Don't blame the radio, blame the record companies

Just because a song is on the radio does not mean it is good. There can be many factors that lead to radio play.
The first is obvious, availability, I could write the greatest song of all time and if I hid it in my sock drawer, it would not get played on the radio.  The same applies to this blog, I could write the most perceptive reviews of music but never publish them and they would never go viral.  Availability is manifested in several ways:

Commercials
TV Shows
Movies
Retail
Radio
Radio
Radio
...Everywhere

"Radio, one of the original mass mediums, continues to play a big part in the lives of Americans everywhere—with 243 million Americans listening weekly. That means more than 91% of Americans (age 12 or older) are tuning in each week." 

From: STATE OF THE MEDIA: AUDIO TODAY—HOW AMERICA LISTENS on Nielsen.com

Think about this too, in the internet age especially, the music industry is one of the most popular art forms on the planet.  There is a quick dollar to be made in the music industry.

$till someone with the money needs to think its a good idea if we are going to be surrounded by this song everyday.

The song may be pushed to the radio by a bigger record label that gets a nice cut of profits if the song is a hit.  Though it is illegal to directly do this, I have no doubt that there are 'incentives' between the radio station and record company.

In the words of the American ska band Reel Big Fish, "radio plays what they want you to hear." I always find it funny that was the one song that really got big for them and it was about selling out as artists and the payola scandals that were going on in the early 90's.

Carly Rae Jepsen

Lets take Carly Rae Jepsen for example.  Backed by, Justin Beiber, the the most notorious Canadian pop star since Celine Dion.  All it took for her to blow up was for Beiber and his manager to think that making her into a megastar was a good idea.

There is research that suggests that people may experience a Musical Stockholm Syndrome  of sorts.  Basically you become so familiar with the song that you start to associate different experiences to it and become to think there is a correlation between your enjoyment and that song.

The next factor is whether the band had previously written well received (not necessarily good) songs. After a band makes its breakthrough to radio, it may be pressured by their label or managers to top their last single and write another successful song.  Creativity does not usually flourish when it is forced and this becomes apparent when bands are pressured to crank out hits.

Another common occurrence is the poppy-ness that some bands can adopt once they start getting radioplay or hits.  I am not saying that pop music is bad music, I am saying that dumbing down your music and making your lyrics generic is not usually a well received transition by most music critics.  I know I may be coming off as hipster supreme, but before just remember that we are all entitled to like what we want and dislike what we want for whatever reasons we choose, that is the beauty and curse of being an American.

In closing I'd like to thank Tom over at Music.Mic for giving me a lot of ideas to discuss in this blog.