A Fine Mess

I was listening to the radio again. Got a couple of nice surprises too. The first one was the return of the region's only smooth Jazz station. It's format changed about two or so years ago, but now it's back with a new twist. It's playing some of today's pop radio hit makers. While this is not the worst that could happen to the station, I personally am hoping that this won't be a permanent change, as this has been done at a cost to a wealth of music that would better fit within the format.

The other surprise came as I was listening to a few of the Rock stations in my area. Wow. The music was really tight. Gone was much of that weepy, dreary sound that had begun to take over the genre. In fact, I actually spent as much or more time listening to the Rock stations then I did any of the others.

The local R&B station still has very little to draw from, since R&B has given itself over to Rap and Hip Hop. There's the quiet storm in the evenings, which features a lot of Romantic oldies sprinkled with today's lifeless imitation of the real thing. Through day however, there isn't much that is new that is uptempo unless it's Rap or Hip Hop, or something from the past. The rhythms of the new stuff are usually tight but the melodies, in my opinion, are still lacking and the lyrics are usually less than imaginative.

As I roamed around the dial, I found that the oldies station was now playing, "everything that was good." Which I might add, was very good actually. It takes a bit of skill to do it, but they played a set list that weaved music from every genre and time period into a seamless progression of some of the most popular music ever to air on the radio. I guess that's a third surprise.

What's most intriguing about my experience is that none of these stations that I listened to are considered as top 40 stations. And, from the sounds of it, I think that none of them care. Alright! I don't know what this means or if it means anything, but it was refreshing.

I think that it's too soon to tell though. Something's got to happen with R&B before I could say personally that, maybe real music is making a come back. But, I think that it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.