Some Blog Site

It seems the radio stations and I have differing ideas about the categories into which they put themselves.

Here are the standard categories:

• Pop
• Adult Contemporary / Soft Rock
• Alternative
• Classic Rock
• Oldies
• Classical

I always put them in approximate decades :

• Pop is current
• Alternative (alternative to what? real music?) is the 90s
• Soft Rock is the 80s
• Classic Rock is the 70s
• Oldies is the 60s and 50s
• Classical is everything else. Except Metal. That doesn’t fit in anywhere except the Hard Rock station. And it transcends decades.

The radio stations have slowly been moving songs between formats. They do it a song here and there and hope that no one will notice.

But I’m onto them. They can’t sneak it past me.

I’ve noticed that the songs that were once considered Classic Rock are now played by the Oldies station. Songs that were Alternative are now Soft Rock. Songs that were Soft Rock are now Classic Rock. And no one plays Oldies anymore. I mean, when was the last time you heard How Much is that Doggy in the Window?

I’m thinking the radio stations’ formats are defined by relative decades, not absolute decades. So the Oldies station plays songs that are 40-some years old, the Classic Rock station plays songs that are 30-some years old, Soft Rock songs are 20-some years old, Alternative are 10-some years old, and Pop (if they still call it that…what is it? “today’s hits”?) is 0-9 years old.

I don’t want to switch formats. I don’t want to become an Oldies person.

They should keep things stable. Then when an audience no longer exists, the station should switch formats to a new style.

That’s the way generational naming works. Baby Boomers aren’t just people in their 50s and 60s. And Generation X isn’t just people in their 30s. No, they are defined by being born in a particular range of years.

And that’s how songs should be.

On an unrelated note: I could tell I am officially old because I referred to the 21-year-old guy who won the poker championship in Las Vegas last week as “that kid”. I think, technically, 21 means he is a man, not a kid. But you know those youngsters these days…