Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with music and radio

Who makes the station-specific versions of radio songs?

Zephyrial — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:01:33 -0800

Who is responsible for recording / editing those customized versions of pop radio songs that include the radio station's or city's name? You know when a song on the radio has been edited to change some lyric to include "KISS 107" or the name of your city (the most recent example that comes to mind is I heard Kesha - Tick Tock on the radio and the lyric "DJ blow my speakers up" was replaced with "New York City blow it up")? Who is responsible for those?

Does the singer record a bunch of different versions with sponsor-station names in the studio? Are they recorded when the singer records those "Hi this is [name] and you're listening to [station]!" messages? Or do stations hire sound-alike singers to dub over certain key moments with their name / location?

I don't know if anyone will have any insight into this, but it's something I've always been really curious about.

Is the old BBC "My Music" radio series available on CD?

parttimesaint — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:34:47 -0800

Is the BBC radio series named "My Music" from the 60's & 70's available on CD anywhere? This was a companion show to "My Word!" and I can't find it anywhere.

the difference it makes

four panels — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:29:22 -0800

Sort of looking for an Internet Radio Stream that plays kompakt pop/ambient kind of stuff. Thank you!

Cost- and effort-effective way to end up with a large HD full of lossless classical music, legally.

Your Time Machine Sucks — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:58:22 -0800

Cost- and effort-effective way to end up with a large HD full of lossless classical music, legally. Well, after my question here, I'm still not quite satisfied with the quality of my worktime music listening. I'm over my requirement for enjoyable-to-listen-to DJs, which isn't happening in combination with playlists I like, but I'm starting to get annoyed by the digital compression of internet radio. So, I was wondering if it is possible to provide my own classical radio, to myself, by stocking my work HD with large amounts of music I'm likely to enjoy hearing but haven't heard all of before, at lossless or near-lossless quality. Given the following conditions:

1. My fantasy: I would be happy to hear any non-symphonic, non-opera composition written by any European composer known or unknown during the centuries 12-19. Rather than excluding anything out of hand that fits those conditions, I would love the opportunity to hear it and if I hate it I'll take it out of the queue. Hearing some symphonic music or opera isn't a problem, but getting it into the playlist is not a goal of this undertaking. Non-operatic vocal music and proto-opera like Camerata is fine.

2. I'd like to do it legally, without individually purchasing vast amounts of CDs and ripping vast amounts of CDs. I don't have the time or money to build up a new digital music library one CD at a time. I also can't afford to pay for a big classical music library recording-by-recording on iTunes. I don't want to specify what would be too expensive, other than to say that a retail per-album payment approach to creating a radio-station-sized playlist or bigger will be too expensive.

3. Any top-tier performers, any high-fidelity recordings are fine with me. I'm OK with quirks of analog recording, so I guess that pretty much any high-quality recording after the late 50s is going to fit the bill. Please restrict commentary on my total lack of standards about important things combined with freakish pickiness about unimportant things to Memail.

4. I'm up to the task of getting any sound format into one I need for my own setup in an automated fashion. If something is available in a country that I'm not in, I'll do the legwork of figuring out whether it's an option.

OK. So, obviously what I've just described is not even remotely possible. There is no "legally purchase an enormous hard drive full of a single good example of every non-operatic, non-symphonic composition written by a European composer between the 12th and 19th century, performed by anyone acknowledged to be good, recorded decently, in lossless format" product. I doubt it would fit on even a 2TB drive in any case.

My question: what is the closest I can get (even if it's very, very far away), for the least money, as a result of investing the least effort? Examples I could imagine would be: sources of lossless (or at least top-quality lossy) public domain recordings (lots of link-clicking is not excessive effort), labels that sell drives full of their back-catalog releases for much less than the cost of purchasing them at retail, download services that have bulk download deals of recordings that are not the latest and hottest with lossless (or at least top-quality lossy) formats. Thank you for any suggestions!

What music played in the intro of today's episode of NPR's On Point?

niles — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:09:17 -0800

What music was used in the intro on today's episode of NPR's On Point? You can here it by clicking the "listen to this show" button on the top of this page. It's the drum/guitar piece that starts at 10 seconds in.

I know shows like This American Life list out songs that they use, but I can't find any corresponding list for On Point. The words spoken over the music also prevent me from using any music identification programs.

