What Would the Wolfman Do?
Over the Christmas break, a trend that I had noticed in LA was confirmed as widespread... It's a little bit shocking, it's a little bit welcome, it's a little bit odd, and it's going to take a little bit of getting used to. Not just for me, I think - but for all parties involved. Here's how I'm reacting, and how I think others are reacting to this recent development: they're playing 80s music on oldies stations...
K-RTH and KOOL-105, two radio stations separated by thousands of miles. Both beloved by their local cities, both respected for their commitment to great music from the 50s through the 70s, both are staples of my radio listening habits in LA and Colorado...
...and both have started playing 80s music regularly on their playlists.
The best that I can pinpoint it, at least here in LA with K-RTH, it started with Michael Jackson's death last year. Of course, the majority of the radio stations regardless of their format were playing Jackson tunes, K-RTH seemed to be playing more of a tribute to Michael playing not only his Jackson 5 and Motown songs, which were already staples of the station, but also his 80s pop hits as well. It was a little different tuning to K-RTH and hearing P.Y.T. or Thriller, but it seemed timely and appropriate.
But later on, well into November, I tuned in and heard David Bowie's "Let's Dance" followed immediately by... "Walk Like an Egyptian"... and then, as often K-RTH does every fifteen minutes, it led straight into the Stones' "Satisfaction". Wow, that was strange. But kind of cool. I kept listening, waiting for more 80s standards but nothing out of the ordinary on K_RTH followed.
Maybe the DJ was just feeling a little saucy or they were running some sort of "80s at 8" playlist that I had caught the tail end of...
...but then a couple days later I tuned in to hear a Motown standard (which I can't recall what it was so for this story, let's just say that it was "25 Miles") --- which led right into New Order's "Blue Monday" playing on the station. Whoa. Definitely not any type of a countdown, and not only an 80s standard but New Order which is a bit of an edgy choice for a station like K-RTH.
Over the next couple months the frequency that the songs were played increased, and I even ventured home for Christmas to Colorado and heard several 80s (and even a 90s song) being played on KOOL 105.
Obviously, the first instinct is to feel old, right? What's funny is that thought never even crossed my mind because I was actually so preoccupied with how the public and the DJs on the station were reacting to this change.
Think about it. The cliché of an older generation hearing the new generation's music and proclaiming that it "just sounds like a bunch of noise." Suddenly their go-to radio station in which they're used to hearing easy to swallow classics like "Kind of a Drag" is also playing music by dudes that actually DRESSED in drag. And a DJ that was used to having certain songs in the catalog that they would play on a regular basis, now had more material that they could work into their timeslots. But what if they didn't want to play the new music? What if they're like the Joe Montangia character in Airheads and they didn't want to spin records by the Pet Shop Boys in between The Beatles and Hendrix?
I'm picturing Wolfman Jack out in his shack in the middle of nowhere suddenly deciding that he's had enough of the Beach Boys and Rick Rolling his entire listening audience. Thinking of the outrage, the confusion, and the ensuing chaos that would probably ensue, I picture being a whole lot like watching Marty McFly freak out into a sweet guitar lick right in the middle of Johnny B. Goode.
In short, it's weird, man...
But I kind of like it.
What's everyone else out there in the interwebs' reaction to this change from the routine?
