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Radio Choice

So, is FM radio too easy of a target?  Perhaps, but I have this soapbox just sitting here begging to be used so I feel compelled to crawl on up here and ask the world “Why is FM radio so lame?”

I'll pass up on this particular opportunity to enumerate the many cases of terrible radio. But I will use this opportunity to point out how good it could be.

My proof? Music From The O.C. Mix 1. Seriously! I'm not kidding. (Please stop giggling. It is hard to carry on a rant while you are giggling.) I was stunned the first time I heard the CD playing at a friend's house and was told the source.

"The O.C.? Isn't that some terrible Dawson's Creek like show?"

Actually, I don't think anybody at the dinner table could confirm the terribleness or goodness at the show because nobody had actually seen it or nobody would admit to having seen the show.

But, I'm getting sidetracked. This is an excellent CD full of artist that will likely never see (or should I say hear) more than a few fleeting moments on the FM airwaves. I've heard of several of the artists on this CD and there are a couple of them that actually have had a decent run of success. (This is by no means a top secret list of indie artists.)

But several of these bands are new to me. Not that I'm the definitive source on music or anything. I don't get to spend all day researching music. Although if somebody would pay me to do so, I would love consider the opportunity. My point is that I should have heard of all of these bands before this CD.

This is good music. And I had to find out about them via the O.C.? Does anybody even know what "O.C." that means? For all I know I could be referencing some sort of satanic cult or something.

I should be able to turn on my radio any old day on my way to work and hear something fresh and new. The last "new" thing I heard on the radio was from some terrible band that just turned out to be another old terrible band, Creed, in disguise.

Don't get me wrong. I know that this is nothing new. Radio has stunk for a long, long time if not always. Well, I think there were a few days of originality back in the seventies or so I've been told.

But what hope is there when a show like The O.C. comes up with better music than our own trusty radios? Oh the humanity!

{Sigh}

Okay, I confess that I thought I would be able to take this topic somewhere useful. But really, the point is that the O.C. soundtrack is pretty good and I still can't believe that I'm saying that. The secondary point is just that I am reminded of the fact that I would have totally missed a couple of nice bands if I not for my accidental exposure to this CD. I wish we were all exposed to more good music all of the time.

There must be musical life beyond Creed, Nickleback, Matchbox Twenty and whatever the 'in' band is these days.

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