2008 Woodie Awards
Goodbye Y100
Please Someone, Save the Life of My Child
Mordechai Shinefield
Issue date: 3/29/05 Section: Arts & Culture
- Page 1 of 2 next >
No one should be surprised by radio's troubled state of being. Owned by a fistful of major conglomerates with names like Clear Channel and Infinity, the music that once inspired a generation of pot-smoking, free loving hippies has degenerated into synthetic, prefabricated, and derivative sounds that are only slightly less annoying than radio static. This shouldn't feel like a sprung upon shock to anyone. In the summer of Nickelback's How You Remind Me and Linkin Park's In The End, it was common to flip through a dozen stations, only to find that they were all playing the exact same song. This was perfectly fine if you found the bland taste of commercial radio satisfying, but if you wanted something beyond the same three chords, disfranchisement appeared to be the only option.
When it appeared like the musical wasteland stretched on like a post-apocalyptic stroll through Southern California, the revolution began. Acts like Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, The Killers and a revamped Green Day exploded on the radio. Their lyrics were intelligent and the music didn't feel like the churned out musings of an MTV executive. Modest Mouse played calypso-inspired indie music that has been a long time coming, and Green Day wrote a punk rock opera about the State of the Nation. Artists were no longer standing outside locker rooms writing down self-loathing observations and diary poetry. Maybe not all the lyrical observations were brilliant, but they aggressively won you over with the excitement that a new musical movement engenders. It would appear that those who had bidden their time waiting for redemption, the Messianic era of post-modern rock arrived. Even Bright Eyes, refusing to sign to a major label despite heavy pressure, had two number one radio singles.
At this point I deliberated whether to spell the conspiracy out for you. While it seems obvious to me, no one else has connected the dots. Clearly, the monopolistic powerhouses who run our music have an anti-Rock agenda that equals the most elaborate and frightening conspiracies. No sooner had Rock returned to the sound waves that Y100, the only station for alternative music in Philadelphia, shut down. Or rather, was shut down to be replaced by an Urban format radio station. Full disclosure: I was born at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. I've lived in New York for the last six years, but my home is Philly. When I heard about the closing of Y100, I was overcome first by a sense of immense sadness and loss, quickly altering to confusion. I mean, considering that Alternative music was booming, why would they shut down the only alternative radio station in Philadelphia? Philadelphia is now the biggest city in America without an Alternative Rock station.
When it appeared like the musical wasteland stretched on like a post-apocalyptic stroll through Southern California, the revolution began. Acts like Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, The Killers and a revamped Green Day exploded on the radio. Their lyrics were intelligent and the music didn't feel like the churned out musings of an MTV executive. Modest Mouse played calypso-inspired indie music that has been a long time coming, and Green Day wrote a punk rock opera about the State of the Nation. Artists were no longer standing outside locker rooms writing down self-loathing observations and diary poetry. Maybe not all the lyrical observations were brilliant, but they aggressively won you over with the excitement that a new musical movement engenders. It would appear that those who had bidden their time waiting for redemption, the Messianic era of post-modern rock arrived. Even Bright Eyes, refusing to sign to a major label despite heavy pressure, had two number one radio singles.
At this point I deliberated whether to spell the conspiracy out for you. While it seems obvious to me, no one else has connected the dots. Clearly, the monopolistic powerhouses who run our music have an anti-Rock agenda that equals the most elaborate and frightening conspiracies. No sooner had Rock returned to the sound waves that Y100, the only station for alternative music in Philadelphia, shut down. Or rather, was shut down to be replaced by an Urban format radio station. Full disclosure: I was born at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. I've lived in New York for the last six years, but my home is Philly. When I heard about the closing of Y100, I was overcome first by a sense of immense sadness and loss, quickly altering to confusion. I mean, considering that Alternative music was booming, why would they shut down the only alternative radio station in Philadelphia? Philadelphia is now the biggest city in America without an Alternative Rock station.
Be the first to comment on this story