊 Not too hard, right?

Not every song on an album should be radio friendly.  There is not one cd I own (and i have a collection of over 500 CD’s) that I don’t like 75% of the album.

Sure they don’t catch instantly but you learn to like a song the more you hear it and the more you can appreciate it.

i work in the music industry and have a different opinion than most people because i’ve been on the consumer end and the business end

I probably shouldnt have posted here, i want to argue my point but realize i am not in the mood to take the time to really organize my thoughts

:::picks a music fight with Mr. DougKaplan:::

😛 jk

Yeah I want to hear what you have to say.  Not to argue, Im just interested.

If you’re listening to an album where at least 3/4 of the album isn’t worth listening to, you’re listening to the wrong stuff.

couldnt have said it better myself

any artist creates the kind of music they want to, and if you only like one or two songs, thats what napster, itunes, or singles are for. its impossible to say just cause you like one song means you should like the others.  if that was the case then artists would just be creating the same music 12 times on a cd but what good is that?

there are bands who basically do the same song 12 times on a cd and if you like one you will like them all but they lack creativity and originality.

i love my mp3 player because putting it on random i hear tracks from cds that radio never got there hands on and 9 out of 10 times, the tracks not released to radio are better than the ones people know.

also, going in with the mentality that you are just going to listen to the songs you know and if you decide to give the other ones a chance, thats going in with a negative attitude.

bottom line, dont buy the entire cd if you only like 1 or 2 songs, because you will end up only liking 1 or 2 songs.  If it doesnt sound radio friendly past the two songs you know, thats ok.  A song doesnt have to sound radio friendly to be good.  Listen to it for what the artists wanted you to hear.  Usually the singles are what the record company wanted from the artist and its up to you to listen deeper to hear what songs the artist actually wanted you to hear.

Once again, its hard for me to find the words I am trying to say to explain my point and I feel I am failing so ill stop here.  It just gets me nervous managing an unsigned band relying on people coming out to concerts to find that most people only like 1 or 2 songs on a cd.  We need people to stay for a show and no concert is only 1 or 2 songs long, its usually the entire cd and if you only want radio friendly songs played for you, then people like the band i manage are screwed because no artist should only be doing songs that are instantly easy on the ears, unless you want to be on MTV or other crap musical outlets.

List of CD’s where all tracks are awesome:

Thrice - The Illusion of Safety
The Used - The Used
The Used - In Love and Death
Fall Out Boy - Take This to Your Grave
Senses Fail - From The Depths of Dreams
Senses Fail - Let it Enfold You
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
New Found Glory - New Found Glory
Taking Back Sunday - Tell all Your Friends
Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want to Be
The Roots - Tipping Point
Xzibit - Restless
The Movielife - The Movielife Has a Gambling Problem
Sublime - Sublime

[quote author=“DougKaplan”]
there are bands who basically do the same song 12 times on a cd and if you like one you will like them all but they lack creativity and originality.

I remember how Milli Vanilli (though they were a fraud) had like 4 songs on the album that had the exact same beat: Girl U Know It’s True, Don’t Forget My Number, All Or Nothing.  It was hilarious.

[quote author=“DougKaplan”] i love my mp3 player because putting it on random i hear tracks from cds that radio never got there hands on and 9 out of 10 times, the tracks not released to radio are better than the ones people know.

I hear what you’re saying.  I’ll play a little devil’s advocate and disagree, though.  I find that the songs that get the airplay are getting that airplay precisely because it has a catchy, mass-market appeal, making it a “better” song.  If it’s good, it will get some kind of airplay most of the time. 

Sometimes the radio shoves a song out there that no one cares about, and that’s because there was only one or two good songs on the album to begin with.

As for other albums where all the songs were good:

Thriller - Michael Jackson

[quote author=“DougKaplan”]
radio plays what the record company pay them to play so you are hearing not whats good, but what sells, and just cause something sells doesnt make it good or the best, and this is true in a lot of places

you cant honestly think that at the majority of the corporate radio stations in this country that there is a group of people deciding what to play based on if its good or not.  its what they are told to play by the people who own the station, own the record companies, or a band somehow related to a band currently popular.

Since you’re closer to the music industry than I could ever hope to be, I’ll give you credit for your response.  You know, I always wondered how a radio station gets paid.  You say it’s through music corporates telling them what to play.  I always thought that commercials were providing the revenue, and DJ’s play whatever they like, or whatever’s been requested enough times.

They do, but they might be getting money from the record label too.  After all, them playing a song is an advertisement for the band/album/label.  Clear Channel owns a lot of these radio stations too, so im sure there are dirty deals in the works too.  But DJs cant play what they want, they play whats supplied to them usually by the record labels.

It’s because we don’t live ‘back in the old days’
‘Back in the old days’ you had to make a great album from start to finish, because there was no skipping tracks or fast forwarding, you just had to hear it and it had to be good!
Some things from the old days were great.

Because you buy music not meant to have all the tracks heard. You buy music that is made to have 1 or 2 MTV/Radio hits and thats it. You basically buy ###### music. You actually listen to a respectable artist and you will get consistent records.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/business/22music.html?ei=5006&en=8ebdaf425d40cc0a&ex=1099022400&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position;=

for those who didnt believe that radio stations are told what to play

It really does seem like there are only one or two good songs on cds lately. That is why I have been looking for cheap cds of people I have never heard of so that I don’t expect much from them to begin with. In this experiment, I have found quite of few cds that I have enjoyed all of.