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Another example: when I realized that most of the commercially successful bands that got played on the radio when I was young, including a few that I liked, wer
by rossdavidh 3y ago
Another example: when I realized that most of the commercially successful bands that got played on the radio when I was young, including a few that I liked, were there because of payola, not because their music was better or their work ethic or whatever. They were probably better at sucking up to the gatekeepers who would pay off radio stations (illegally) to play their songs.
- nunez 3y agoThis one is super interesting. If you listen to the Solid Gold Oldies channel on Music Choice, you'll, of course, hear The Beatles, Elvis, Beach Boys and others like them, but you'll also hear LOADS of songs you might recognize from artists you've never seen before! If you read their Wikipedia entries (well, the artists that have one anyway; many have been memory-holed), while they benefited from payola, not only did their careers not really go anywhere after that one hit or two, but because of how recording contracts were structured back then (one full record, usually several, with a few mandatory Christmas songs and almost none of your creative input), once those records ultimately didn't sell, they were kicked from the record and never recovered. Not even sucking up was enough to guarantee a decent career in music, even if your song hit the air waves! (I'm mentioning SGO since payola was big back then. Payola was outlawed years later, but given that iHeartRadio/Clear Channel basically bought out most of the radio stations in the US and control entire playlists, has it _really_ gone away?)