Roll Over Chuck Berry: Oldies Radio Moves Into the '70s

TBO ^ | 10/31/03 | Jonathan Salant

[Semper Paratus]

I'm really felt old when I heard "an oldie from the '90s".

[camle]

let's just hope they skip the Disco era

[WinOne4TheGipper]

No!!!! The 50's and 60's. THAT was music. Can't stand the "music" of my generation. BTW, does anyone think that rap and hard rock will ever be called "Golden Oldies"?

[Sabretooth]

I noticed this the other day at work. A guy I work with was listening to the oldies station whose logo was "The best of the 60's and 70's". I distinctly remember my parents listening to the same station years ago and all they played was 50's music.

I guess the times they are a changing.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Amen to that.

[proxy_user]

In the late 60s and early 70s, the oldies stations played songs from the middle fifties. These songs were from 12 to 18 years old.

So now we should be playing music from the 80s!

[mewzilla]

But you know what say, it's not the years, it's the mileage :)

[discostu]

70s?! Last time I popped on an oldies station (probably 2 maybe 3 years ago) they played "White Wedding" and "Boys of Summer", the 80s are now oldies.

[gathersnomoss]

This format might be fine IF they would go beyond the one hit that was on any given album. Remember it used to be album rock, right?

[Jim Cane]

With the passing of Richard Rogers, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen etc. there's been no good music. The music of my generation (U2 to grunge) just plain sucks and what has come after that is pure aural feces.

I'm in a good mood today.

[discostu]

Hard rock is already being called "golden oldies", at least when it's hard rock by Led Zepplin. Soon the early days of rap will be on the oldies stations, it's hitting that age, wonder if they'll play "Parents just Don't Understand" I always liked that song.

[Dan from Michigan]

Can't stand the "music" of my generation. BTW, does anyone think that rap and hard rock will ever be called "Golden Oldies"?

That's now considered Classic Rock(although Bob Segar is on the oldies station too). I hear Metallica, Motley Crue, and the Black Crowes right along the stanbys of AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Beatles(usually Sgt Pepper onwards) and Rolling Stones.

[snopercod]

The oldies station in Atlanta went to a rap format about a year ago, leaving this poor 'boomer without any FM oldies station anywhere on the dial.

Thankfully, our little AM 1240 station in Brevard, NC ("The White Squirrel Station") plays real oldies every day. I even heard "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" the other day, from the early fifties.

They also play jazz, big bands, bluegrass, "make believe ballroom" dance music, and some really nice accoustic stuff that can't be categorized. But NEVER a rap song.

It's what radio should be.

[Wallace T.]

It will happen. Bet on it. But there will likely be different levels of "oldies," even as there is now. The most ancient "oldies" station in Dallas plays a mixture of '40s Big Band tunes and '50s and '60s pop music, like Pat Boone and Patti Page, and not early rock or R&B. Other "oldies" clienteles exist for '50s and '60s rock, old Nashville country music, etc. By 2025, Sinatra and the Glen Miller Band will be all but unobtainable commercially, but songs by Britney Spears and Cristina Agulera will be regarded as "oldies."

[alnick]

So now we should be playing music from the 80s!

Please no! Anything but that! Arghhhh!

[CatoRenasci]

In the 50's and early '60s, "oldies" were Lawrence Welk (whenever written-- gagh!) and stuff from the '30s and '40s -- great stuff, swing, boogey-woogey, popular jazz, but not so much heard on radio. We had to actually find our parents' old 78's and transcribe the tunes onto reel to reel tapes.

In the late '60's and '70's, it was '50's rock and roll as 'oldies' when modern rock (San Francisoo bands, Doors, Beatles, Stones, etc.) had taken over.

What I found curious is that my kids like the rock of my youth ('60s and early '70s) a lot better than current popular music.

I can't listen to pop music much at all these days, it gives me a headache.

[gathersnomoss]

Whoa, this is beginning to sound like an all geezer all the time radio love fest. You know most of you already have most if not all of the catalog of music that you like in one form (8-Track) or another.

Who listens to the radio for music anyway?

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I was in a Department store a couple of years ago and was humming along to muzak when I realized what was playing...

Sweet Child of Mine by G&R. Had an "how old am I" attack right then and there.

[Jim Cane]

They also play jazz, big bands, bluegrass, "make believe ballroom" dance music, and some really nice accoustic stuff that can't be categorized. But NEVER a rap song.

I'm moving to SC! That's how radio should be. You should be able to hear everything from country to motown to jazz to movie overtures or the latest pop. I understand that many radio stations were like that in the '60's. Louis Armstrong followed by the Beatles, followed by Marty Robbins...what a concept!

The world's gone to hell, arrgh!