Anyone recognize it? Thanks!

Mumble-mumble-whaty-what?

jordanlewis — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:10:55 -0800

[SongFilter] What the heck is this song playing on my local college radio station? It's been playing on WHPK Chicago for a good 15-20 minutes, and it hasn't significantly varied from sounding like this, except for the removal of a monotonous and steady busy-signal kind of sound.

It's driving me mad! Can you hear what he's saying? (We're marching toward the present? Looking for some pasture?) What is this song?

Pantey Songs

MrMisterio — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:17:01 -0800

We made a magazine all about pants. Not a fashion magazine or anything, just people writing/drawing/doing poems abut pants. Now it's time to launch it and I seem to need some pants-related songs for a radio show. Seems like a perfect question for the hive-mind. Any ideas?

Whoa oh oh. Listen to the music. All the tiiiiime.

TheSecretDecoderRing — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:43:57 -0800

Are you forced to listen to the same music every day at work or elsewhere, and do you like it, dislike it, or just not notice it? Mainly, I'm curious how you manage to deal with it, or if I'm really that sensitive to repetitive music. Or are you the one playing the same station out loud every day? Have you had any incidents arise from it from co-workers/colleagues? And is Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" really that addictive... still? So a couple of office co-workers, whom I otherwise get along with, have taken to playing the same contemporary pop station at work five days a week, nine hours a day. My headphones block it out as long as I'm not listening to talk radio, which I still have to do at times. I may be a victim of particularly sensitive "peripheral" hearing. And if I have to get up and walk around, it's better for me to take the headphones off.

While I've hinted that I'm not a big fan of hearing Kelly Clarkson wail her same three big hits throughout the day, or hearing the chorus of "Keep Bleeding Love" until it makes me want to slit my wrists, it's still something that I (and a couple others) have had to put up with. And this is after having a previous job for five years where the management insisted on playing a similar station for the customers, leading me to develop the ability to recognize certain bad songs after hearing the first fraction of a second.

The only solutions are likely to be either to confront them or tattle to the boss and risk coming off as a jerk (which I have an extreme fear of), or to be a jerk and play my own music out loud, but I doubt I'll do either.

So... yeah. My question remains what's above the fold.

(I had no idea whether to post this under human relations, society & culture, work & money, or media & arts. Or health & fitness.)

Vintage jazz radio streams/podcasts?

1001 questions — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:36:57 -0800

What are some decent vintage jazz radio streams/podcasts *with on-air programmers/DJs*? Two of my favorite radio shows on KBCS ("20th Century Jazz The First Half" with Joannie Nelson and "Vintage Jazz" with Al Barnes) are being discontinued due to management idiocy.

So I'm on the lookout for other shows to fill the huge void that will exist next month. I know "vintage jazz" is broad, but I'm not looking for some very specific music, I'm open to a host of things.

And I don't want to simply hit shuffle on an iPod or listen to streams with random (but good!) music. I want to hear DJs, good ones that talk about what they're playing, ones that have insightful things to say and/or are just a joy to listen to.

song ID: '...you're my butterfly...'

paleyellowwithorange — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:12:11 -0800

Asking on behalf of a friend... 'One day back in 2004 or 2005 I heard a song played on the radio. All I remember is that the song was fairly long, and that at some point it descended into a kind of blissed-out psychedelia, and I remember a stoned-sounding voice saying 'You're my butterfly' with a sense of wonder.' Any ideas?

Help me unlock the power of the four chords.

Beardman — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:43:39 -0800

Why exactly is the appeal of those notorious four chords in pop music? I hear them everywhere, and I am starting to lose my shit. Like many people, I'd been making fun of "the four chords" for years before the Axis of Awesome spoof hit the internet. I had wryly accepted that many songs I like are essentially the same as some of my less favourite songs (even though the starting place of the chords is sometimes switched up: one version goes 1, 2, 3, 4, and another goes 3, 4, 1, 2).

But lately mirth has been giving way to indignation and bafflement. Every day I hear crappier and crappier versions of the same melody. When I do, I grit my teeth and wonder:

1. Can anyone explain why people are emotionally sucked in by this particular chord cycle? My google-fu has failed to turn up any serious account of its popularity. Is there one? Or even a more general account of affective responses to music that could help explain the phenomenon? Or just a bloody hunch?

