Recently, I began to listen to the radio much more often because, firstly, I spend a lot of time in the car, and secondly, rock has revived in Kyiv – a radio station whose broadcasting format largely coincides with my tastes (a lot of rock and heavy classics).Watching the rotation of songs on Radio Rocks (the same station), I noticed an interesting fact. It seems that this station is not a “hit” one, and that is why it is not obliged to limit its playlist to a dozen songs from the top of the charts. On the contrary, there is an opportunity to be nostalgic to the will – to actively use songs written over the past 60 years (something that can more or less be attributed to rock). Thus, the playlist expands to impossibility – these are hundreds of thousands of tracks. Songs on the air could never be repeated at all.But they repeat themselves and do it often. Of course, everything is not so bad (as on the hit charts), the song is not twisted to holes. Radio-Rocks doesn’t play the same track twice in one hour. But it is clearly visible that every week listeners are strongly recommended (constantly repeating on the air) a new dozen hits, even if they were written before Tsar Pea. These songs are repeated over and over again, giving listeners the opportunity to notice, remember, fall in love. It turns out that the nostalgic format of the radio station does not eliminate the need for hits of the week and their increased rotation.
Trying to understand the reasons for this phenomenon, I began to remember how I listen to music on a computer. I have a 2 terabyte hard drive almost full of my favorite music. And what do you think, I add all these kilotons of songs to the Winamp playlist and turn on shuffle (shuffle)? No, I choose one album and listen to it in a circle for several hours, or even days in a row (with breaks for sleep and food). In parallel, I go about my business, work, write articles, and the music keeps playing and playing. All the same 10 songs. And for some reason it doesn’t bother me. On the contrary, as a result of such meditative concentration, I manage to “catch” and truly understand the music. Songs begin to “shove not like a child.” Soul sings!Of course, sooner or later the material is completely assimilated and you have to look for a new album to mop up to holes.As you can see, there is a lot in common with the principles of song rotation on the radio. And not even with your favorite rock station, but with pop hit conveyors.Apparently, a person, like a radio receiver, cannot tune in to two waves at once. In order to have a resonance, one must make a choice, stop, and not rush about on the air or the world music fund.P.S. Finally, I will share a couple of links to articles from the “Behind the scenes” series – about how how to make playlists on the radio and debunking myths about song rotation.
