Radio is king! Or so it has been said and is believed to be true for country music since the inception of country music on radio just under 100 years ago. As music which was played live, and heard on the radio became increasingly popular, enterprising companies took steps to bring the music to a wider audience – these became the record companies we are familiar with today. What was popular to the listeners of east coast radio, for example, could then be played on radio stations across the nation, introducing the music to more than just a local audience and giving rise to the Super Star.
Even until recently, radio (which is free, except for the cost of the receiver) was the main channel of new music discovery. If the song or artist wasn’t on radio, then the career of that artist could only gain a certain stature. Radio was a necessity to the growth of the champions of the genre and as radio went, so went the music.
Fast forward to today when radio, while still ubiquitous, might not be the main medium of new music discovery any more. The answer to the question, “Where do you discover the good new music?” used to be simple, but in today’s multi-media world we have other channels of discovery. Is radio still the number one medium for discovery of new music? What about YouTube or iTunes, or any of the other host of options that keep us plugged in and turned on to the music we love to hear.
Studies are being conducted on a regular basis asking respondents the same question – where do you discover new music. And yet, I want to know what the readers of Country Music Life have to say on the matter. Let’s hear it, readers. How do YOU go about the discovery of new (great) country music today?
This website, radio and rarely word of mouth.
Where do YOU discover the good stuff? – good question – as I live on the other side of the pond, country is far from mainstream and very very rarely get’s played on the radio except for artists on the pop end of the spectrum, Taylor Swift, etc. I’m a relative newbie to Country – I knew I liked ‘twang’ but had no idea who the mainstream, or even the historical greats, except perhaps Dolly Parton, John Denver, Alabama, etc from my childhood.’ I’d heard of Brad Paisley after I bought a pink paisley fender and had to convince my wife that it was still a manly instrument to be playing,through a bit of research on the internet, and the quest began. I used amazon for while to track down and play stuff following up on recommended albums after buying some Brad. I tried to listen to our Whispering ‘Bob Harris’ who leads a great 1 hour programme on our radio 2, but tuning in on a regular thursday was problematic. I scanned the TV iPlayer for Country and related music, which yieled lean to mediocre results, specialist magazines were tried but were slow going and expensive, even ‘wikipedia’ to chase some leads. The breakthrough for me was this blog – I’m about half way through so far – I check out the sounds and and follow up usually buying the tracks I like. I like country’s broad range of sounds and have run up and down through it’s history , and what a story of both past and present, great artists. So after about 18 months of ‘picking’ and ‘listening’ and finding many favourites – it just get’s better everyday. So for me – the ‘Blog’ is the vehicle of choice – so keep it rolling!