2. How self-aware is the songwriting/recording industry about this? Do the bigwigs just say, "We need a hit. You know what to do"? (I know it doesn't explain Arthur Russell and David Byrne doing it, but still.)

3. Who started this horror? Pachelbel/Green Day misses by a hair, and I think it's only the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always On My Mind" that goes there; the older Elvis version has a bass note in chord 2 that changes it.

Apologies for the many questions. They all boil down to a single howl of frustration.

Spotify & Internet Radio?

nam3d — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:23:35 -0800

I am a keen user of Spotify which I use religiously, I am also the proud owner of a Revo iBlik RadioStation which allows me to listen to thousands of internet radio stations. I'd like to figure out someway to listen to the music from Spotify on my radio station without any wires. One way I thought I could get around this is set up my own 'radio station' on my computer and stream it to my radio. What software (on the mac (10.5) would you reccomend me using to stream spotify, and is this at all possible?

Thanks.

What Indie Band Goes Best With 70's Rock?

Lipstick Thespian — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:02:17 -0800

Who Are The Journeys and Joni's Of Today? I am doing a 70's music show for a local radio station next week, and I am thinking that a cool theme would be pairing an iconic 70's artist with an indie band or current band that obviously sounds like/was influenced by/would be one of those "if you like X, then try Y" bands.

I want to play them back-to-back to juxtapose the old with the new, blah blah blah.

What I'm hoping the Metaverse will come up with is great rock analogies for this set, i.e. say the Doobie Brothers paired with Kings Of Leon, or Yes with The New Pornographers.

I'd love your suggestions and if anyone's interested after this post, the show airs 10 - Noon EST here: wscafm.org next Monday, 4/20/09. Show's called Raised on Radio.

What's this song?

Lou Stuells — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:09:31 -0800

What's this song? It was on US Top 40 radio in the late 80s. It's a mashup sorta thingie of musical styles, starting out with a big band playing "In the Mood" and moving forward through different popular music styles to the modern day. IIRC at the very end there is a brief return to a little bit of In the Mood.

Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?

Beardman — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:43:06 -0800

I like to gripe about Top 40 radio, but I don't have much of a technical music vocabulary. Are there names for the vocal styles of Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, et al.? Recently I found myself trying to articulate the particular way that these singers deliver lines, and I quickly ended up using unsatisfactory phenomenological language to describe it ("they, um, kind of curl their words in this irritating way...and it's kind of nasal and groany...does anybody know what I'm talking about?").

It got me thinking that I'd like to know more about the technical names for the vocal styles that are commonly used in the music they tend to play at my gym, in the grocery store, and so on. Avril and Taylor were the first to come to mind, but I'm interested in all of it, including, say, that heaving, ogre-ish singing in Nickelback. So: is there any go-to resource for this kind of information, or any informed criticism you can point me to? Or is it really as ineffable as my poor attempts to describe Avril Lavigne would suggest?

(Note: I realize that the most obvious thing to say about vocals in contemporary Top 40 is that they're autotuned to hell and back, but I'm asking about the styles of singing, not vocal production. So the fact that Nickelback typically builds a wall of sound out of vocal overdubs alone isn't what I'm after.)

Help me find widely ranging podcasts

reenum — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:22:05 -0800

Looking for variety of different podcasts or radio shows to listen to. Please give me many recommendations. After a lot of experimentation, I've found out what I like in a podcast.

1. Documentary podcast: A podcast where people tell stories to give more insight into the news or culture, a la This American Life, BBC Documentaries, and to a lesser extent, B-Side Radio. I'm not really into podcasts that primarily do reporting, such The World or 60 Minutes.

2. Music podcasts: I like percussive, drum based music like afrobeat and hip hop. I also like gentle low-key music like bossa nova and chillout. I loved Radio Freetown, but it seems to be on hiatus or off the air. I also like WEFUNK.

3. Comedy podcasts that touch on many topics: I love You Look Nice Today and Widely Ranging Interests. Need more like these.

Any suggestions as to what I need to add to my playlist?

