Why does it always go like that with "new" tunes I hear???
 

Hi.

Heard a very catchy "new" folk(ish) tune while driving to lunch with my boss yesterday. I knew instantly that I had to find out who this "new" singer who reminded me of Janis Joplin was.
Now, I don't usually listen to radio, but he does. BAD, HORRIBLE music no less IMHO :)
When I'm driving or riding, I'm usually crawling through my proverbial "pile" of good 'ol music on my iPod or just singing something ;).

Over here the music that plays on the radio is very current, way too current for my taste, but every once and a while there's a jewel in a rough. Even during daylight hours.

BUT WHY ON EARTH THOSE "NEW" JEWELS are almost without an exeption at least 3 decades old???

In this particular case, AFAIK recorded on the very year I was born in.


JimmyM accused me of being a hippie a while back, and I guess I kinda am, but Melanies "Brand New Key" was still a brand new tune to me :D.

Regards
Sam

Radio means to please the widest possible crowd, so they play the simplest possible music.
To play elaborated tunes, they have to be well known from the listener as to require no effort.
Unless you can catch an alternative local radio (ie not commercial), you're not going to find interesting new music on it.

Hi.

If it was just the radio, I'd understand, but it happens on other medias as well.

TV, movies, commercials, you name it. Every time I hear something I like (or more precisely, something that I don't dislike ;)) it's some classic that I just haven't heard previously.

Perhaps my mind is just tuned to "good music" that happens to be from the days long gone.

Annoying never the less, I try my darnest to like todays music :).

Regards
Sam

Here in the U.S., many advertisers use old songs in TV and radio commercials to get people's attention. Sometimes, they are very well known songs and sometimes more obscure older tunes. It used to be they used this audio technique to target baby boomers but it has become more the normal method. Interestingly, some of these older songs have become very popular again due to the commercials. A few years ago, there was a TV commercial that used an old T-Rex song called 20th Century Boy that was never a hit in the U.S. (although it was in Europe in 1973) when it was new but all of a sudden people started to like that song here.

"Brand New Key" was recently used for a TV commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MojZ6Ew0Vas

If you're not that hip to Melanie...check out "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)"-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJp7zbjn7Wo

Funny anecdote-
Melanie was about to fly into Woodstock (via chopper) with her mom...security told her "...sorry, band members or managers only". So she leaves mom behind...later, she wondered why she did not say "...this lady is my manager".

I never could get past that line "we bled inside each other's wounds". Really, Melanie?? Yecch! Gross me out honey! :D

Hi.

AFAIK the early Brit Glam Rock wasn't all that popular in US and T-Rex wasn't an exception. The people also remembered Tyrannosaurus Rex and that probably didn't help T-Rex much with the fans of either genre :).

Tyrannosaurus Rex is a bit too weird for my tastes, but T-Rex was one of my favourite bands in my teens/20's, and I still do listen 'em occasionally.

Somehow these "rejected" tunes have stood the test of time very well though. IMHO anyway ;).



:D


Now that I'd recognised, as well as several other hits of hers.
I've always liked her voice, but for some reason didn't recognise it now.

:).

Regards
Sam

Haha...this very green, very young lady came into our open mike a while ago (just before the recent ad usage) and pulled that one out. Many of us there were in fact true vintage hippies, but said young lady seemed very surprised that I knew it on bass. Great song for a slide bass solo, actually.;)

T-Rex actually headlined a hockey arena show I saw in Philly ca 1972, so probably at least 10,000 people or so. Pretty popular, I'd say. Mahavishnu Orchestra was the opener, go figure.