What Is Good In Music Today

The last week of What It Is on public radio focused on both the sad loss of our musical hero, Levon Helm (episode 226), and the good things that are happening in the music world today (episode 227). The conversations we started on the radio continued with several notworthy replies via email. Here are the listener comments which serve to "Tell Me Something Good"!

Howdy Music Lovers,

What’s good about music? MUSIC!!!! I hear what y’all are saying,  greater  access to ALL music is out there. It can be overwhelming though. Maybe you guys have more time to research than most of us.

That is why we’re fortunate to have a diverse radio station to filter through all that is out and try to  give us a good sampling of new & old stuff.

But as I’ve said before in this forum, sometimes when things come too easy, they are easily forgotten!

Peace, Wayne

P.S.  Play more Hawaiian lap steel stuff!

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Would love to hear a conversation as to when you believe so much of popular "Top Ten" music began to sound so commercial and similar. I have heard it speculated that it happened when disco became so popular. Producers observed the response of the public. At that point, commercial and same-sounding pop music became permanent.

Could it also be true that record companies see what sells and keep doing more and more of that sound? Because early teens buy so much for their IPods, the interests of the general public in varied music got lost in the download numbers.

Incidentally, I am Tyler Ramsey's dad and I have a complete love of music and some personal perspectives about it. Some of those come from watching his career.

Have a lyrical day,

Bill Ramsey

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These comments got the panel talking again, too:

Bill, I think it's "all of the above".  It costs record companies much less to sell an extra half million downloads/CD's of the artist who's already finding great success than it does the worthy artist nobody knows about yet.  Also, the tendency of people to download songs rather than LP's and create playlists for themselves means the tendency is to become oriented to the song rather than the artist.  That creates the "sound alike" phenomenon you mentioned.  It also makes it much much harder for a new artist to break out nationally.
 
Then there's the fact to most commercial radio stations who play music are so tightly formatted that, if you listened for a period of tme, you'd think that all popular was created within very tight limits.  We who live around here can thank our lucky stars for WNCW in this regard since the station seems to endeavor to keep a pretty wide and diverse attitude.
 
You correctly alluded to the early teen buyer.  It's somehing akin to a herd mentality.  Justin Bieber becomes a phenomenon for the same reason almost every teen phenom does...good old peer pressure.  If your influential friend loves Justin, then you know you're supposed to love him as well.
 
This could go on......
 
Thanks, Bill.

Bob Hinkle

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It’s sometimes easy to forget how, back in the day, radio wasn’t segmented so firmly by genre. I dare say, however, that if format-based AM radio had been around, you would have been far less likely to hear a Motown 45 spun next to a Beatles track. So if you adjust for that notion somewhat, and eliminate the wild card known as regional radio (wherein a local breakout hit could get picked up nationally for redistribution),  the glory days of AM radio could conceivably be pitched as straight down the middle ‘mersh just like it is today. Plus, if it wasn’t a hit being snapped up by the teen buyers, it didn’t get into the top 20, despite there sometimes being a chicken-or-egg element (payola, anyone?).

I’ve been listening to Durham’s 105 station up here a bit, and it is interesting how straight hits format radio actually has more diversity than I had thought. Granted, the production and vocals tend to be a big interchangeable, but there is something kinda cool about hearing a straight teen pop vocal band followed by a so-called “edgy” female diva  followed by the latest breakout R&B/rap artist, all within the same hour. Let’s see, plug in the names “Beatles,” “Dusty Springfield” and Marvin Gaye in that last sentence and you’ve got…. Oops.

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FRED M. MILLS

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Remembering Levon Helm

What It Is celebrates the life and music of Levon Helm in Episode #226, and the conversation continues with this great response to the show from Upstate New York:

Folks-
thanks for your honoring  Levon and The Band.
I listen on line, and when down your way visiting my daughter in Asheville.

I live near Woodstock, in Ulster County NY, 100 miles upstate from NY city- We were lucky enough to have Levon Helm, the pride of Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, become the pride of Ulster County and Woodstock.

It is hard to describe the bittersweet feeling that gripped many folk 'round here last week, sadness at losing our hero, joy at the art he made with his friends, relief he's jamming in a top notch venue with Richard and Rick, pride he chose to live with us, but an overwhelming sadness he had to go. His illness and passing were front page news and inspired lots of great musical tributes on local radio, but people mostly said, "hear about Levon?"
"yeah..."

We loved Levon, but  not because he was a rock-n-roll Hall of Famer, for this area has enjoyed several such luminaries in our midst, (Dylan, of course, Van Morrison, to name just two, besides, of course, the rest of the Band),  Levon was special, a gentleman, humanitarian, neighbor,  a local guy, so to speak, who had it all, nearly lost it all, had his house burn down, got cancer, fought through it all, and got it all back. The three Grammys he won late were celebrating music that would have made a nice career even if he was never a member of the seminal Band. And all that time and through it all, he was the same gentle spirit, huge talent, friendly neighbor and willing contributor to whatever cause needed help at that time.

I suppose our feeling for Levon would be a little like Asheville's feeling for Warren Haynes.

So by all means play the music, late, early, middle, it is all good, and much of it great. But please spare a mention for what a fine man Levon Helm was.

Thanks,
Jim Gordon
New Paltz, NY

WNCW Retires What It Is

It has been a great 4 1/2 year run on public radio station WNCW for our music talk show, but now is the time to call it a day. What It Is ends its weekday broadcasts on Friday, April 27th, 2012, with a recap of the week's shows and comments from listeners about our show celebrating the life and music of the late, great Levon Helm.

The decision to end the show's tenure on WNCW was a difficult one. I have been thinking about letting it retire for the better part of the last year, and it was a hard call. What It Is will continue here, however, and may now evolve into other forms.

I could not have done this show without the support of WNCW and especially our panelists Fred Mills, Jeff Eason, Carol Rifkin, Bob Hinkle, Kim Ruehl, Daniel Coston and many others. Of course, your support also was key in making What It Is a unique place for music conversation. Without your letters about the show, your ideas and criticism, the show could not have made it this far.

So, don't think of this as the end of the story. Like the picture of the Dave Brubeck album suggests, it is more a pause than a finale. Stay tuned for more conversations about the music that fills our hearts. I thank you all! -Joe Kendrick

Now Playing: Aaron Berg & Daniel Coston

Host Joe Kendrick is joined by Aaron Berg and Daniel Coston in our latest conversations. We celebrate the life and music of the late, great Earl Scruggs, preview Daniel's first photography exhibition in his home town of Charlotte in several years, talk about some of our favorite publicity stunts, cover the 5th annual Record Store Day, and much more.

As always, we welcome your comments about these shows and ideas for topics you would like us to cover. Reply here or email us at whatitis@wncw.org and we will read these on our Friday edition of the show, and post some of them here as well. -Joe

What It Is with Larry and Jenny Keel

Larry and Jenny Keel talk about their new album and starting their own music conversations on our latest episodes. They drove down the mountain for a studio session on March 8, 2012, during our Spring pledge drive at WNCW, which is a perfect time to drop in on us in Spindale because everyone on staff is here and enjoying the company of our extended family as we raise money live from Studio B around the clock.  

It was a treat to see the Keels again and we wish them much success with their new album, which we previewed in Episode 219. Larry and Jenny also speak with me about their own internet roundtable of music discussion that they have with fans on their Facebook page in Episode 218.