To podcast or not to podcast?

frosty_hut — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:22:33 -0800

How to persuade a local radio arts and music station that they should podcast? I'm a newbie at a radio station. I host a music channel that's one of a couple of others the station offers online. So it's available on HD and also from their web site.

The host of one of the other online channels, Alexa, offers interviews with artists and local mover-shakers. From what I can tell, the managers would like the channel to take off but it's been slow going.

We recently heard from a listener who said she loved the idea of an arts conversation channel, and was particularly interested in an interview with a certain artist. She knew the interview was in that audio somewhere, but she didn't have time to listen to the channel for hours in order to find it. Meanwhile, there was no information on the main web site regarding what time the interview would be playing on the air (or online), so she became discouraged and didn't want to keep listening.

I thought this looked like a huge red flag. Currently there is no web content at all associated with the interview channel--it's just a clickable link, with no clue to content, times of interviews or music, etc. This is an on online channel, but there's no information about it online. It seems to me that podcasting would help enormously. A list of labeled links with the names of the artists would be easy to produce. And podcasts aren't brain surgery. People expect content on demand, they're familiar with the technology, and it's just a no brainer.

So I typed out a simple email in response to the listener's question, and asked everyone: If the listener can't find the interview, why not make it available as a podcast from the main web site?

Alexa replied with a lengthy defense of why Podcasts Are Bad. People will only stay for a minute if they see a podcast link, whereas she wants to draw people in for one thing, and keep them there for all the other stuff on the channel.

I can see why that's desirable, but I don't think podcasting would prevent that result. If a person who only wants the Hot Young Star interview leaves the site after listening to it, he wasn't going to stick around anyway. And in the meantime, you've still got your regular listeners who benefit from the added, easy to find content. Plus, you've added a hit to your page count. Once people who are searching for that famous person start finding our site, it can only swell page hits, which I know they're keeping track of.

I'm a newbie and a part-timer, and maybe Alexa thinks I'm a wet-behind-the-ears jerk. I still think this is a rational suggestion. Anyway, the fate of my own channel is at stake too. If everything we offer looks good to people, they're more likely to stick around long enough to click on my section of the site.

Any suggestions on how to spin this more effectively?

Music database that filters musical acts by genre and their country of origin?

concourse — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:17:25 -0800

Looking for an online music database, music search engine which would allow me to filter musical acts by genre and their country of origin (Canada, specifically). Is there a site out there like AllMusic or Last.fm offering this? I've looked in vain for filtering of this sort from these and other musical databases. I host a music program at a radio station in Canada. In Canada broadcasters must adhere to Canadian content (Cancon) requirements whereby 35% of popular musical selections must be Canadian. I usually struggle to fill that quota each broadcast.

Searching for releases by genre and country of origin using a music database would allow me to better prepare for my broadcasts. I'll be able to sample in advance different Cancon music of a certain style.

Most of what I play is electronica, experimental rock, some hip-hop. I need a way to quickly and easily find similar styles of music to match my broadcast.

While my station indicates which records in its music library are Cancon, the station's largest music category, 'General Music' -- which I draw from most heavily -- covers innumerable music genres: pop, hip-hop, electronic. Jazz, classical, folk have their own categories. Releases in each category are then organized alphabetically.

Right now it's incredibly difficult and inefficient to browse this amorphous music category looking for Cancon releases (again, to fill that 35% quota) that I think might match the style of music I happen to be playing.

For all those beautiful bulemics out there, this song goes out to YOU!

Keter — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:57:43 -0800

A close friend and I are embarking on a collegiate radio adventure through the wrist-slittingly fun world of teenage problems and angst. We're developing a list of musical sub-themes and came to one we like in theory but don't have much material for: Eating Disorders! Does anyone know of any (any) any (any) songs about Eating Disorders? Please share!

I'm in search of the infinite playlist.

cmaxmagee — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:24:11 -0800

I'm in search of the infinite playlist. I work from home and listen to music via the internet all day pretty much every day and I've become very bored with my current options. I've been using Pandora for a long time, but I've found that it is just too repetitive if you listen to it all day. I've created new stations, added new seeds, removed seeds, told it not to play songs for the next thirty days, etc - essentially all the things you are supposed to do if you find that Pandora is getting too repetitive.

