The day the music died

If you have been following the news about music lately then you may have heard about something called Payola which is back in the news.  Payola is record companies paying for DJs and radio stations to spin a specific artists record.  We’ll just say number of plays per day of a specific tune.  Anyway, Payola has been a big deal for years, and I started thinking about some of the music that I listen to, particularly the older music, ie Classic Rock genre, and I’m wondering how these stations are making cash since there isn’t really a rationale for Payola for these older stations of music, and yet there are a plethera of radio stations playing this type of music.

This got me thinking, how long will the music that I listen to be viable for airplay?  I mean, you don’t hear music from the 50’s much on the radio anymore, if at all.  As big as Elvis was, when was the last time you heard him on the radio?  The lifespan of music seems to be attached to the radio.  Currently the oldest music that is played, appears to be things from the mid 1960’s to today, say 40 years old.  I know when I was younger that we heard ‘50s music played all the time on the “Oldies” station.  Will Classic Rock become “Oldies” soon?  I don’t think so.  It will always retain a specific label that iconofies it to an era, such as Vietnam.

As people in this particular era turn to non-traditional methods of music listening, iPods, Podcasts, Satellite Radio, Music Videos, I believe radio will quickly find itself needing to transform itself to be a viable music delivery system.

With music on-air having basically a 40 year lifespan, you can bet it is the radio that is making the music die, but it will be those non-traditional methods that will breathe new life into the music of yesterday, the soundtracks of each generation.

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