"There was a time a long, long time ago
Chevys and levees played on the radio
No cellphones, just 20,000 lights
Swaying on a Saturday night, alright
Can you imagine that slice of time?
Rock and roll was young, people stood in line
To hear music that played into their lives
That you could carry 'till the day you die" -- "Slice" by Five for Fighting
These lyrics are just one example of how music has evolved since the ’80s and ’90s. Back then, music’s messages were as salutary as oxygen itself.
Now, the ways songs are displayed and spread have evolved, and their sounds have shifted.
Instead of physical copies of the classics, there’s now iTunes and loads of overplayed songs on mainstream radio stations. Rock’n’Roll radio, once a staple of the local airwaves, is very much consigned to spinning oldies and trying to reach people online or via paid subscriptions.
Pop and hip-hop dominate the dial.
“The fact is that the general public might be pretty blind to any other form of music,” says Christina Daher, 16, of Snowden International High School.
Daher listens to heavy metal and rock, and feels that her favorite bands should have a chance in the audio limelight.
“The messages they give us are beautiful,” says Daher. “They put their feelings and emotions into these songs.”
With a few exceptions, punk rock, post-hardcore, and other alternative genres are largely silent on local non-Internet radio, except for some college stations.
Today, some teens say, it’s all about an artist’s looks, who’s the next big thing, and just selling out.
“Radio has no standards or values. The best they do is censorship,” says Ronnica Rogers, 17, of the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science. “If the radio were less biased towards genres of rock, they’d see that rock, too, is catchy, meaningful, and beautiful.”
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