That Just Ain't Right!

[fullygoldy]

I was driving down the road today, flipping through the radio dial, and I stopped on what turned out to be the "oldies" station. I had stopped because they were playing Steely Dan.

I demand an explanation!

Comments

You're right, but...

[bzdchris.livejournal.com]

The thing about Steely Dan is that, even though they are still recording and won a Grammy Award a couple of years ago, they are considered a "classic" or "oldies" band simply because they've been around so long and have a catalog dating back to the 70s. Think about the Rolling Stones. You will not hear their latest album on a contemporary rock station, but you will hear it on a progressive rock station, which also plays oldies.

Pete's right, it's the demographic. *sigh* We're considered old, but then, when our parents were as old as we are now, we considered them old. *sigh*

Re: You're right, but...

[fullygoldy.livejournal.com]

I don't agree with the genre designation though. "Oldies" to me means a certain group of 50s-60s music populated by groups consisting of front singers and doo-wop back up singers, a certain "bubblegum" pop flavor of upbeat, fluffy, and barely electrically enhanced music. If you put on the oldies station on digital cable, that's all you get, and it's incessantly played on the oldies stations throughout the corn belt. So much so in fact that if oldies ain't your thang, you need to carry your own music with you.

While it is disconcerting to hear your own high school anthems referred to as "classic" rock, it still makes more sense than saying it belongs to the genre that came one or two generations earlier, just because it's reached a certain age.