(no subject)

[cheekbones3]

After observing the generally dismal performance in quiz music rounds of younger participants, I'm wondering if they are just struggling due to a lack of general musical knowledge (as I did on occasion at that age, although nowhere near that much), or whether the explosion in sources of musical broadcasts, and the one-dimensional nature of many of these sources is meaning that a lot of people are now illiterate to most music outside their own sphere of interest. Conversely, this may always have been the case, but I point to such programmes as "Pick of the Pops" which used to expose me to a lot of older music when I listened to Radio 1 constantly during the eighties, which now has fallen victim to an almost exclusively contemporary playlist, and resides on Radio 2.

(Please bear in mind, this is my usual back-of-envelope thinking, and coherence may only come after I see some results coming in, or at least how uninformative my options are)

And so, a poll!:


[Poll #598249]

Comments

[deililly.livejournal.com]

What kind of stuff do the kids usually fall down on?

[skx.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough this was a recent topic of conversation amongst some friends.

One idea which was suggested is that there were "fewer" musical artists around in the "olden days" so many tracks had were played more often (over weeks), and were from established bands.

I'm not sure this holds since there were certainly enough one-hit-wonders around in the 80s 90s. But nowadays it is rare that I hear the same song more than once or twice. If it is new it is promoted repeatedly then fades away.

Most of the current radio stations seem to only play the "hit of the day". Next week they're onto something new - so you never really learn to recognise or remember them.

(Of course it doesn't help that so many bands these days are formuliac and identically skinny/inoffensive... Makes one group sound much like another.)

I'm not sure I agree fully, but it was one perspective I remember being raised. I think there is certainly a big difference in listening to tunes on radios now, the DJs seem to give you less trivia - it is either adverts, news, or the next track - no discussion about what they've just played, or about to play. That kind of thing has got to cut down on general music-trivia that people take up.