CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL parking lot tailgate pre-party -- nominations, discussions, parameters, etc.

I think classic rock is just a catch-all term for " rock music for baby boomers" just as 'alternative rock' will be (already is?) a catch all term for people my age (20s/30s) who listened to rock. "Alternative radio" is pretty big in St. Louis.

i think they're both badges of exclusion.

Yeah, perhaps "overclass" isn't right. More like a proto tea party soundtrack, where it represents a perfected form that appeals to folks that are discomfited by modernity. My peers and myself, scions of the overclass of lville ky, tended to go for sst, Amrep, misfits, skater shit. The very rich kids, tho, thought they were really counter culture for becoming deadheads. Pre punk 60s music was seen by prep school kids whose dads ran the CIA as real rebel music opposed to frivolous false 80s pop music. So the offspring of the overclass did go for classic rock, despite being oblivious to conservative this predeliction is.

relevant post from this thread: So what is this BUTT ROCK, anyway?

"i also think of this stuff as workingman's rock. to the extent the lyrics are about anything other than girls, partying and rock'n'roll, they have a lot of casual references to clock-punching, bossmen, weekends, etc -- the stuff of 1970s blue-collar union-dues life.

― would you ask tom petty that? (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 14 April 2009"

Yeah, I tend to agree. I really don't get the overclass thing.

when I'm watchin' my TV
and a man comes on and tells me
how white my shirts can be
but he can't be a man
cos he doesn't smoke
the same cigarettes as me

It's for people who like life in the fast lane.

...and are not a man or machine, just something in between.

Definitely tons of retrograde and conservative stuff in the classic rock canon, and it's interesting to think of the development/practice of the radio format as related to a specific set of cultural ideas gaining primacy in the 80s and enduring to today.

But I'd stop short of saying that its audience is fundamentally the affluent and powerful, or the impulse/ideology/whatever CR radio serves is somehow miles and miles away from country radio.

Though I think FCC's analysis of the pop orientation of country radio is really smart, willingness to quickly discard elders is only part of the story there, I think. When I listen to country radio, the values espoused therein don't seem that distinct from CR, and tons of observers smarter than me have made the point that a ton of the last 20 years of country would have been called "country-rock" in the 70s.

I will say you're way more likely to hear a female voice on country radio than CR radio, though.

fwiw I really enjoy modern mainstream country radio, not trying to pitch it as some big corporatized evil that's preventing us from listening to Steve Earle or something.

If you mean "conservative" in the sense of "resistant to change", then I could see how the CR format is conservative. I also share some of the criticisms of how the format is defined. I don't really agree that the actual lyrical content of Springsteen or Jethro Tull or U2 songs leans to the political right, though, if that's what you're saying, even compared to what you're likely to find on country stations.

Jesus, what became of this thread? How many posts til someone name-drops Adorno?

lol

"but speaking of conservative formats & the soundtrack of the american overclass..."

country radio??? no way. i mean, it's conservative in the same way that most commercial radio formats are innately conservative, but otherwise, no.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, June 20, 2014 12:46 PM (3 hours ago)

i mean culturally conservative, at the very least generally in line with conservative tastes & values

and yeah, lol

T/S Twofer Tuesdays or Block Party Weekends

Moving on from academic discussion , I heard Molly Hatchets version of Dreams by the Allmans on atlanta's classic rock station (97.1 the river) the other day. Never heard the Allmans version on radio. Both versions are great.

i mean culturally conservative, at the very least generally in line with conservative tastes & values

i'm sure there's a built-in truth to that simply because country stations tend to be more prevalent in red markets than in blue ones, and any radio station is going to reflect the sensibilities of its local market if it wants to survive, and your song about the flyover states is probably more likely to get more traction in nashville than in new york. but most of the songs they play are about partying and/or getting laid and/or not getting laid but wishing you were.

but most of the songs they play are about partying and/or getting laid and/or not getting laid but wishing you were.

like all* the other songs

"but speaking of conservative formats & the soundtrack of the american overclass..."

country radio??? no way. i mean, it's conservative in the same way that most commercial radio formats are innately conservative, but otherwise, no.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, June 20, 2014 12:46 PM (3 hours ago)

i mean culturally conservative, at the very least generally in line with conservative tastes & values

― Pew Nornographers (contenderizer), Friday, June 20, 2014 7:48 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Most tea partiers are too stupid to realize that they are not part of any "overclass".

