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What happened to hip hop on the radio
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The Good Old Days... Photo by Ron Thompson
This article may highlight my age and my regional preference; but it's definitely important to the topic at hand.
Seriously though; what happened to hip hop on the radio? What happened to the days where you actually listened to the radio for new and exciting music. What happened to "urban" radio, PERIOD?
I understand that our infatuation with the radio naturally faded in our teenage years when other things became more important; hanging out with friends, girls/boys, jobs/money, life. But evenso...have you listened to the radio latey? I won't even place an adjective on it. I'll just give the facts: I listened to the radio on Saturday while running errands, etc. In a matter of 5 hours, I heard "Blame it" by Jamie Foxx 3 times. I heard "Kiss me through the Phone," Soulja Boy 2 times, and "Live Ya Life" by T.I. 2 times.
Does anyone else think this is ridiculous?
Additionally, there were approximately 1.5 hours of commercials and radio banter in a matter of 5+ hours.
How long has it been like this? When my generation listened to the radio in the 80s and 90s, was it this way? Were we just as blind in our pre-teen/teen years as radio listeners of today. I remember my aunts and uncles (older adults at the time) listening to the radio with as much enthusiasm as I did as a young boy.
Growing up in Brooklyn, NY in the 80s; the radio was our guide to hip hop. The radio told us what was dope...toLd us what was wack. The radio actually played good music. Hip hop was so ingrained into the cultural fabric of Brooklyn in the 80s, that they didn't necessarily have to play "rap" all day, but it was still hip hop.You can't understand unless you were there: 10:00 pm on a Friday night on 98.7 KISS-FM in 1988 was like Barrack Obama election rallies on your block. It was just that serious!
The "urban" radio stations in the Baltimore/Metro DC area: 92.3 WERQ, 93.9 WKYS, 95.5 WPGC all follow the same format. WERQ possibly has the most variety and "freshness." They still have their top 10 playlist of songs that they play once every 2 hours, but WERQ seems to go deeper into albums and play songs that aren't currently on the "playlist."
Honestly, I can't and don't listen to the radio much anymore.
Is the radio necessary anymore, with ITunes and digital music, blogs and other websites dropping new music and albums. Will the radio be the new magazine/newspaper industry? Are the "youngans" still listening to the radio? Is the radio just for them?
And beleive me; I'm not trying to hurt the radio industry or take food out of any radio personality's mouth...I'm just listing some clear observations.
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