Wonderfully Bonkers British Radio

WARNING contains: me, cheese, Carpenters, translations, generalizations, assumptions, exaggerations and plugs for radio I like. 

A brief bit of background on my music taste- I am not a genre music listener. My collection ranges from D'Angelo to Alison Krauss to Coldplay to Vivaldi to Allman Brothers to Jill Scott to ZZ Top to Dizzy Gillespie and more. Most of what I listen to is, or was, kinda mainstream I realize. I listen to a good deal of obscure Hipster music too but usually not until they've decided they hate it, aka Mumford and Sons. 

In trying to describe British radio stations to American friends I came to this phrase most often "bonkers." But it is wonderfully bonkers. Here is a recent string of tunes as heard on a popular London radio station:

• Coldplay - Fix You
• Barbara Streisand - A Woman in Love
• Peter Gabriel - Salisbury Hill (note this is one of my all time favorite songs)
• Phil Collins - Against All Odds (awesome TAL piece featuring this song FYI)
• The Average White Band - yes, the Average White Band
• T'Pau - China in your Hand (yes, they had more than one song)
• Pharrel - Happy
• Queen - I've Got to Break Free
• Passenger - Let her Go (no, I don't know who they are either)
• and then Arcade Fire, Goo Goo Dolls, Outkast, Bob Marley and Goyte.

After which I just had to pull over and cry with joy at the ridiculousness of that string of madness. I love the lack of genre specific pushiness towards a single musical outlook or demographic group. I love how it often completely lacks what many would think are present day commercially appealing songs. If you want that, you can get it in the UK, don't get me wrong. BBC has more narrowly chosen tunes on various themed channels. There are dance music and more "urban" stations too. But the sort of everyman stations are all like the above. 

Now, there is also a regular overdose of cheese. I mean as far as I can tell the Brits love a cheesy ballad more than the Queen, more than beer, and more than making fun of the Welsh. It seemingly doesn't to matter what the lyrics are per se; it need not be an actual love song. The song just has to have a melodic singer and some seventies like grooviness. By way of example, let me present to you the song Calling Occupant of Interplanetary Craft by the The Carpenters. It sounds like Karen Carpenter is on ludes. Maybe she was I suppose. And the lyrics. Well: 

In your mind you have capacities you know

To telepath messages through the vast unknown

Please close your eyes and concentrate

With every thought you think

Upon the recitation we're about to sing

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft

Calling occupants of interplanetary most extraordinary craft

(if you're struggling for distraction, read the fab wikipedia entry on this crazy tune)

I heard this song twice on the radio. Yesterday. So yeah, let's all groove on some cheese ball tunes into our next cuppa. Often these songs are dedication, which is how I know that it is really the people of England who are seriously devoted to easy listening. 

Another thing I love is that a number of these stations do a "guess the year" session every day. They play five or ten or twenty songs all from one year and people guess. It might be 2000 or 1988 or 1963, doesn't matter. I really enjoy it. 

Now there's room to go into issues of mainstream culture in Britain and talk about radio listenership decline and blah, blah.* But let me enjoy my silly radio pleasures for a little while longer ok, mate? 

I think a lot of radio stations in the US might get more listeners if they were more interested in variety and enjoyment instead of demographics and genre line blurring. (here let me plug Chris Demm's weekly themed rock-ish show on Rock 92.3 out of Greensboro, NC for being cool and good fun**)

*I have further thoughts on the long term success and addiction some Brits have to the radio soap opera called The Archers. You can podcast it in the US I think. And you should. It is easy to find as it is ALWAYS in the top ten podcast downloads on the BBC website. Yes, top ten. Always. 

** I still listen to ROCK 92.3 over the internet while in the UK and I credit Kelly, Demm, and Deirdre with helping me feel less homesick....even with the Bojangles ads. Thank you:)