Friday night research: Stonehenge on WREK

Country stations are a bit of a hybrid between hit radio & CR in that it seems like half of the songs they play are over ten years old

i'm sure there are all sorts of flavors of country stations, but the ones i'm most familiar with, the ones that play current hits, play almost nothing over five years old, never mind 10 years old.

some dude, don't hold back on yr stats

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, June 20, 2014 3:22 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hope to hell he saves them for the rollout.

― how's life, Friday, June 20, 2014 3:23 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ooh good point

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, June 20, 2014 3:24 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

obv people are free to look up top 500 lists and airplay data if they can find it, but i'm not gonna dump any numbers on you guys, i feel like it would muddy the waters of discussion in some way. and they won't be part of the rollout just because i have such selective data that it would be silly to be like "btw this was the #14 most played song in 2011/2012" (which is when a lot of my data is from). maybe i'll drop some of that stuff in casually, though.

yeah the country stations i listen to are like 95% recent stuff, 5% Toby Keith and Brad Paisley songs that are 10+ years old

@some dude: I actually prefer the random fun facts route I've seen on this thread (Aerosmith's "Come Together" being the more played track, the enduring success of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, etc.), i hope you continue dropping gems like that, but I don't necessarily need to see the raw stats

oh, there will be a lot of trivia, in rambling FM disc jockey tradition

:D

"Surrender" - Cheap Trick
"For Those About to Rock" - AC/DC
"Come Sail Away" - Styx

then i got bored, plus bad reception, so i switched to "a mix of great music":

"Dynamite" - Taio Cruz
"Counting Stars" - One Republic
"Always Something There to Remind Me" - Naked Eyes

classic rock - 3
great music - 1.5

I'm putting in for this since it popped up on my local cr station's playlist (between Mellencamp's "Small Town" and Stone Temple Pilots' "Vasoline"):

The Pretenders - Mystery Achievement

looooooooooove that song but as per discussion upthread Pretenders on CR is really just "Brass In Pocket," the Learning To Crawl singles, maybe "Don't Get Me Wrong"

contendo u mad

ship u otm

(xp) taio cruz's "dynamite" is great, and his "break your heart" has been covered by borderline (mentioned once in this thread, now twice) classic rockers blondie.

I know, I guess I was just excited to see something not-overwhelmingly-predictable on my station's playlist.

xxp

xp yeah, taio got 1 of those 1.5 points (other half went to naked eyes)

"Don't get me wrong" rules

^^^

on lunch run, i switched to another station: TOS "the mountain of pure rock" (delivered in comically badass softspoken he-main voice). not CR as such, a more general hard rock format. was not aware such a thing existed:

"California" - Alice In Chains <- so awesome to actually hear this on the radio
"Night Train" - Guns 'n Roses
"Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" - ZZ Top
"Weak" - Seether
"Painkiller" - Three Days Grace
"Girls Girls Girls" - Motley Crue

Nice to see the fourth most famous song on Tres Hombres get some radio shine.

also lol at "the mountain of pure rock"

yeah the country stations i listen to are like 95% recent stuff, 5% Toby Keith and Brad Paisley songs that are 10+ years old

My local country station throws in 90s-early 00s stuff by Strait, Garth, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Sara Evans, Shania etc. like every other song

a more general hard rock format. was not aware such a thing existed.

