Philip Gamble: freeg131

Following the Heartification of Global Radio brands, which has succeeded in turning local radio stations around the country in to a London show with local drivetime presenters stuck on for good measure, my local commercial FM radio station now promises “More Music Variety”.

In a recent appearance on Zane Lowe’s show Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills said that he used to work for a station that promised to play more music variety – when it was plainly obvious that they didn’t.

This is so true. All Heart seem to play at the moment is Take That, Bruno Mars, Cee Low Green.  Under their former Mercury guise they had a period where they would play the Tom Robinson Band’s 2-4-6-8-Motorway on an almost daily basis, despite the fact it was released in 1977!

There’s a joke in our family that you can’t listen to 5 songs or more on Heart without having Robbie Williams or Take That played. A typical Heart link seems to consist of “Wow that was an amazing/beautiful song, isn’t it a lovely day today, coming up we’ve got songs by Adele, Mike Posner and Take That”.

Looking at the airplay chart things seem to run true. Heart Hertfordshire (what a name) has 3 songs by Adele in the top 10 most played songs last week. 8 songs have been played over 30 times in the week. Radio 1 on the other hand did not play any song over 30 times and only 9 more than 20 times.

NALGames

(Andrew McCluskey)

The most remarkable thing about the UK Top 40 isn't how bad it all is, it's how many songs feature other artists. 6 of the top 12 do O.o On 6:13 PM Apr 7th 2011 from Chromed Bird

NALGames

(Andrew McCluskey)

Though how bad it all is is the second most remarkable thing. On 6:13 PM Apr 7th 2011 from Chromed Bird

So I decided to go through the Top 40 and to see how many songs I thought were good and how many were bad.  When I realised how long this would take I cut it back to just the top 10!

1. At number one is Jennifer Lopez featuring a dog apparently, well “Pitbull”. Quite catchy music but I’m not a fan.
2. Two is Adele and Someone Like You. A beautiful song, no auto-tune rubbish here. It’s been around for a while since it was sung at the BRITS and apparently it is in fact “the longest reigning number one single in the UK of the decade so far”.
3. Apparently LMFAO is an artist.  They read this name out on radio as well despite it being an acronym for a rather rude phrase.  The song, Party Rock Anthem, is trying hard on the featuring front with both Lauren Bennett and “Goonrock” making appearances.   I wouldn’t choose to listen to this, that said it doesn’t particularly annoy me.
4. The Black Eyed Peas with “Just Can’t Get Enough” which always makes me think of the Depeche Mode song of the same name when I see it written down. I like this.
5. Don’t Hold Your Breath by Nicole Scherzinger. It’s catchy and alright.
6. Quite why you would choose the pseudonym Wiz Khalifa when your real name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz I don’t know. Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu as Tinie Tempah is acceptable because the majority of radio DJs will not be able to pronounce the Nigerian surname but Wiz – as in piss? Khalifa – as in the Al-Khalifa family from Bahrain of call-in-the-Saudi-army to crush protesters fame? Really!? The song appears to be about oil and sand or something. Yuk.
7. First shock comes when I see that Jessie J is white, wasn’t expecting that from the music! Didn’t like Do It Like a Dude but this one, Price Tag, is better. Acceptable. And Bob? No don’t know him.
8. Katy B with Broken Record. I think the record is broken, wish they wouldn’t play it. Dislike.
9. Someone finally seems to have told Rihanna what her name is thank god. This is much better than What’s My Name. Catchy chorus I dare not listen any more carefully to decipher the lyrics given its title “S&M (Come On)”.  Alright.
10. Dr Dre needs a doctor so what does he do?  Phones up Eminem and Skylar Grey and gets them to sing bits on his record.  Seriously?  I know you have to pay for stuff like that in the States but given he earned $52 million in 2001 from selling a share in a record label I’d figure he could afford some insurance.  I like some of Eminem’s stuff and this edges it towards that category.

In summary 3 likes, 4 alrights and 3 dislikes.  Also: 6 American, 3 British, 1 Barbadian.

You can find a list of the Top 40 UK singles and listen to short clips of them so you know what the songs actually sound like here.

Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus is back in the charts which prompted me to look at the video.

Edit: only a VEVO video is now available which is not embeddable

The video removes “gun” from the line “he brings a gun to school” immediately after playing in full the line “her boyfriend’s a dick”.

Music censorship is ****ed up.

Reminded me of a recent tweet.

freeg131

(Philip Gamble)

Radio 1 has strange censorship. Played The Streets with drug references in but "piss" removed yet others have anything drug related removed On 5:32 PM Feb 25th 2011 from TweetDeck

Also, whilst you here check out this incredible uncensored version by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain