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From: gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Boston's Hit Radio station (Is Springsteen losing it?)
Message-ID: <1974@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-May-84 11:48:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1974
Posted: Mon May 28 11:48:11 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 21:29:55 EDT
References: <1948@mit-eddie.UUCP> <1956@mit-eddie.UUCP> <1962@mit-eddie.UUCP> <1972@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Organization: MIT Lusers and Hosers Inc., Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 62

[isn't it funny where all of these articles are coming from?]

           mit-eddie!gs:
>>	   > Listening to "all hit" radio stations that play from a hit
>>	   > list seems to be the most limiting thing that a music
>>	   > affectionado could do.

mit-eddie!gds:
>>	Why?  Some people *like* top 40!  That is like saying that programming
>>      in one language is the most limiting thing a computer scientist can do.
>>	If it suits him, why care?

mit-eddie!nessus:
> That's an incredibly inane analogy!  With a decent programing language
> you can write an infinite (Aleph Null) number of programs, but 40 songs
> is 40 songs!

For one thing, it may not be the best thing in the world to write EVERY
single program you ever write in one language (for example, writing a
program to compute pi to 1 million significant digits in CLU).  But I
said this for the sake of argument -- my point is that if the person's
preference is to that one language (like mine is to a weekly sample of
40 songs) who are you or anyone else to question him (me)?  Furthermore,
top 40 is not as repetitive as you think -- different stations carry
different playlists (for example, I have a hitlist for an r&b/dance
station which has a fair amount of variety in it -- it's WNTN 1550 am).
It's just a matter of listening to the songs you like for a while, then
turning to the other station when you're tired of listening to the same
things over and over again.  People who listen to stations like 'BCN do
not get a full cross-section of music ('BCN is better than most, but I
have yet to hear any jazz on it, when I was in NYC I *never* heard any
r&b on WPLJ).  Top 40 offers the widest possible range of music --
classical, jazz, rock, r&b, dance, even gospel.  No other format of
music is so widespread.

mit-eddie!nessus:
> ... some of think that there is something greater that can be
> attained in the musical artistic domain than 40 (and mostly 10)
> repetitive, unoriginal, sappy, comercial-jingle-like songs with no
> lyrical or musical value played over and over again.  And maybe we think
> it's pretty damned sad when that's all 98% of the populous wants.
 
Lyrical and musical value is in the ear of the listener.  I am tired of
beating a dead horse, but the value of music is that which the listener
attributes to it, it is not globally or universally determined.  This
kind of argument is what created net.music.classical and some of the
other subgroups of newsgroups -- the inability of people to see past
their own preferences.  These people are under the impression that
"since MY music is a definite category, it MUST be better".  Note I have
never said top 40 is better than anything else, just that it offers more
variety of music than any other (it is all music, in a sense).  That's
why is called "pop" for popular.

Note:  I don't only listen to top 40 -- when I have the chance I go to
Broadway musicals.  I also enjoy movie musicals.  
-- 
                                                  Let fly the bits!

Greg Skinner (White Gold Wielder)
{decvax!genrad, eagle!mit-vax, whuxle, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds

And he who wields white wild magic gold is a paradox ...