This is this format, right?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_rock

Our active rock station very recently switched to a 'non-stop hits' format.

yeah, that sounds about right. otoh, the wiki page for WTOS doesn't mention "active rock", instead describing the programming as "album-oriented rock", like back in the old days. listened for a while this morning:

Foxy Lady - Hendrix
Something Beautiful - Needtobreathe
Immigrant Song - Zep
Battle Born - Five Finger Death Punch
Free for All - Ted Nugent
Guilty All the Same - Linkin Park
Silent Lucidity - Queensryche <- barf
Outshined - Soundgarden
Face to the Floor - Chevelle
Layla - Derek & the Dominos
This Is the Time (Ballast) - Nothing More

interesting mix. seems p democratically split between 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s, with more willingness to go for deep cuts in all eras than most CR stations. also closer in spirit to my longhaired, deep toking, headbanging ideal. that said, it's pretty damn douchey (in inevitable corollary, perhaps), a point driven home by the horrible morning show jocks, who seem to have been hired on the basis of their ability to wax obliviously gross and stupid. jokes today about having big dicks and lol casey casem is dead. suppose this is the format that will hallow tomorrow's classic rock staples, "outshined" being the most recent shoo-in from the list above, tho i have to admit i did kind of like the nothing more track.

Active rock?

sounds like something you listen to on the toilet

I don't think Toronto has one. My impression is that in most of the country, active rock stations (usually named "The Bear", "The Wolf", or "The Fox") and JACK/BOB-FM stations are becoming more common than faith-keeping Q107-style CR stations.

Ha, I enjoyed blowing students' minds in the Prairies by explaining that Toronto has no country station.

C&P from last year's thread:

After spending the last three days driving across the Upper Midwest and Northern Ontario, I am feeling qualified to speak on FM rock radio formats in this stretch of mostly small-town North America. I am wondering if this might help clarify some of the discussions/arguments earlier.

So:

i) Proper bona fide classic rock stations that e.g. play Styx or Kansas on the hour and play nothing since the mid-80s and are well-described by this thread are still a staple pretty much everywhere in the US along this stretch. I don't think I actually came across one along this stretch in Ontario. They seem to have largely been phased out in favour of either a) stations named after carnivorous mammals (wolf, fox, or bear) that play Rush alongside Sam Roberts or the Tragically Hip or the Black Keys or b) stations named after monosyllabic male first names that play Golden Earring alongside Abba and Kool and the Gang.

The Wikipedia list of radio stations in Ontario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_Ontario) lists 5 classic rock stations but 16 'classic hits' stations, 18 'active rock' stations, and 16 'adult hits' stations. Of those classic rock stations, I know that at least the Ottawa one plays plenty of 90s and 00s music as well. On the other hand, this list lists 22 classic rock stations, 32 classic hits stations, 7 adult hits stations, and 4 active rock stations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_Michigan

ii) In the same way that a St Louis accent sounds more 'neutral' to me than my own, your classic rock format seems more 'normal' to me on some level. (Your classical music stations are kind of lame though.)

iii) I am a little intrigued as to whether this difference is indicative of a trend that will eventually spread to the US or whether it is due to the fact that Canadian stations have to play a quota of Canadian music, which didn't really come into its own until after rock's classic period.

iv) The White Stripes and Black Keys have a remarkable ability to blend in so well on the a) sort of station that until the obvious hook enters, I sometimes can't tell whether I'm hearing a 70s song or a recent one.

v) Most interestingly, oldies stations that plays 50s and 60s pop are still a real thing on FM radio in the US. I haven't come across one in Canada in 20 years, I don't think. (According to Wiki, they still exist on the AM dial.) Some stations CALL themselves oldies stations but are basically in this format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_hits

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 26 August 2013 15:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

Two late additions to the master list:

Deep Purple - Fireball (best organ solo ever?)
Golden Earring - When the Lady Smiles

So are we doing the Made in Japan version of Highway Star or the album version? Live Highway Star is a prime contender for my number one spot, but the album version might not make my ballot.