Elvis Costello: Radio Radio
Purchase: Amazon link to MP3
You are
well aware of the historical importance of the electronic radio. As in: the family gathered around the device
back in the 40’s. Moving into the 50’s and 60’s, radio provided the main medium
for disseminating current trends: the Top 10, musical hits, the news, traffic
updates and more. AM and then FM radio, replaced by Internet media and
satellite radio … the radio used to be how you learned about “cool” music.
Living
overseas (briefly in the US in ’65, when
rock/pop began to pervade my being), I relied on Radio Luxemburg: a “pirate”
radio station that I tuned in to via shortwave radio. Shortwave reception was
decidedly flakey: the sound modulated in and out: more out than in. The “band”
seemed to move around such that half the listening effort was in trying to tune
in the station so that I could catch the rest of the song, This undoubtedly
gives me a deeper/different perspective on Marconi’s invention (and- as a
result - the miracle of the Internet)
When MTV
video clips first came out (who even watches MTV or knows about it any more?!),
we would record them to VHS video tape so that we could watch them again. (How
quaint!) Obviously, YouTube, “on demand” viewing of music videos (and the
Internet) were pie-in-the-sky dreams at that time.
This raises
the question that media companies have been faced with since the ‘90s : whither
radio? Is the solution Serius satellite radio? iTunes “Radio” and their ilk?
Why even bother with blogs like this? Why not pay a few dollars and get access
to a million-song archive (that I can carry in my pocket and access on demand?)
Costello
was certainly not the first to focus on the issue of how the “powers that be”
used all-pervasive media (TV? Internet? and radio?) to guide us/command us.
Think 1984. The lyrics of the song tell you:
you better listen to the
voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'cause they think that it's treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.
But they don't give you any choice
'cause they think that it's treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.
I no longer
listen to radio. How ‘bout you?
