Looking for something to say about the radio. An itch to scratch.
Why do people listen to the radio nowadays? Short research and it turns out it’s for the novelty aspect of it. The possibility of being exposed to a new piece of information, being kept up to date.
Why then is Elton John No.1 in radio top 40 charts? And number 5. And not with new songs. With remakes. Why are the other songs exuding 60’s and early 2000’s? Where is the ‘novelty’? What is going on with this nostalgia?
I see it in the streets too. I have been wondering for a long time. Why are early 2000’s coming as a trend now? What was so great about that time? I was well alive then. There’s nothing I would wish to bring back, except my mother’s youth. What are these kids sighing after?
Another observation is how the first results when looking at the relevancy of radio were referring to marketing. Coming from marketing companies justifying why investing in radio adds for your product is still a good idea. It started becoming clear to me how much of an advertising platform the mainstream radio has become.
Nostalgia is a booming marketing technique that’s been enjoying massive success in the past few years. Building trust and an emotional bond through elements that would link your product to a period the customer might have many memories attached to.
Then is that what this music is? Marketing?
“illusion of frictionless history: the passage of time as a series of beautifully-shot takes, set to music, seeded with hints and signs of the events to come, containing an implicit promise of resolution.” [1]
The “good life” was never that good, it was never that widespread, and the idea of it most of us have today is based on mediated representations of the period.
This scene from “Under the Silver Lake” describes what I’m trying to say quite well.
[1] https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2021/06/21/things-of-beauty-the-politics-of-postmillennial-nostalgia-for-mid-century-design/