Songs On The Radio Are Okay Essay

The Songs On The Radio Are Okay

As an avid music listener, I tend to tune into the local radio stations when wanting a daily dose of music, but in these last few years I’d rather dig out my old iPod and aux cord than endure the repetitive new age nonsense that plays on a continuous loop every two hours. No matter what button your finger eagerly clicks, you’ll have at least three stations playing the same Justin Bieber song about loving oneself or some offspring sound with a regurgitated beat and an earworm of a chorus to help the singer achieve millionaire status with your hard earned money. While artist like Judah and the Lion and Black Map get zero radio play because their music is vastly unknown to people who refuse to broaden their musical horizon from Taylor Swift and Drake.

The answer is simple--money. Money motivates the station to play a song, sometimes throwing in a request from a listener to keep it “fresh”. Advertising and your ears dictate how much money the station receives, therefore they play the same playlist over and over and over again, because they know that you’ll eventually stop searching for a song you actually want to hear and settle for the one that debuts on a daily basis.

However, it's not just the modern hits station that pulls this loop scheme, it’s all of them, ranging from the rock station to the country. As of 2016, The Beatles’ “Yesterday” has been played over seven million times with an average of three hundred and eighty appearances per day since it’s release in 1965, making this two minute and three second long track, one of the most played in history, but why this song? Apparently what “Yesterday” has, other than the Beatles, is timeless lyrics that evoke a nostalgic emotion that isn’t controversial, and being relatable to the majority of all