And yet, I still find it too repetitive. On top of that, my tastes are extremely eclectic and I love discovering new music, but I find that I'm not doing that on Pandora any more.

So, what I am looking for is a (free) endlessly eclectic stream of music that I can listen to all day. This can be an internet radio station or it can be a Pandora-like app. The broader the better (I'm talking way more eclectic than Morning Becomes Eclectic). I want rock, rap, country, world, jazz, classical, and anything and everything else - i.e. the infinite playlist. Any suggestions?

Please recommend some 24/7 classical music internet radio streams that never feature Fred Child.

Your Time Machine Sucks — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:35:17 -0800

Please recommend some 24/7 classical music internet radio streams that never feature Fred Child. Not his fault, but his voice goes into my ear and takes a shortcut to the irrational anger center of my brain. I like to code while having some classical music on, and ideally some regional American voices occasionally describing what I just heard, but I don't really care for the generic US "cultured" media accent that sounds like a combination between a Californian with strange diction, a gram of soma, and a smiling baby. In the last couple of weeks I was listening to the WGBH HD radio stream, when he came on, at which point I switched to Minnesota Public Radio, which slightly later on ran a Fred Child segment, at which point I found another station, with the predictable outcome the next day. There seems to be some kind of broadcast franchise situation there which I'm guessing is NPR-related.

So, please recommend some classical music streams to me, best case scenario a 24/7 radio station with actual radio-voice-having DJs, US regional accents a plus. If the assertion that there are US regional accents or that someone would enjoy them makes you feel an exciting urge to speak you're branes, skip this one!

Thanks for your recommendations!

Who put the Rang in the ... oh, never mind.

mykescipark — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:19:37 -0800

Persian music aficionados, tell me what you know about Golhaye Rangarang. Earlier in the year, I stopped by L.A.'s finest Iranian record store and picked up a couple volumes of a series called Golhaye Rangarang (or Ranga Rang, depending on who you ask). I'd like to do more serious investigation into the series, but I can't seem to find out a damn thing about it.

The rumors I've heard is that they were part of an Iranian national radio series which aimed to preserve the very finest in Persian classical music and poetry, and enlisted pretty much all the legendary composers, writers, and performers in the country's community to do so. I seem to also recall something about them being the only remaining artifact of this particular endeavor, but this is all feeling very abstract in my head and I just can't recall details.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a single Web site about it. Can anyone fill me in? No such thing as too much information.

(And yes, I could always go back and ask the fine folks at the store, but as nice as they are, they have often fielded my previous scholarly inquiries with bemusement. UCLA Ethnomusicology this ain't.)

Musicheads opening music

DanielDManiel — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:27:56 -0800

What is the opening lead in music for this and other episodes of the radio program/podcast "Musicheads"?

Why is Pearl Jam more Classic Rock than Maiden?

theichibun — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:41:46 -0800

[Curiosity Filter] When did Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Soundgarden become Classic Rock? I was listening to the local classic rock radio station and they started to play Even Flow. Then I remembered that I'd heard Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden played there too, as well as Metallica used on some of the stations promos.

Since I've been essentially radio free for the 3 years I've been to college so far, maybe there's something that I missed. But when did these bands become classic rock?

Are the stations trying to get more people around my age to listen? Is it because they're trying to expand the playlist (which pretty much means they have to get newer)? Were listeners requesting these bands so much that the stations decided to just start playing them?

And maybe most importantly, why am I hearing these bands but still no Iron Maiden outside of Run To the Hills occasionally and whatever is played on The House of Hair?

Home Stereo of the Future, revisted

rouftop — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:34:15 -0800

Looking for a home stereo setup that supports internet radio, traditional radio, CD's and MP3's without a computer in the middle. My wife and I want to buy a nice home stereo system that can handle both the old and the new. This earlier thread from 2005 asks very similar questions to what I'm looking for, but a lot can change in three years.

My wife enjoys listening to internet radio stations using iTunes, but she hates having to leave her computer on when she's just listening to music. She also has an iPod which she uses to listen to audiobooks while at the gym, but sometimes she wants to continue them at home without having to put on earphones. And of course we still have / buy CD's. (heck, sometimes my wife pulls out cassette tapes from high school!)

Ideally it'd also be able to handle surround sound and speakers in different rooms in the house.

Any suggestions?